There are nine million people who see me in the ring and hate my guts. Most of them are white. That’s OK. Just spell my name right. Mike Tyson
Now, what kind of place is it where people forget to name their children? Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger
Speed? It’s a female, isn’t it? Wouldn’t Crack be more appropriate? Rab C Nesbitt, Fruit, Jamsie to Rab, BBC 1999
In the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ I baptise you Marvin Temazepam Bullet the Dog Pure Quality My Boy’s Been Here All Night £10 Deal McMenamie. Rab C Nesbitt: Fight, Vicar, BBC 2011
We all have names we don’t know about. Martin Amis
My name is Charles Highway, though you wouldn’t think it to look at me. It’s such a rangy, well-travelled, big-cocked name and, to look at, I am none of these. Martin Amis, The Rachel Papers p1
The studio figured that Marion was not exactly a proper name for an American hero. John Wayne, interview The Parkinson Show
The glory and the nothing of a name. Lord Byron, Churchill’s Grave
With a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost. Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
Dear 338171 (May I call you 338?) Noel Coward, letter to T E Lawrence
Perhaps my name too will be linked with theirs. Ovid, Ars Amatoria
[Sir Arthur] Streeb-Greebling is my name. Peter Cook & Dudley Moore, Not Only But Also, 1965
[Peter Cook in armchair with rug over knees before fire with copy of E L Wisty’s Tales of the Much as We Expected] Ronald is a pretty ordinary name. And until I dropped the n nobody took any notice. Peter Cook & Company 1980
One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washed it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey. Edmund Spenser, Amoretti sonnet 75
There stands the ghost of a great name. Lucan, A.D. 39-65, re Pompey
The Causes and Consequences of Distinctively Black Names. Roland G Fryer junior & Steven D Levitt, article The Quarterly Journal of Economics August 2004
Names don’t matter so much ... What they name you just doesn’t matter. ibid.
It is a crap shoot when it comes to names. ibid.
What is going to be their name? These days there’s an entire industry devoted to naming your baby. And business is booming. Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner, Freakonomics, caption, Sky Atlantic 2009; viz also book
The culture we come from influences the names we choose. ibid.
These days, Loser and Winner barely speak. The father who named them is no longer alive. Clearly he had the right idea – that naming is destiny – but he must have gotten the boys mixed up. Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner, Freakonomics; viz also documentary
So does the name you give your child affect his life? Or is it your life reflected in his name? In either case, what kind of signal does a child’s name send to the world – and most important, does it really matter? ibid.
So how does it matter if you have a very white name or a very black name? ibid.
A person with a distinctly black name … does have a worse life outcome. ibid.
How does a name migrate through the population, and why? ibid.
Once a name catches on among high-income, highly educated parents, it starts working its way down the socioeconomic ladder. ibid.
Celebrities actually have a weak effect on baby names. ibid.
But as a high-end name is adopted en masse, high-end parents begin to abandon it. ibid.
I chose the name Poly Styrene because it is a lightweight disposable product. Arena: Who is Poly Styrene? BBC 2012
You know my name. You people gave me a fucking number. McVicar 1980 starring Roger Daltrey & Adam Faith & Cheryl Campbell & Georgina Hale & Steven Berkoff & Brian Hall & Peter Jonfield et al, director Tom Clegg, McVicar to Screw
A name made great is a name destroyed. Hillel the Elder
Out of his surname they have coined an epithet for a knave, and out of his Christian name a synonym for the Devil. Thomas Babington Macaulay, Edinburgh Review essay 1843, re Machiavelli
They call me Mr Tibbs. In the Heat of the Night 1967 starring Sidney Poitier & Rod Steiger & Warren Oates & Lee Greant & Larry Gates & James Patterson & William Schallert & Beah Richards & Peter Whitney & Larry D Mann et al, director Norman Jewison
I’m very good at integral and differential calculus,
I know the scientific names of beings animalculous;
In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern Major-General. W S Gilbert, The Pirates of Penzance
Champagne Charlie is my name. George Leybourne, popular Victorian song
I’m going to tell all these people my name’s Rico, OK? Midnight Cowboy 1969 starring John Voight & Dustin Hoffman & Sylvia Miles & John McGiver & Brenda Vaccaro & Barnard Hughes & Ruth White & Jennifer Salt et al, director John Schlesinger
My name is Roger the Shrubber. Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1974 starring Graham Chapman & John Cleese & Eric Idle & Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones & Michael Palin & Neil Innes & Connie Booth & Carol Cleveland et al, director Gilliam & Jones
Stop! What is your name? What is your quest? ... ibid. keeper of bridge of death
This is Bruce … This is Bruce … This is Bruce … Monty Python s2e9, How to Recognise Different Parts of the Body, BBC 1970
I am not Mahomet.
– Far from it.
That is the mistake
All of you seem to make. Edmund Clerihew Bentley, 1875-1956
If you should have a boy do not christen him John … ’Tis a bad name and goes against a man. If my name had been Edmund I should have been more fortunate. John Keats
We’ve both worked on the impact of names ... The people who end up with very back names are treated very differently. Professor Sendhil Mullainathan
The name of a man is a numbing blow from which he never recovers. Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964
We’re going to change your name, Gerry. It’s the name that’s the problem. And it’s a name change from Gerry Dorsey to Englebert Humperdinck. I mean, I wanted to be in the room when they were working that one through. Eddie Izzard
Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been;
I am also called No-more, Too-late, Farewell. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The House of Life
I want a name that captures the real me ... Steve Interesting Davis. Spitting Image s2e4, ITV 1985
I don’t care what you say about me, as long as you say something about me, and as long as you spell my name right. George M Cohan, 1878-1942
It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to. W C Fields