Names: My newspaper column -- last three links restored

[Lady Winter Rose]

Probably because most people here would think of it as an old-lady name. The only gem name I can think of that is popular here is Ruby.

And Jayde. Respelling.

[Whitestripe]

I had no idea that Zane Grey's first name was Pearl. The things you learn. Thanks Ormond!

[kuroishi]

I always thought the French word for "daisy" was an eponym from the name, but the online etymology dictionary says that French scholars say it came directly from the Greek word. So you may night see a connection between daisies and pearls, but evidently some centuries ago people in France did.

http://www.etymonlin...arch=Marguerite

They had quite an imagination, clearly. Thanks for the clarification!

[Starkess]

Here's the link to this week's column. I'm sorry I didn't have space to include a reference to Pearl Bailey.

Ha, the first time I read that I was like "my niece"?! And the I remembered that was actually a famous actress.

[Greg]

Re: Jordan as a popular password:

Jordan is also the last name of one of the greatest and most popular sports figures of the last 20 years.

[Yagathai]

Hey Ormond, can you tell me anything about the history of Beryl as a male name? Aren't jewel names usually female?

[Ormond]

http://www.omaha.com.../707109954/1696

Here is the link to today's column.

In researching this I found a lot of interesting information that didn't make it into the column. Evidently Bruce was extremely common in Australia during the 1930s and 1940s, so much so that some people in the UK still think of Bruce as a "typically Australian" name.

More interestingly: I don't know if this was ever a stereotype in the UK or Australia, or even if many Americans under age 30 still have it, but back in the 1970s and 1980s Bruce had a strong stereotype in the USA a being the name of a gay man. My research into why that happened takes this back to Batman.

Shortly after Batman first appeared in the comics, some gay men began to think of Batman and Robin as a male couple. The creators of the characters certainly didn't consciously intend this, but with so few positive gay role models available in the 1940s it's not a surprise that some gay men's fantasies "went there."

A couple of these gay men were clients of a German-born New York City psychiatrist named Fredric Wertham, and they told him about their fantasies about Batman and Robin. In 1954 Wertham published a book titled Seduction of the Innocent which was a critique of comic books, claiming they were dangerous to the children who read them. Although Wertham was more concerned about the violence he found in comics, he did claim in his book that Batman & Robin portrayed a homosexual relationship and this might affect the children who read the comics. (Remember 1954 was still a time when psychiatry in general classified homosexuality as a mental illness and was trying to "cure" it.)

Wertham's book was a major impetus for an anti-comics movement in the 1950s which resulted in hearings about the issue in 1954 by an anti-crime subcommittee of the US Senate. The theory that Batman and Robin were gay therefore got national publicity in the USA. The late 50s were also a time when the fact that the character Bruce Wayne was an unmarried playboy with artistic interests was enough to have make many Americans a bit suspicious about his sexual orientation. Out of costume as Bruce Wayne, Batman just wasn't portrayed as being "macho".

Comedians began to use Bruce as a name for a gay man in jokes. This was reinforced by the fact that Bruce can be easily pronounced with a lisp ("Brooth") and there was another stereotype back then that gay men were likely to have a lisp. This all got further impetus after 1961 when there were several parodies of Jimmy Dean's hit song "Big Bad John" called "Big Bad Bruce" where the title character was a gay hairdresser. This led to Johnny Carson making lots of jokes on "The Tonight Show" about gay men named Bruce, and figured in to commentary about the campy television version of "Batman" which originally aired between 1966 and 1968.

What's most remarkable to me about this is that the gay stereotype of Bruce didn't seem to have any effect on parents using the name. As explained in the column, Bruce had one of the most regular rises and falls of any name, with no sharp ups and downs. Although the name peaked in 1952, its decline was very gradual and there was no sudden drop off after Wertham's book in 1954 or after the song parodies or "Tonight Show" skit references. Given the heterosexism of the times, I think that's rather amazing. The gay image didn't help the use of the name, but it didn't hurt it either.

(Yagathai: I will get back to you about "Beryl" in two or three days, but right now I'm going out today to celebrate my birthday. :) )

[Hereward]

Happy Birthday. Ormond!

PS In my day at least, not only did people in the UK think of Bruce as a typically Australian name, but Australians were generically known as Bruces and Sheilas.

[Gillio]

I had a Vauxall Viva named Bruce. He was licenced in a small country town, "Bruce Rock" so he had a BK number plate. We bought him with a second car for spares. Bruce used to break down so often, all the RAC cars used to wave to me!!!

Used to be handy at parties - "how did you get here?" "Oh, Bruce drove me"

Oh, and Happy Birthday Ormond!

enjoy your celebration

[Former Lord of Winterfell]

Happy Birthday, Ormond!

Very interesting column on "Bruce". I always wondered where that gay connotation came from, because I was in grade/high school in the 70's, and don't remember it having that connotation. But then, I wasn't exactly being raised in a major metropolis, and was surprised to learn that connotation when I moved.

I guess the whole "Ambiguously Gay Duo" cartoons didn't help poor Batman and Robin's rep either. Although I always thought Batman had a thing for Catwoman? I remember being 9-10, and thinking Julie Newmar was hot.

[Maltaran]

Evidently Bruce was extremely common in Australia during the 1930s and 1940s, so much so that some people in the UK still think of Bruce as a "typically Australian" name.

I think Monty Python may have had an effect on that (at least on the continuation of the stereotype)

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Happy birthday, Ormond, and a belated thanks for the Pearl article. It's always interesting to read your articles, but I have a special narcissistic fondness for reading more about names closely related to my real one.

[Cadiva]

In researching this I found a lot of interesting information that didn't make it into the column. Evidently Bruce was extremely common in Australia during the 1930s and 1940s, so much so that some people in the UK still think of Bruce as a "typically Australian" name.

You've not seen the

sketch then :) That's probably why we Brits take the piss about Bruce being an Aussie name.

I think Monty Python may have had an effect on that (at least on the continuation of the stereotype)

Ahh you beat me to it. I don't ever remember Bruce being associated with being gay here in the UK while I was growing up, I was a child of the 70s, a teenager in the 80s, having been born in 1970.

ETA: Have a happy birthday Ormond.

[Bronn Stone]

Whereas I vaguely remember a Mad Magazine cartoon from the late Seventies (perhaps a parody of the Bill Bixby-Lou Ferrigno Hulk TV show) where they joked that TV had changed "Bruce Banner" into "David Banner" for "Bruce" not being masculine enough. The cartoon showed a network exec explaining it to some other network person, while in the background a TV showed an image of Bruce Jenner winning the 1976 Olympic Decathlon.

[Ormond]

Here is the link to today's column. I really enjoyed interviewing Chloe Dao; she was very friendly and open on the phone and nothing like a self-centered celebrity.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20120724/LIVING/707249986/1707

[Mlle. Zabzie]

Ormond - that is so interesting. I think a lot of families here have similar stories - my great-uncle was a Stanislaw - which I didn't know until his funeral. We always called him Uncle Stanley. My great-aunt, his wife, went by Mary. As it turns out, her father had a very thick accent and when asked what her name was for the birth certificate said "Mariana" - this was misunderstood as "Manana." Her mother finally got it fixed when she was a teenager, but at that point they chose "Mary", which is what the family had been using.

[Seventh Pup]

My great grandfather's who emigrated from Denmark, was orginally named Siggaard, but felt it was not American enough and so changed it to Sam. My great grandmother who came from France was Maria, though she also changed her name to Maire to sound more American.

My Step mother who is Dutch, her name is Ineke, and she doesn't care if American's can't prounounce her name. Though she does them the option of calling her "Ruth" if they are really struggling.

I think Siggaard and Maria are fine names, but from all the stories Sam and Marie where quite happy with their choices. Still I'm happy my step mom didn't feel like she needed to change her name though as I can't imagine her as anything but an Ineke.

[Ormond]

My great grandmother who came from France was Maria, though she also changed her name to Marie to sound more American.

Your great-grandmother was from France, but for some reason did NOT have the normal French form of the name, Marie, but was named Maria, the Latinate form used in most of the rest of continental Europe.

So she moved to the United States and adopted the French form, Marie, in order to "sound more American."

Only in America! :laugh:

[Cadiva]

My best friend is half-Singaporean and has both an English set of names and a Chinese set on her birth certificate. I think it's a fascinating insight into how pronunciation of names in different countries/accents can make the difference between changing or not changing.

[Yagathai]

Both my parents are immigrants. My father changed his name from Vladimir to Walter, and my mother and all her sisters got Westernish names ("Angelie") as opposed to their Chinese birth names.