[Ads-l] Reality Winner

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The topic of names is discussed in the following article.

Article: Why Do So Many Assassins Have Three Names?
Author: Brian Palmer
Date: Jan 9 2011

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2011/01/why_do_so_many_assassins_have_three_names.html

[Begin excerpt]
It's often assumed that three names are used to identify an infamous
killer so as to avoid cases of mistaken identity—so other guys named
Lee Oswald wouldn't have their reputations besmirched, for example.
But some of the most famous three-named assassins identified
themselves as such before they committed their crimes.
[End excerpt]


On Sun, Jun 11, 2017 at 12:56 PM, Jim Parish <jparish at siue.edu> wrote:
> On 6/11/2017 11:10 AM, Dave Wilton wrote:
>>
>> Journalists frequently use a person's middle name, especially someone
>> charged with a crime, to distinguish them from potential others with the
>> same name. Lee Harvey Oswald, for example, rarely used his middle name. He
>> was just "Lee Oswald" to those who knew him. It was journalists who made the
>> middle name iconic. Ditto for James Earl Ray.
>>
>> In Reality Winner's case, however, I don't think potential confusion with
>> others is an issue, which may be why *more* journalists aren't using her
>> middle name.
>
>
> I'd want quantitative data before accepting that first claim. I can think of
> many people, accused of crimes similar to Winner's, whose middle names have
> not been reported prominently: Aldrich Ames, Edward Snowden, Bradley/Chelsea
> Manning, etc.
>
> Jim Parish
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org