SlateStarCodex has a meandering piece up about male first names that includes a couple of publications’ lists of the biggest douchebag names. Not a lot of overlap, except that “Chad” is number 1 on both lists.
My impression is that “Chad” has been a cliche joke name for several decades. My recollection is that satirists were already making fun of it by at least the early 1970s. (The comic aspects of the name were reinforced by the “hanging chad” brouhaha of the Bush-Gore recount of 2000.)
I only just now discovered why “Chad” became so abused. It’s a pretty interesting story about a topic that continues to be relevant but barely discussed in our society.
Okay, now I finally understand why Chad became a joke name, along with Tab, Troy, and Rock. It turns out the name “Chad Everett” was picked out for him by his Hollywood agent, Henry Willson, a notorious gay sexual predator.
Willson was famous in Hollywood for crafting butch names and images for his clients, who also included Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter, Troy Donahue, Robert Wagner, Nick Adams, Guy Madison, Mike Connors, Rory Calhoun, John Saxon, Yale Summers, Clint Walker, Doug McClure, Dack Rambo, Ty Hardin, and John Derek. He’d started in Hollywood as a procurer of starlets for moguls, but his passion lay in young men.
From an interview with Willson’s biographer in the Gay and Lesbian Times:
“Willson gave these hunks literally interchangeable names and had his way with many of them. Talk about mixing business and pleasure. “Henry was like the gay Hugh Hefner,” Hofler says. “This was someone who took his sexual orientation and really manufactured these sex fantasies.” …
“Yet Hofler learned during his interviews and research that Willson didn’t get “hands-on” with every client or young hopeful. For example, Willson wouldn’t take liberties with some actors, like John Gavin – those who hailed from moneyed, high society families. He was more apt to molest the naïve, off-the-bus types who would do anything to see their names in lights.”
So, don’t assume everybody on the list above earned his career the hard way.
So if your mom wasn’t sophisticated enough to notice the underlying point of the jokes in the press, she might name you Chad.
Chad Everett couldn’t get good roles after “Medical Center” for two dozen years. Below is Everett’s famous comeback scene helping Naomi Watts audition in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. Before watching the audition scene, however, watch this clip of Betty and her roommate practicing the lame script for Betty’s audition.
A lot of Lynch’s work is fairly random, but the full effect of the various scenes (some of which I couldn’t find) leading up to Betty’s audition are superbly crafted and make the payoff scene particularly memorable: actresses!
There’s nothing NSFW about either the dialogue or video/audio, but put them together …
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/gallery/2014/nov/14/invention-jewish-nose/
Noticed, not invented.
http://www.unz.com/isteve/why-is-chad-a-joke-name/#comment-776731
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/indian-students-claim-its-their-birthright-cheat-exams-1473998
Rotfl
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/Cheats-bog-SSC-exams-no-police-complaint/articleshow/45101689.cms
http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/thiruvananthapuram/%E2%80%98Mobile-Sniffer%E2%80%99-to-Curb-Exam-Cheating/2014/11/11/article2518265.ece
They sound like made up porn names.
I guess this is the inspiration for “Troy McClure” from The Simpsons.
Reminds me of this scene from WKRP:
Secretary Jennifer Marlowe introduces her new boyfriend, Steel Hawthorne, to her co-worker Les Nessman.
Steel: My name’s Steel. I believe you can tell a lot about a man based on his name. What’s your name?
Les Nesmanne: Les.
First names and political affiliation:
http://verdantlabs.com/politics/images/both_300_trimmed.png
Maybe because Chad is the name of a crap country in Africa.
“I guess this is the inspiration for ‘Troy McClure’ from The Simpsons.”
I knew a kid named Chad when I was growing up in the 1990s. He was on a soccer team coached by his dad, so even though he was constantly getting injured and screwing up plays he got to start every game. I remember thinking that his gangly, fragile style of running, often ending in a tumbling pile of limbs and joints, resembled a newborn deer.
Later I found out Chad was a country in Africa, but instead of a bunch of Muslim Africans I just pictured this kid living there, tripping over twigs on the ground.
I can think of only two other Chads, both in rock music:
The lead singer and guitarist of the Canadian band Nickelback is named Chad. I thought Nickelback’s first single “Leader of Men” was good, but I agree with (apparently) the rest of the world that Nickelback is basically the butt of their own cruel joke. Their frontman’s name doesn’t help. Neither does their being Canadian.
And, Chad Channing was one of Nirvana’s early drummers.
Minor point of pedantry: a procuress is a female procurer, a woman pimp; Willson was a procurer, whatever the sex of the product he provided.
For Gen Xers, Chad Lowe probably comes to mind.
David Lynch was great on Louie C.K.’s show:
I can’t hear the name Chad without thinking of Jeremy, too.
I cringe at being captain obvious here at iSteve, but Chad is a nickname for Charles. Chad is used to tone down Charles without going so far down as Chuck. But if you own the name Chuck like Chuck Ross did with his glpiggy blog then Chuck is excellent name for a grown man. The butch boy’s name with an attitude is Bruce. I might get that from popular LA morning talk radio host Bill Handel who often uses Bruce as a generic name for a gay man.
Chad (m) Old English Ceadd(a), a personal name of unknown meaning borne by a 7th c. saint. Rarely used in English-speaking countries until the late 1960s, when it suddenly reappeared.
--Leslie Dunkling, First Names First
Chad (m.) English: modern spelling of Old English Ceadd(a), name of a 7th-century saint who was for a time archbishop of York… the name is comparatively rare, even among Roman Catholics, by whom it is chiefly favored.
--Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges, A Dictionary of First Names
I remember thinking that it was a weird name because it sounded weird and because it was also the name of a random African country.
Bruce was a gay name used by funny morning men DJs in the early 1970s. It had to do with the gay lisp, although the true gay lisp would not be brooth but broosssssssssss.
"Bruce was a gay name used by funny morning men DJs in the early 1970s. It had to do with the gay lisp, although the true gay lisp would not be brooth but broosssssssssss."
Where did gay lisp come from? Literally I turned around one day and it was a thing. I never noticed it before the 90's. And why exactly do people adopt this speech pattern? It seems like something you would have to pick up past the time... most people develop accents. What purpose does it server besides advertising a certain kind of availability?
Also for a group known for taste and epicureanism it seems like a really kind of ugly thing to adopt. Why not make your speech beautiful and attractive like your body and clothes?
Monty Python - Bruce
Another question that comes to mind is: Why is Chad deemed to be such a joke name and yet Le’von, Trayvon, Sharnequis, Marquise, etc. are names that are cool, exciting, and interesting? That’s a fair question, actually. Who or what entity decides on the coolness factor of a given name before passing judgment one way or the other?
Freakonomics has a chapter devoted to given names by parents based on their total years of education. Exotic names are sometimes from lower educated families while more traditional names are given by families with more years of education.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gODZzSOelss
It's just that they're relatively so commonplace and not considered that unusual anymore.
Dack Rambo. Dickensian on so many levels. But:
“Bruce was a gay name used by funny morning men DJs in the early 1970s. It had to do with the gay lisp, although the true gay lisp would not be brooth but broosssssssssss.”
Where did gay lisp come from? Literally I turned around one day and it was a thing. I never noticed it before the 90′s. And why exactly do people adopt this speech pattern? It seems like something you would have to pick up past the time… most people develop accents. What purpose does it server besides advertising a certain kind of availability?
Also for a group known for taste and epicureanism it seems like a really kind of ugly thing to adopt. Why not make your speech beautiful and attractive like your body and clothes?
That’s one fine looking leisure suit that Chad Everett is wearing.
Bruce is a typical Aussie 60′s 70′s name as well.
BRUCE – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA
You can resign your commission now, Captain.
Chad (m) Old English Ceadd(a), a personal name of unknown meaning borne by a 7th c. saint. Rarely used in English-speaking countries until the late 1960s, when it suddenly reappeared.
–Leslie Dunkling, First Names First
Chad (m.) English: modern spelling of Old English Ceadd(a), name of a 7th-century saint who was for a time archbishop of York… the name is comparatively rare, even among Roman Catholics, by whom it is chiefly favored.
–Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges, A Dictionary of First Names
Some names are like parodies from the Preppie Handbook, like Biff and Josh.
We may never see a Trip again.
Other names have fallen way out of style.
Doug- blow dried hair, slips mickeys in girls drinks
Donna- That name was everywhere 30 years ago, now it’s gone. Those girls must have reverted to their middle names when they grew up.
There are, of course, all those ghetto/trailertrash names like Kayla, Brandy, and Brittany, the latter which gets a dozen spelling variants (Brytni, Britny, Britney, etc). In the South, there’s lots of boys with names like Skyler and Kyler.
Latrell- screams “black and gay”.
In Britain, there’s lists compiled of “chav” names.
My dear Reg Cæsar, thank you for sparing me the effort of mentioning Chad & Jeremy, whose “Summer Song” remains a very pretty ballad (their follow-up single “Yesterday’s Gone” wasn’t bad either).
Of Henry Willson’s invented stage names, the only one that ever made me do a double-take is Dack Rambo. First time I heard it, I thought, “What the hell kind of name is ‘Dack’?” This thought was followed immediately by the question, “For that matter what the hell kind of name is ‘Rambo’?”; but it turns out his birth surname was Rambeau. These questions I posed in my mind long before I encountered the occasionally useful abbreviation “WTF?”
In 1994 at age fifty-two Dack Rambo died of AIDS.
The only movie I can recall the then-buff Korean War veteran Ty Hardin (birth name: Jr. Orison Whipple Hungerford) appearing in is the JFK-glorifying PT-109. Born in 1930, Hardin is now married to his eighth wife and, according to IMDb-dot-com: “After his acting career faded away, Ty Hardin became a self-proclaimed ‘freedom fighter’ in the 1970s, and led a radical right-wing group called The Arizona Patriots, an anti-Semitic/anti-immigrant/anti-black group with a penchant for stockpiling weapons and baiting public officials.”
“the true gay lisp would not be brooth but broosssssssssss”
Don’t bring me down.
"Bruce was a gay name used by funny morning men DJs in the early 1970s. It had to do with the gay lisp, although the true gay lisp would not be brooth but broosssssssssss."
Where did gay lisp come from? Literally I turned around one day and it was a thing. I never noticed it before the 90's. And why exactly do people adopt this speech pattern? It seems like something you would have to pick up past the time... most people develop accents. What purpose does it server besides advertising a certain kind of availability?
Also for a group known for taste and epicureanism it seems like a really kind of ugly thing to adopt. Why not make your speech beautiful and attractive like your body and clothes?
The gay lisssssssp is probably neurological. It’s not that common but it’s common enough to be the bane of directors of gay choirs.
http://gawker.com/do-i-sound-gay-wait-dont-answer-that-1658379332
And here's an article about Bob Corff, a vocal coach who helps homosexual male actors get rid of their Gay voice problem:
http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201005/bob-corff-gay-voice-coach
Chad (m) Old English Ceadd(a), a personal name of unknown meaning borne by a 7th c. saint. Rarely used in English-speaking countries until the late 1960s, when it suddenly reappeared.
--Leslie Dunkling, First Names First
Chad (m.) English: modern spelling of Old English Ceadd(a), name of a 7th-century saint who was for a time archbishop of York… the name is comparatively rare, even among Roman Catholics, by whom it is chiefly favored.
--Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges, A Dictionary of First Names
\You beat me to it. there was indeed a Saint Chad.
Chad (m) Old English Ceadd(a), a personal name of unknown meaning borne by a 7th c. saint. Rarely used in English-speaking countries until the late 1960s, when it suddenly reappeared.
--Leslie Dunkling, First Names First
Chad (m.) English: modern spelling of Old English Ceadd(a), name of a 7th-century saint who was for a time archbishop of York… the name is comparatively rare, even among Roman Catholics, by whom it is chiefly favored.
--Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges, A Dictionary of First Names
Since you are our resident expert on Yankee genealogy, I wonder if you know anything about the background of Chad Brown, ancestor of the Rhode Island Brown family and for some peculiar reason namesake of a modern-day housing project. I always thought it seemed a strange name for a seventeenth-century Protestant.
Yes, I think that was an old Chevy Chase Saturday Night Live joke – “The nation of Chad has changed its name to Brian” or something like that.
“Bruce” was so tarred as a “gay name” in the 1970s that the producers of the network television series version of the “Incredible Hulk” renamed the protagonist “Dr. DAVID Banner.”
The joke was, if they’d have only known that in the next decade the top male action stars would have names like “Arnold” and “Sylvester” and “Jean Claude”…and the winning blood-and-guts general of the next war would be named”Norman”.
Steve, remember a while back you were trying to figure out a word for the “best example of something”?
How about: A “paragon” of ____ (insert virtue)
Anyways, my take on the development of Chad as a joke name very recently is that it was adopted by a popular 4chan board called “r9k” where Chad is used as the paragon of athletic bullies in high school that made the lives of r9k posters hell. The stereotype of “Chad” is of someone athletic, mean, stupid, and good at socializing and picking up women.
One positive development in modern Hollywood is the seeming lack of pressure to change one’s name. Some stars of yore had obviously terrible real names (Marion Morrison, Frances Glum, Issur Danielovitch), but what was wrong with Roy Fitzgerald or Betty Perske or even Archie Leach? Today this silly practice has mainly ended and it seems to be assumed you will use your real name unless there is a problem such as a pre-existing SAG or Equity member who also has the name. Even then you might just include your middle initial to differentiate the name.
Betty took her mother's name, Bacal(l), while still a child. "Betty Bacall" sounds kinda silly, as does Cindy Tewes ("tweeze"), so Lauren worked better for both of them. In contrast, Lauras Phillips and Witherspoon went with their middle names, Mackenzie and Reese. The playgrounds are now flooded with the former.
A lot of the hardest to spell names disappeared over the course of the 20th Century, so young white people these days aren’t as likely to have strange-looking German or Polish names as their ancestors did.
On the other hand, trying to go through life in America with a name Hedwig or Wladislaw could not have been very fun.
Anyways, my take on the development of Chad as a joke name very recently is that it was adopted by a popular 4chan board called "r9k" where Chad is used as the paragon of athletic bullies in high school that made the lives of r9k posters hell. The stereotype of "Chad" is of someone athletic, mean, stupid, and good at socializing and picking up women.
Sure, but Chad was used in a roughly similar sense by professional funnymen 40 years ago. This agent Henry Willson was quite high profile in the media in the 50s and early 60s, giving interviews promoting his clients. I presume his modus operandi was widely joked about within Hollywood circles and the jokes seeped into the comedy of the time.
I thought it was a reference to Bruce Wayne, who has been rumored to be a pederast ever since he adopted Dick Grayson.
What about hanging chads?
Joan Crawford’s real name was a lot more glamorous than the one she got.
Betty took her mother’s name, Bacal(l), while still a child. “Betty Bacall” sounds kinda silly, as does Cindy Tewes (“tweeze”), so Lauren worked better for both of them. In contrast, Lauras Phillips and Witherspoon went with their middle names, Mackenzie and Reese. The playgrounds are now flooded with the former.
Jay is my real first name. It’s a nickname my mom gave me in place of my given first name, Joseph. I grew up in the 1960′s in suburban Philadelphia, a half Roman Catholic half Protestant area. Just about every parent named their kid after a saint (or angel), but just about no one ever used the saint’s name thereafter.
John became Jack, Michael became Mike, Thomas became Tom, Joseph became Joe (not always as is my case), Paul became Paul (well there’s that), and so on. After winning WWII, and at the dawn of space age, naming your kids after someone who got nailed to cross a thousand years ago didn’t click. This is why nick names became given names. My theory, anyway. And it’s worth the paper it’s written on.
Chad – nickname for Charles.
Chad – guy I bought my car from.
Chad – good friend in 7th grade.
Chad – nickname for Chadwick.
Chadds Ford – nice town in PA, taken from General Washington on the British march to Philadelphia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY8SS_qlchk
OThank you for that dose of Phil Hartman. I always saw him as the glue that held together any of the skits he was on at SNL. A very talented and funny man. I believe he had the potential to be an above average dramatic actor. The montage of Lionel Hutz is funny as well.
More exam culture lunacy. Rotfl.
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2014/11/18/2014111801306.html
Tiger Shame Moms
The few “Chads” I ever came across growing up in school had “Chad” as their full first names, not “Charles”.
I remember thinking that it was a weird name because it sounded weird and because it was also the name of a random African country.
Those names aren’t considered cool or exciting or interesting by most ordinary Americans, including many blacks. They’re considered comical:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gODZzSOelss
It’s just that they’re relatively so commonplace and not considered that unusual anymore.
You’re thinking of “Chas” or “Chaz” which can be short for “Charles”. “Chad” isn’t short for “Charles”.
SNL skits are funnier with a white male authority figure looking on. Phil Hartman was excellent at that. Lorne Michaels can be very funny in his occasional appearances. 30 Rock ran with the Lorne Michaels character for Alec Baldwin to play.
“young white people these days aren’t as likely to have strange-looking German or Polish names as their ancestors did.”
If only. Now they have names like Moon Unit and Pilot Inspektor Riesgraf, or worse yet, Britney and Hailee.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm2nFjgm6Ac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gODZzSOelss
It's just that they're relatively so commonplace and not considered that unusual anymore.
That’s not necessarily the case. They are considered cool among blacks else they wouldn’t be given these names. Once they’re no longer cool the names will disappear. In other words there’s no examples of regular names like Joe, John, James etc making a major comeback in the black community.Closest to more regular would be Reggie, Marcus, Antonio. But then you also get Duwan, Cha’nuan, K’ohlan, Sha’nequawn etc. that are now beginning to trend among the community.
In some ways, white families naming their kids last names like Makenzie; Cameron; Logan; etc is really no different than Cha’nuan; Du’wan; Ra’chenawn; Marqueze; and JaMarcus.
Used to wonder about Thomas Sowell’s theory as to why blacks gave their kids such exotic names: To help them recognize their potential biological parent(s) that is a result of 74% born out of wedlock.
Have to wonder if Dr. Sowell’s theory maybe had something on the ball.
There was a period by the late 70s when every third preppie douche frat boy seemed to be named Chad and consequently it became a standby in movies and TV shows that used such characters.
Chad Everetts biggest role post-Medical Center was in the sequel to Airplane! And yes, this exists:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua66XFPp5lI
Jeff Spicoli from “Fast Times At Ridgemont High” looks like he could be a Chad. When I think of a Chad, I picture a blond haired surfer who says “dude” and “ride the waves” a lot. I picture him having a girlfriend who looks like that blonde chick from the films “Revenge Of The Nerds” and “Summer School” who hangs out at the beach a lot in her bikini.
Bruce? Did you say Bruce?
Monty Python – Bruce
“…and the winning blood-and-guts general of the next war would be named”Norman”.
For what it’s worth, Bruce (and probably Brice, Bryce, etc.?) is a good old Norman name, corresponding to some town in Normandy. For instance, Robert the Bruce was actually Norman, not Scottish (well, whatever you call a Norman settled in Scotland).
I recently watched Lana Lokteff’s video essay on the resentful actor/comedian George Lopez and his cancelled sitcom “Saint George.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5DqTJz9zFk
It was interesting to see the degree to which Lopez misunderstands his fellow Americans. His character in the show is the ex-husband of a woman with an upper-class background, but Lopez and his writers gave her the name “Mackenzie.”
Lopez seems to be a very angry man.
Disagreeableness is a big part of being funny in stand-up comedy.
Ahhh, but you all forget the coolest made-up name of all:
Stringfellow Hawke, the pilot of Airwolf.
“Steve Sailer says:
Disagreeableness is a big part of being funny in stand-up comedy.”
It can also be a big part of being bitter and unfunny.
Yeah, I generally find Lynch’s work to be maddeningly uneven, but “Mulholland Drive” is a masterpiece. It’s the only one of his movies that manages to sustain that weird “Lynchian vibe” for the entire film. The rest of his movies only manage to hit that sweet spot in short bursts, in between long stretches where everybody’s trying too hard.
Chaddiness is definitely still going on strong in my generation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hcZVqY21wI
Chad Everett. My crush on him (both as an actor and as Dr. Joseph Aloysius Gannon) carried through adolescence, college, grad school, then two decades in the Bay Area where various people tried to argue me out of being a heterosexual woman. Nope, I wasn’t, and looking at a photo of Mr. Everett reminds me for the zillionth time how much not.
He was a gorgeous man who was married to the same woman for 45 years (till her death)…they renewed their vows regularly…he beat alcoholism with faith…was a family man…was proudly conservative and a Republican…he and his wife used their wealth to buy heart operations for children whose families couldn’t afford them.
In other words, a man very unappreciated in this era of smirking subtext. And not a bad actor.
But that’s not why I write. Steve, if you dig through the archives of TV Guide, you will find an article in there, probably the early ’70s, entitled “Tab, Rock, and now Chad.” About Willson. No subtext in that either.
The reason Mr. Everett took to the bottle was that he couldn’t get parts as you say. One has to wonder what his devotion to his wife and children cost him professionally. I think I got a glimpse of it while in training for leadership in the corporate mass media in 1981. Some of the Hollywood types outright admitted it was because his sexual orientation wasn’t bent that Mr. Everett was overlooked in casting. As one epicene dwarf lisped, “Heeth tho thtrait he write-th poemth for LEE, for god’th thaketh!” I found it grotesque and nauseating and, suffice it to say, I sought employment elsewhere.
I find it additionally grotesque that it could be considered responsible conservative and race realist commentary to make fun of Mr. Everett using nasty gay nudgenudge winkwink washed through the Play Doh Fun Factory of droolies on 4chan.
Mr. Everett most certainly “earned his career the hard way” while also being just a regular good white man, husband, father, and community member. It’s sad in my view that such men were discarded and ridiculed for so long by the “entertainment” industry. Which has done so much to poison so many people’s minds, especially against straight Christian white men (as he was).
I never considered Chad a joke name. Even before “Medical Center” in the early ’70s, there was Chad Stuart of “Chad and Jeremy” (English pop singers). I think his real name was Chadwick. There was an ancient Briton named Chad, a saint I think. And I knew a Welshman in my Rust Belt home town named Chad, only I think it was spelled something like Ceaddh.
Later I found out Chad was a country in Africa, but instead of a bunch of Muslim Africans I just pictured this kid living there, tripping over twigs on the ground.
I can think of only two other Chads, both in rock music:
The lead singer and guitarist of the Canadian band Nickelback is named Chad. I thought Nickelback's first single "Leader of Men" was good, but I agree with (apparently) the rest of the world that Nickelback is basically the butt of their own cruel joke. Their frontman's name doesn't help. Neither does their being Canadian.
And, Chad Channing was one of Nirvana's early drummers.
Don’t forget Chad of Chad and Jeremy of the 1960′s.
Lots of American names seem funny to furriners. Everyone enjoys “Randy” for instance. Everyone in Britain, anyway.
Exam damn.
http://www.echinacities.com/news/Chinas-Cheating-Saga-Shanxi-School-Monitors-Exams-with-Outdoor-Telescopes-HD-Cameras-Ladders?cmteditid=#page_cmt
Ladders and telescopes? Rotfl
http://www.echinacities.com/news/10-of-Chinese-Students-Cheat-on-their-US-College-Applications
“So, don’t assume everybody on the list above earned his career the hard way.”
Classic.
I remember an episode of The Simpsons where Homer complains that gays have taken the most masculine names – Bruce, Lance, and Julian.
Trevor is another male first name that has been tarred with the gay brush.
John Gavin is another example of how little discrimination there was against White Hispanics:
There’s a documentary about “Gay Voice”:
http://gawker.com/do-i-sound-gay-wait-dont-answer-that-1658379332
And here’s an article about Bob Corff, a vocal coach who helps homosexual male actors get rid of their Gay voice problem:
http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201005/bob-corff-gay-voice-coach
Elvis Presley’s character in Blue Hawaii is named Chad.
How about the name Chip? You don’t run across it very much. It’s okay, sounds kind of cool.
What about Chip?
http://gawker.com/do-i-sound-gay-wait-dont-answer-that-1658379332
And here's an article about Bob Corff, a vocal coach who helps homosexual male actors get rid of their Gay voice problem:
http://www.details.com/culture-trends/critical-eye/201005/bob-corff-gay-voice-coach
They could also go the Andrew Sullivan route and opt for PEDS.
Back in High School, my friends though that it was hilarious that people in Britain actually had names like Gemma, Clive, and Gareth.Indeed, there was a Welsh kid (Welsh Welsh, not Welsh American) in my High School who was named Gareth. The poor guy took hell for it.
Short for Charles, typically.
WIKIPEDIA on Willson:
RE: Chad as a name,
In Henry James’ 1903 novel The Ambassadors , one of the main characters is named Chad Newsome. Given James’ …..ambiguous sexuality, that might be of interest
“people in Britain actually had names like Gemma, Clive, and Gareth”: it’s Clive that I find risible in that list. Lord knows why.
Steve, would you please comment some more on Lynch? I like his movies very much and especially Mulholland Drive. I didn’t totally get your comment though about the scenes leading up to the audition (though I do agree that’s the best part of the movie).
Would appreciate a post on Lynch in the future, on Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire, etc.
How about Basil? That’s gotta be the dopiest British guy name of them all.
For some reason, I tend to agree. Poor Gareth would probably have caught ten times more hell if his name had been Clive
Classic.
I remember an episode of The Simpsons where Homer complains that gays have taken the most masculine names - Bruce, Lance, and Julian.
“I remember an episode of The Simpsons where Homer complains that gays have taken the most masculine names – Bruce, Lance, and Julian.”
Trevor is another male first name that has been tarred with the gay brush.
When Snoop Dogg and Nick Cannon wanted to racially mock whites in whiteface, they chose “Todd” and “Connor Smallnut,” respectively.
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/national/snoop-dogg-dresses-whiteface-confuses-everyone/nhCs7/
Who/whom
I think the better question is why these names are not subject to constant ridicule
We may never see a Trip again.
Other names have fallen way out of style.
Doug- blow dried hair, slips mickeys in girls drinks
Donna- That name was everywhere 30 years ago, now it's gone. Those girls must have reverted to their middle names when they grew up.
There are, of course, all those ghetto/trailertrash names like Kayla, Brandy, and Brittany, the latter which gets a dozen spelling variants (Brytni, Britny, Britney, etc). In the South, there's lots of boys with names like Skyler and Kyler.
Latrell- screams "black and gay".
In Britain, there's lists compiled of "chav" names.
In the ’90s “Car Talk” would occasionally get a caller named Donna. Tom, the older brother (who just died), would always ask her, “firebird or camaro?”
Best actor name ever: Rockets Redglare.
Some prominent person uses his middle name– e.g., Presidents Stephen Cleveland, Thomas Wilson, and John Coolidge– then everyone thinks it’s “cool” to use it as a first name. But it’s one thing to use your own family history for a middle name, and quite another to use somebody else’s for a first name.
An early Treat Williams movie, Why Would I Lie?, and the novel it was based on, had this as a plot device. An “unwed mother” named her son Jeorge so she could always find him. (Mother and son were blond.)
Is there a WASPier name in Hollywood than Treat Williams?
No doubt there was another Richard Williams in the SAG, and another Laura Phillips, and another Sarah Parker, Sarah Geller, Mary Parker, Philip Hoffman, maybe even another Laura Witherspoon and Mary Mastrantonio…
I’ve met a Charles who goes by “Chod.” I had to repeat it a few times to myself before I got used to using it out loud. He cultivates a very preppy aura.
His mother calls him Chadwick.
Anyways, my take on the development of Chad as a joke name very recently is that it was adopted by a popular 4chan board called "r9k" where Chad is used as the paragon of athletic bullies in high school that made the lives of r9k posters hell. The stereotype of "Chad" is of someone athletic, mean, stupid, and good at socializing and picking up women.
There already is a word for “the best example of something”: the epitome. People just confuse “best example of” with “best of”. That would be the acme, or zenith if you prefer Arabic.
In toponomy of British place names, the “wick” suffix means “place” or “settlement,” and in some instances it means “bay.” So that Chadwick means “Chad’s Place,” “Chad’s Settlement,” or perhaps in earlier version, “Ceadd’s Place” or “St. Ceadd’s Bay.” The “wick” suffix occurs in many British place names. Other forms of the “wick” suffix are “wich,” “wych,” “wyke.”
The Chadwick School is a posh school in Palos Verde. It comes up a lot in the Joan Crawford biopic “Mommie Dearest.”
A lot of preppy-sounding names like Chad, Brad and Brod are cool sounding shortened versions of uncool sounding long names like Broderick.
It’s unlikely Lopez does much writing if at all for the show, even though he’s probably credited as a writer.
Not only was there a St Chad, believe it or not there was a St Rock.
He has a nice church in Lisbon with a trompe l’œil ceiling pretending to be the dome the soil is too soft to support. (Does that break a commandment?)
Maybe Henry Willson kept a book of saints nearby, or the Catholic Encyclopædia.
I can’t recall any names from the Bible – other than Jesus of course – suffering the effects discussed here. It’s the opposite with Germanic names (.e.g. Alfred). But a lot of old Anglo-Saxon, Norse, etc., names do sound funny to these English ears.
Luke’s gunner. Haha, Luke Gunner sounds like a real name, actually.
How does that go?
“Call me Chod.”
“No.”
Lots of American names seem funny to furriners. Everyone enjoys “Randy” for instance. Everyone in Britain, anyway.
Are Southerners the only people in the States who use “randy” in its adjectival, suggestive sense?
“How about Basil?” Is it as silly as Piers? Or Ptolemy?
Saint Chad has a cathedral dedicated to him in Birmingham, UK.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_of_Mercia
It’s also the generic name to a type of graffiti popular during and after WWII – a little man with a large nose, peering over a wall and announcing “Wot, no (whatever)?” . Brit schoolkids were still drawing “chads” in the early 70s.
Apparently the image is also associated with “Kilroy was here”
http://ww2db.com/other.php?other_id=33
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_was_here#Chad
The gay lisp was something being mocked by kids back in the 70s; at least those kids I knew.
Rock Hudson getting divorced three years after getting married probably helped him look more straight – when I was more naive, I thought most Hollywood divorces were because the guys wouldn’t keep their dicks in their pants. So your typical moviegoer not plugged into the Hollywood grapevine, on hearing that Hudson got divorced, probably figured it was because he was sleeping around with other women.
Chad – the only Chad I ever knew in person was gay. Good-looking in a way that would have worked pretty well for him if he’d been straight, though.
“The stereotype of “Chad” is of someone athletic, mean, stupid, and good at socializing and picking up women.”
That just about describes the one Chad I’ve known in my life, though I’d say he was more average intelligence than stupid.
Never heard of Chad being short for Charles either.
The old Mad Magazine parody of The Incredible Hulk TV show did a whole extended joke about Bruce Banner being named David in the TV show because “Bruce” was considered a gay and not manly name…while in the background, the uber-masculine Bruce Jenner was seen winning the Olympic gold. Flash-forward 35 years and the joke doesn’t really play anymore, given the current state of poor Bruce Jenner.
Dack Rambo had a twin who also was an actor, Dirk. He died in his twenties-auto accident.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0708107/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
As a young girl, I was stunned by the good looks of both of them, whom I saw on tv shows. For a while they graced the covers of all the movie mags intended to appeal to adolescent girls.
They looked very much alike so I always assumed they were identical twins but I can’t be sure.
I wonder if Dirk was gay too. There’s only a 20-25% concordance for homosexuality among monozygotic twins so who knows.
*Just looked up Dack on IMDB–it says they were identical twins, FWIW.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0708105/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
From that IMDB bio of Dack:
“He was extremely candid as to his bisexuality and detrimental lifestyle, advocating safe sex and helping to establish an international data bank for AIDS research. He died of complications in 1994 at age 52.”
Bisexual?
It strikes me that many gay men who’ve had a few sexual flings with girls when they were in their teens or early twenties still insist they’re “bisexual.”
I’d think that if a man were truly bi, he’d be sleeping with men and with women throughout his lifetime, yet that rarely if ever seems to be the case.
“That’s not necessarily the case. They are considered cool among blacks else they wouldn’t be given these names. Once they’re no longer cool the names will disappear. In other words there’s no examples of regular names like Joe, John, James etc making a major comeback in the black community.Closest to more regular would be Reggie, Marcus, Antonio. But then you also get Duwan, Cha’nuan, K’ohlan, Sha’nequawn etc. that are now beginning to trend among the community.”
Would you consider Condoleezza to be a Black ghetto sounding name ?
“And here’s an article about Bob Corff, a vocal coach who helps homosexual male actors get rid of their Gay voice problem:”
Why would they want to get rid of their Gay voice problem ? Do they want to play Heterosexual male roles in films and television shows where they get the women and not be typecast as only playing Gay guys ?
Do they want to be like Neil Patrick Harris who is Homosexual in real life but mostly plays Heterosexual characters on the screen ?
i have nothing to add about screen names — except perhaps, the more obvious the better.
as for family names, as in naming children for parents and grandparents, that seems to be a rapidly declining practice. my parents named my brother and me after our grandfathers, while my brother’s late ex-wife named their daughter after characters on TV programs like dallas.
the made-up names so popular with our african-american brother and sisters, on the other hand, are like nothing ever uttered or even dreamed of before. come to think of it, that seems like it may be the whole point.
the only group, it seems to me, that has preserved their traditions is the aristocratic set. first names are quite often last names on the mother’s side, for example, but in any case they seem to be intended to document their bearers’ pedigree — and to signal as much to others of the same class.
i know: BFD.
You’re all missing the dorkiest name of all. Chance.
Why would they want to get rid of their Gay voice problem ? Do they want to play Heterosexual male roles in films and television shows where they get the women and not be typecast as only playing Gay guys ?
Do they want to be like Neil Patrick Harris who is Homosexual in real life but mostly plays Heterosexual characters on the screen ?
I read both of the links that poster provided and found them interesting.
The first makes me wonder if whatever it is that biologically causes male homosexuality doesn’t also affect the speech center in some. I am interested in what seems how many little boys who wind up as gay men speak in what I’d call a childish manner long past the age that most kids sound “childish.” “Childish” speaking includes lisping (both emphasis on sibilants AND the th sound, tongue thrusting, slurping, using high pitched tones frequently, elongating vowel sounds, melodic intonation patterns, and “baby talk” generally. This speech pattern seems to arise very early and that they have not yet been introduced to any social situations in which they would have heard the “gay voice” is what makes me wonder if there’s a biological connection between the characteristics of their speech and their ultimate orientation. Perhaps it’s just a generalized neoteny. Anyway, interesting.
It would seem like that some of these “gay voice” issues are related biologically to whatever it is that makes that particular man gay. The lissssssp sound in particular isn’t related to effeminacy. Women don’t have it. My impression is that it’s not an affectation. It’s not considered amusing or transgressive or bitchy or high class or anything fun. It’s just a tiny quirk that some modest fraction of gay men have versus a much smaller percentage of straight men (Al Gore has a nearly subliminal lisssssp, which got him in trouble in his first presidential debate with Bush.)
Vowel production in gay, lesbian, bisexual ~GLB!, and heterosexual speakers was examined.
Differences in the acoustic characteristics of vowels were found as a function of sexual orientation.
Lesbian and bisexual women produced less fronted /u/ and /Ä/ than heterosexual women. Gay men
produced a more expanded vowel space than heterosexual men. However, the vowels of GLB
speakers were not generally shifted toward vowel patterns typical of the opposite sex. These results
are inconsistent with the conjecture that innate biological factors have a broadly feminizing
influence on the speech of gay men and a broadly masculinizing influence on the speech of lesbian/
bisexual women. They are consistent with the idea that innate biological factors influence GLB
speech patterns indirectly by causing selective adoption of certain speech patterns characteristic of
the opposite sex. © 2004 Acoustical Society of America. @DOI: 10.1121/1.1788729#
BTW, didn't Gore Vidal hold his sibilants?
Steve,
Yes, I do believe the gay voice is related to the biological origins of the trait.
I found this. Perhaps you’re familiar with it. They find what you said–that the characteristics of gay speech do NOT equate with the speech of the opposite gender.
https://quote.ucsd.edu/cogs101b/files/2013/01/PierrehumbertGLB_vowels.pdf
~Received 12 February 2004; revised 30 June 2004; accepted 2 July 2004!
Vowel production in gay, lesbian, bisexual ~GLB!, and heterosexual speakers was examined.
Differences in the acoustic characteristics of vowels were found as a function of sexual orientation.
Lesbian and bisexual women produced less fronted /u/ and /Ä/ than heterosexual women. Gay men
produced a more expanded vowel space than heterosexual men. However, the vowels of GLB
speakers were not generally shifted toward vowel patterns typical of the opposite sex. These results
are inconsistent with the conjecture that innate biological factors have a broadly feminizing
influence on the speech of gay men and a broadly masculinizing influence on the speech of lesbian/
bisexual women. They are consistent with the idea that innate biological factors influence GLB
speech patterns indirectly by causing selective adoption of certain speech patterns characteristic of
the opposite sex. © 2004 Acoustical Society of America. @DOI: 10.1121/1.1788729#
BTW, didn’t Gore Vidal hold his sibilants?
Vowel production in gay, lesbian, bisexual ~GLB!, and heterosexual speakers was examined.
Differences in the acoustic characteristics of vowels were found as a function of sexual orientation.
Lesbian and bisexual women produced less fronted /u/ and /Ä/ than heterosexual women. Gay men
produced a more expanded vowel space than heterosexual men. However, the vowels of GLB
speakers were not generally shifted toward vowel patterns typical of the opposite sex. These results
are inconsistent with the conjecture that innate biological factors have a broadly feminizing
influence on the speech of gay men and a broadly masculinizing influence on the speech of lesbian/
bisexual women. They are consistent with the idea that innate biological factors influence GLB
speech patterns indirectly by causing selective adoption of certain speech patterns characteristic of
the opposite sex. © 2004 Acoustical Society of America. @DOI: 10.1121/1.1788729#
BTW, didn't Gore Vidal hold his sibilants?
The late Joan Rivers had a bit about how she always makes sure that some of her gay fans sit front row center because they contribute to the gayety of the audience response, while the lesbians have to sit in the back row. Then she does this perfect imitation of Rosie O’Donnell telling her “That’s funny” in Rosie’s extremely definitive, nothing left to be said, I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die manner that tends to induce silence from any crowd.
Some German-heritage kids were named Joachim, which was Americanized to Kim. I was in school with one and he tended to get picked on, but also invited extra attention by his mannerisms. He grew out of it and went on to live a happy life.
On the other hand, trying to go through life in America with a name Hedwig or Wladislaw could not have been very fun.
I got hooked last year on re-runs of “Modern Family.” Two of the major characters are a gay couple and they get off some really funny lines about lesbians. A lesbian couple appears in one or two episodes and the juxtaposition is pretty funny.
“blithe says:
November 19, 2014 at 6:30 pm GMT
In the ’90s “Car Talk” would occasionally get a caller named Donna. Tom, the older brother (who just died), would always ask her, “firebird or camaro?”
Wow! Tom Magliozzi died? I didn’t know. Truly, the end of an era. My condolences to his family, and may he rest in peace. Those guys are great – “Car Talk” was the only good thing on NPR. He will be missed.
Indian Christians take names like Clive a step further. I had a friend in high school called Basavaraj Clive Kiran. He was a Catholic from Goa/Konkan(Arabian sea coast) region. Apparently many Catholics held on to the caste names of their Hindu ancestors. Basavaraj indicates a Lingayat name- a Shaivite fundamentalist militant sect,simillary to Sikhism, in Southern India who rejected the Vedas and other dieties and worshipped only Shiva. Nowadays they are a influential mercantile community albeit another caste in Southern India.
Anyway I lot of Indian Christians have such dated names. Until about a generation ago, we even had people like Victoria Thangavelu! I believe Sri Lankan Christians is still old world as they are more quaint than Indians.
In Kerala, Syrian Orthodox parents go as far to names their children Baby Innocent! ( In reference to baby Jesus!)
“I got hooked last year on re-runs of “Modern Family.” Two of the major characters are a gay couple and they get off some really funny lines about lesbians. A lesbian couple appears in one or two episodes and the juxtaposition is pretty funny.”
The Gay couple are Mitch and Cam. Both of them act feminine, so it is hard to tell who the man is in that relationship.
I never made that connection before. I think the saint is usually spelled Roch (or simply left in Italian as Rocco), but you are right, Rock is a real name.
I worked handling patient records at a pediatrician’s office once. Hence I had a lot of time while I was bored to think about names.
The big new trend is Aiden and anything that rhymes with it. I saw Brayden, Caden, Hayden, Jaden, Kaiden, Raidan, Slayden.
Hate these names because A) No predictable spelling (saw Aiden, Aidan, Ayden, Aidhan, Aden, etc) and B) Completely bisexual, no way to tell from a glance at their chart if they’re a boy or a girl.
Also, for shits and giggles, I came up with a list of every weird or remarkable name I came across (and when I was really bored out of my mind I’d plug random words into the system to see what came up).
Here’s a list of samples:
Olivia Martini
Latina Shack
Muhammad Rage
Lovie Fudge
Rocky Colon
Pryor Devience
Talon Wolf
Archer Graves
Gay Dodge
Raven Lord
Deja Blue
Mary Fister
Jagger Decker
Remington Rapier
Christian Medic
Christian Orc
Christian Dames
Crow Medicine
Miracle Sellers
Teddy Bear
Anointed Black
Dino Mantis
Earnest Knight
Contrail Stone
Effort Burns
Sawyer Mills
Star Painter
Jayla Bird
Sun Moon
Joy Hard
Dream Drummer
Brooklyn Forbes
Darius Cleaver
Jax Bonebrake
Angel Bones
Napoleon Lawson
Liberty Powers
Harmony Hammer
Crystal Bishop
Storm Armstrong
Diamond Armour
Jade Beach
Virginia Beach
Renissa Darling
Lotus Cannon
Destiny Eaglehorse
Victory Island
Memory Vice
Princess Grandberry
Dutch Mason
Treasure Hunt
Charity Counts
Afrika White
Maximus General
My girlfriend’s Dad’s name, who was named for his grandfather. Poor guy was born here, too! He goes by Bazz.
November 19, 2014 at 6:30 pm GMT
@yaqub the mad scientist
In the ’90s “Car Talk” would occasionally get a caller named Donna. Tom, the older brother (who just died), would always ask her, “firebird or camaro?”
Wow! Tom Magliozzi died? I didn't know. Truly, the end of an era. My condolences to his family, and may he rest in peace. Those guys are great - "Car Talk" was the only good thing on NPR. He will be missed.
Only in Cambridge could you have mechanics with degrees from MIT. Tom had an engineering BS and a masters and a Phd in management. Ray “only” has a bachelors from MIT. He was a great guy.
Here's a list of samples:
Olivia Martini
Latina Shack
Muhammad Rage
Lovie Fudge
Rocky Colon
Pryor Devience
Talon Wolf
Archer Graves
Gay Dodge
Raven Lord
Deja Blue
Mary Fister
Jagger Decker
Remington Rapier
Christian Medic
Christian Orc
Christian Dames
Crow Medicine
Miracle Sellers
Teddy Bear
Anointed Black
Dino Mantis
Earnest Knight
Contrail Stone
Effort Burns
Sawyer Mills
Star Painter
Jayla Bird
Sun Moon
Joy Hard
Dream Drummer
Brooklyn Forbes
Darius Cleaver
Jax Bonebrake
Angel Bones
Napoleon Lawson
Liberty Powers
Harmony Hammer
Crystal Bishop
Storm Armstrong
Diamond Armour
Jade Beach
Virginia Beach
Renissa Darling
Lotus Cannon
Destiny Eaglehorse
Victory Island
Memory Vice
Princess Grandberry
Dutch Mason
Treasure Hunt
Charity Counts
Afrika White
Maximus General
Those names sound like porn star names
The Mayflower Madame had a list of names, many French, that she prohibited her girls from using, as they sounded too trashy or slutty. Ironically, more than a few, e.g. Danielle, were quickly moving up the popularity charts among the new parents of the day.
Anyway I lot of Indian Christians have such dated names. Until about a generation ago, we even had people like Victoria Thangavelu! I believe Sri Lankan Christians is still old world as they are more quaint than Indians.
In Kerala, Syrian Orthodox parents go as far to names their children Baby Innocent! ( In reference to baby Jesus!)
“He was a Catholic from Goa/Konkan(Arabian sea coast) region. Apparently many Catholics held on to the caste names of their Hindu ancestors.”
The Catholic church along the Malabar coast dates back to AD 52 and the missionary work of Thomas the Apostle.
On the other hand, trying to go through life in America with a name Hedwig or Wladislaw could not have been very fun.
Never knew about the Joachim – Kim link. When I was a kid, there was a male Kim in my judo school. His father, who looked a bit like George Hamilton, ran the place. At the time, I assumed he named his son Kim because it sounded Asian. But Kim was a blond, surfer-looking guy.
There was Kim Philby. And Kim Fowley.
There was Kim Philby. And Kim Fowley.
Speaking of names, Zbigniew Brzezinski’s name is worth 57 points in English Scrabble, 68 points in French Scrabble but only 34 points in German Scrabble. No data is available on Polish Scrabble. The EU needs to standardize this.
If it turns out, as seems likely, that Bruce Jenner is undergoing hormone therapy to become a transexual of sorts, it would be another typical case of late auto-gynephilia. A masculine man with a fetish for himself as a woman.
We may never see a Trip again.
Other names have fallen way out of style.
Doug- blow dried hair, slips mickeys in girls drinks
Donna- That name was everywhere 30 years ago, now it's gone. Those girls must have reverted to their middle names when they grew up.
There are, of course, all those ghetto/trailertrash names like Kayla, Brandy, and Brittany, the latter which gets a dozen spelling variants (Brytni, Britny, Britney, etc). In the South, there's lots of boys with names like Skyler and Kyler.
Latrell- screams "black and gay".
In Britain, there's lists compiled of "chav" names.
Luttrell is a good old aristocratic English family name. They are descended from Sir Geoffrey de Luterel, a courtier in the time of King John. His great-great-grandson, Sir Geoffrey Luttrell, commissioned the famous Luttrell Psalter that is now in the possession of the British Library.
as for family names, as in naming children for parents and grandparents, that seems to be a rapidly declining practice. my parents named my brother and me after our grandfathers, while my brother's late ex-wife named their daughter after characters on TV programs like dallas.
the made-up names so popular with our african-american brother and sisters, on the other hand, are like nothing ever uttered or even dreamed of before. come to think of it, that seems like it may be the whole point.
the only group, it seems to me, that has preserved their traditions is the aristocratic set. first names are quite often last names on the mother's side, for example, but in any case they seem to be intended to document their bearers' pedigree -- and to signal as much to others of the same class.
i know: BFD.
The British upper classes have started to adopt unusual names for their children, e.g. Zenouska Mowatt, granddaughter of Princess Alexandra, the Honourable Lady Ogilvy.