Comments on: That surname thing bites again

By: Paul Norton

Paul Norton — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:47:33 +0000

I must say that I have never felt tempted to change my surname despite being frequently referred to by political adversaries as Rortin’ Norton.

By: Paul Norton

Paul Norton — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:46:16 +0000

if your name is richard head, and you like richard, why not change head?

This brings to mind the puzzling case of the former NSW Labor government minister with the surname Face and a given first name starting with ‘A’ who always preferred to be known by his middle name – Richard.

By: su

su — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 09:31:19 +0000

I have a hideous surname. It rhymes with some wonderful playground insults. I kept it nonetheless despite the offer of a much softer sounding name with slightly aristocratic overtones. It would have been like amputating a limb to disavow the name I grew up with. I think Deveny’s point was that “it is so much more convenient” is a fallacious reason for changing your name. “His sounds better” is also unlikely to be the main reason for women changing their names.

By: FDB

FDB — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:06:21 +0000

I’ve a friend whose family name used to be Looney. They like Laney better.

By: armagnac esq

armagnac esq — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 07:53:35 +0000

No doubt you luminaries are right, but to put it another way, if your name is richard head, and you like richard, why not change head?

Or if your name (hypothetically sp) was spelt Ghocphies but traditionally this was pronounced so it sounded like fruck face, might you not be sensible and adjust?

By: su

su — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 06:13:57 +0000

I’d completely forgotten about Slope/ Slop. hah.

By: Pavlov's Cat

Pavlov's Cat — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 06:03:10 +0000

Isn’t the surname Trollope usually pronounced without sounding the ‘e’?

Yup — AFAIK, Trollope is a trollop, aurally speaking.

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 06:02:38 +0000

Being a Trollopian, I don’t think it rhymes with soap.

Though maybe that’s the origin of the joke about Mr Slope in Barchester Towers having changed his name from the less euphonious “Slop”…

By: su

su — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 05:55:23 +0000

Have I been insulting Anthony Trollope, should it rhyme with Slope ? Yes some of us let the name thing through to the keeper but that doesn’t mean we get to say afterwards that we had in actual fact played the ball with admirable form [/overstretched metaphor]. Or to reframe it as choice politics, nothing to do with patriarchy.

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 04:50:08 +0000

Isn’t the surname Trollope usually pronounced without sounding the ‘e’?