The return of the mononym

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:09 AM -0500 2/22/07, Charles Doyle wrote:
>Isn't there a significant difference between mononyms for
>individuals who have well-known second (usually sur-) names, like
>Hillary, Elvis, and Che, and those who don't (the ESSENTIAL
>mononymites), like Pele, Madonna, and Dagmar?
>
I can imagine shades of gray.  So Sting and Bono are essential
mononyms, Elvis and Hillary inessential, Madonna semi-essential
(She's often referred to as Madonna Ciccone; 147,000 raw google hits
as such).  The essential ones are often nicknames or pseudonyms
(Sting = Gordon Sumner; Bono = Paul Dawson, although Bono itself was
apparently shortened from "Bono Vox").  What about all those
Brazilian soccer players, though?

LH

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