The name "Jazzer"--Jazzer & Gozlin

[Gerald Cohen]

To ads-l and ans-l:

In the 1896 published joke, the two speakers are Jazzer and Gozlin.
Jazzer, if literally "Chatterbox," would be an appropriate name for
someone engaged in light-hearted banter.
   Meanwhile, the name Gozlin closely resembles "gosling" (= a young
goose; a foolish or callow person), even though the name reportedly
derives from the French personal name Goscelin "just." So for the
1896 joke-writer, apparently the two participants were 'Chatterbox'
and 'Young Goose/Foolish or Callow Person.'

   Again, appropriate names for a humorous item.

Gerald Cohen

P.S. Douglas Wilson mentions "Jinks" as being a name on the order of "Jones."
Actually, though, "Jinks," when used in a humorous item, almost
certainly has reference to the printer's devil Jinks of the
mid-nineteenth century poem that Barry Popik unearthed and which
possibly (this is still controversial) underlies the word "jinx."