Using Surnames as Forenames

Getting to know you…

Harry Winston: Been meaning to ask why do you go by Oliver when your first name’s William?
William Oliver: Well. In southern Georgia, it’s not uncommon. Folks often use their middle or last names. A way of feeling closer, more familiar.
Harry Winston: Interesting. In England, especially at boarding school, everyone was called by their surname. Even your closest friend was “Hawthorne” or “Bennett.” First names were practically reserved for your mum or your cat.
William Oliver: Your cat?
Harry Winston: You wouldn’t call a cat “Mr. Tibbles” every time you fed him. You’d say “Tibs” or “you little menace.” Names soften with affection.
William Oliver: That’s true. My grandma had a cat named “General Lee,” but she just called him “Gen.” Unless he knocked over the vase, then it was something else.
Harry Winston: Exactly. So when you say Oliver, it’s about intimacy?
William Oliver: Right. It’s like saying, “This is who I am to my people.” William’s on the paperwork, but Oliver’s who I am in conversation, in community.
Harry Winston: Fascinating. For us, surnames were a kind of equalizer. Everyone was “Winston” or “Thompson,” regardless of status. It was oddly democratic. Not everywhere.
William Oliver: Same in the South. Some folks go by nicknames, some by initials. I’ve got a cousin named James Earl who goes by “Bubba.” No one’s quite sure why.
Harry Winston: Ah, nicknames. The great equalizer. I had a friend named “Badger.” Never knew his real name until his wedding.
William Oliver: That’s the charm of it, isn’t it? Names aren’t just labels, they’re stories. They tell you where someone’s from, how they want to be seen.
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Voice-over
Names as equalizers, as a social identity to include acquaintances. And surname use is a kind of back-take on that.

Names for fictional personae

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Interviewing an author…

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Demetrius: When you give names to characters, how do you choose those names?

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Hmm. Fagin?

Areeba: I think of similar historical figures, or foreign names. Something with a hidden meaning. Sometimes with a bit of wry humor.

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Demetrius: Names that reflect the nature of the person?

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Welcome to the
Billy Goat Tavern.

Areeba: Charles Dickens was the master of naming characters. Thomas Gradgrind and Wackford Squeers, different kinds of schoolmasters, Mr Bumble, full of bombast, and Dr Payne. Some modern writers follow a similar approach. Mike Royko with his Slats Grobnik and Dr. I.M. Kookie.

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Voice-over

And even for real-life: does the name influence the game? Usain Bolt (sprinter). William Wordsworth (poet). Nomen est omen.

...

Adjectivalized Planets

Producer listening to scriptwriter pitch a plot…

Producer: OK, OK. Sounds good. But how about characters? Tell me, WHO drives the story and WHAT do they represent?

Scriptwriter: Martin the messenger is mercurial, Virginia the Valkyrie is venusian, Erna the Eritrean is earthy, Mad Max is martian, Jake the Jabberwocky is jovian, Sergei the seer is saturnine, Uhuru the ululator is uranian, Nathan the nefarious negotiator is neptunian and Pierre the psycho is plutonian.

Producer: Hmm. Characters standing as planetary metaphors. Could be something in it. But who is the Sun?

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Voice-over

A heliocentric cast of characters: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Adjectivalized planets.

Based on a Babylonian broadcaster’s back-chat.

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Company names

Aminata and Mariam continue their discussion about what to call Aminata’s company.

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Mariam: So what’s it going to be?

Aminata: Well, since I’m going to sell telephones so I thought of The Telephone Company.

Mariam: Bit ordinary, trifle generic. How about 1-2 CALL?

Aminata: Another company already got that. Naming is not easy. You know, a lot are just named after their founder, like Ford.

Mariam: Lots are acronyms like IBM.

Aminata: And many are just plain misleading. Boots don’t make shoes, Apple doesn’t sell fruit, Caterpillar doesn’t run butterfly shops.

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Voiceover

Thinking of a name, for babies or companies, requires time. “Microsoft” and “Berkshire-Hathaway” have acquired authority as time has made them two of the wealthiest and successful companies in the U.S. But if they weren’t, we might notice novel names like Apple and Xerox instead.

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Naming a cat

Annabelle advises Gretchen on naming her new resident.

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Gretchen: No idea what to call him.

Annabelle: The naming of cats is… how did it go?

Gretchen: A difficult matter.

Annabelle: He looks like Hodge.

Gretchen: Who?

Annabelle: Samuel Johnson’s cat. Hodge.

Gretchen: Hodge. Hmm. He looks like a Hodge.

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Voiceover

Annabel and Gretchen, leaning out of a Dutch Renaissance window, raise questions. How far back does the naming of cats go? Did the Dutch name their cats? Did the Egyptians? If so, what principles did they follow? Were they aware that cats have their own names for other cats? And do cats give names to humans around them, like Fooder or Kicker. To be sure, T.S. Eliot wasn’t the first to ponder the question.

The naming of cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm mad as a hatter
When I tell you a cat must have three
different names.

First of all, there's the name
that the family use daily,
Such as Victor, or Jonathan,
George or Bill Bailey--
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names
if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the gentlemen,
some for the dames;
Such as Plato, Admetus,
Electra, Demeter--
But all of them sensible everyday names.

But I tell you,
a cat needs a name that's particular,
A name that is peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he
keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers,
or cherish his pride?

Of names of this kind,
I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quazo or Coripat,
Such as Bombalurina, or else Jellyrum--
Names that never belong
to more than one cat.

But above and beyond
there's still one name left over,
And that is the name that you will never guess;
The name
that no human research can discover--
But The Cat Himself Knows,
and will never confess.

When you notice a cat in profound meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
His mind is engaged in rapt contemplation
Of the thought, of the thought,
of the thought of his name:
His ineffable effable
Effanineffable
Deep and inscrutable singular Name.

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