Johnny Mac(k) Brown

[Dennis R. Preston]

Is there a summary somewhere of putative relative silly names (e.g.,
Ima Hogg's sister Ura)? There was a grad student at Hawaii when I was
there in the early 80's named Rita Dente; she was, of course, teased
about her brother "Al." (So far as I know, Thomas Pyle's famous piece
"Bible Belt Onomastics" dealt only with real names, although it may
have squashed a few made-up ones like 'Ura.')

I'm pretty sure this is an understudied folk phenomenon; maybe not a
thesis but a pretty good paper.

dInIs



>Contemporary newspaper cites always listed him as 'Johnny Mack Brown.'
>
>The press guide was no doubt written by a very young person who was eating
>lunch while editing the guide.
>
>I leave it to the reader to guess what the guy was having for lunch.*
>
>Sam Clements
>
>*my other tag line was gonna be "the editor had him confused with Johnny's
>younger brother "Chili Mac Brown."  :)
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
>To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Sent: Monday, September 06, 2004 2:12 AM
>Subject: Johnny Mac(k) Brown
>
>
>>  The Alabama Football Press Guide lists him as both "Johnny Mac Brown" and
>>  "Johnny Mack Brown".  The College Football Hall of Fame lists the latter.
>>


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian, and African Languages
A-740 Wells Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: (517) 432-3099
Fax: (517) 432-2736
preston at msu.edu