"Joker"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/25/2013 04:22 PM, W Brewer wrote:
>It would not be unreasonable to speculate that some parents want their sons
>to live up to the ideals of Mohammed, Moses, or Grover Cleveland.

Or Roosevelt.  Two professional football players born in 1932 that I
know of.  I wonder how many parents named their sons Warren or
Herbert in the preceding decade.

Joel



>On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 3:56 AM, Cleve Evans
><cleveland.evans at bellevue.edu>wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Cleve Evans <cleveland.evans at BELLEVUE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: "Joker"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > I'd just like to point out that in the absence of either direct
> > information from the person himself or his parents, and without knowing
> > anything about how common the name Tamerlan has been historically in
> > Chechnya and Dagestan, the idea that Tamerlan was some sort of "burden"
> > this guy had to "live up to" may be just as silly as speculating that the
> > actions of an American named William, George, or Al have something to do
> > with trying to "live up to" the memory of William the Conqueror, George
> > Washington, or Al Capone.
> >
> >
> > On 4/25/13 12:02 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> > >>>> >> >Russified <Tsarnaev> [tsahr-NA-yeff] variously anglified:
> > >>>> >> >[zar-NA-yev], even heard an early [Sarnoff]. The patronymic
> > >>>> >> ><Anzorovich> identifies the alleged father, <Anzor>. Black hat
> > >>>> >> >Tamerlan [tammer-LANN] (no doubt yearned to live up to his
> > >>>> >> >namesake, Tamerlane 1336-1405, <When I rise from the dead, the
> > >>>> >> >world shall tremble!>)
> > > I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who was thinking that. I have
> > > not heard a peep re: this on the one medieval list I read. (And my
> > > youngest played soccer with a Timur. . . ) I downloaded Marlowe's
> > "Tamburlaine"
> > > to read, but I can't recall what the medieval source would have been
> > > that Marlowe used. . .
> > And then later on in the day I remembered the connection between Boston
> > and the name "Tamerlane" that had been nagging at the back of my mind:
> >
> > Poe's first collection of poems was published in Boston in 1829?. The
> > title? _Tamerlane and Other Poems_. While Poe was born in Boston, he didn't
> > grow up here, and he left Boston in a huff after the publication.
> >
> > ---Amy West
> >
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> >
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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
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