The Lemon Fool

And another thing.

The way media stars style themselves according to just their first names. Adele? Rihanna? Kylie? Justin? Dido? Gareth? Iman? And a hundred more non-celebs besides from celebrity Love Island. It's like they've reserved the parking space for everyone who happens to share their name. And it annoys me.

All right, I admit that it's not so very new for surnames to be used as stand-alones. Hendrix, Clapton, Brando - and Kardashian I suppose, even though there are about eight of those. Meanwhile some rock names were artificially concocted for media consumption, such as Bono, Prince, Sting or Gaga. I suppose we'd have to make an exception for Elvis, if only because his name was so weird in the first place? (Apparently Madonna was her real name, though. Oprah likewise. Whereas "Slash", apparently, was not named as such by any loving parent.)

Still annoys me, though. Those first-name people are sitting on a lot of other people's real estate. Harrumph.

BJ

Prince was really Prince... (Prince R. Nelson)

AleisterCrowley wrote:Prince was really Prince... (Prince R. Nelson)

Formally and formerly.

Come on, where's your sense of history? All those Williams, Henrys and Richards, not to mention Elizabeths. Then there's Jesus and his anglicised groupies. Mohammed, Moses, etc, etc. Right back, culturally speaking, to Adam and Eve. Peace be on all of them.

Canute knew that the tide always comes back ...

Boris?

TUK020 wrote:Boris?

Not Godunov.

UncleEbenezer wrote:

TUK020 wrote:Boris?

Not Godunov.

Nope, Karloff. The only genuine candidate, surely? Even if he was actually born as William Henry Pratt.

BJ

All the worlds greatest footballers have just one name. e.g. Pele, Best, Beckenbauer, Cruyff and Bobbycharlton.

Gryff

Columbo, Morse, Taggart...

gryffron wrote:All the worlds greatest footballers have just one name. e.g. Pele, Best, Beckenbauer, Cruyff and Bobbycharlton.

There's a reason for that. By the time the commentator has sputtered out the full names of everyone involved in putting together a five-man attack, plus three defenders, the ball will already be in the net and the crowd will have gone home.

And that's just with players who have European-ish ("romance-language") names! East Africans would have had his tonsils properly tangled.

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:And another thing.

The way media stars style themselves according to just their first names. Adele? Rihanna? Kylie? Justin? Dido? Gareth? Iman? And a hundred more non-celebs besides from celebrity Love Island. It's like they've reserved the parking space for everyone who happens to share their name. And it annoys me.

Not as much as it annoys Emili Sandé.

DM

dionaeamuscipula wrote:Not as much as it annoys Emili Sandé.

Never heard of her. That'll be Emeli Sandé, I presume?

BJ

bungeejumper wrote:The way media stars style themselves according to just their first names. Adele? Rihanna? Kylie? Justin? Dido? Gareth? Iman?

Gareth? Really? You just threw that one in to see if we were paying attention.

Dido, sensible given her full name -Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong

Likewise Eno aka Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno

AleisterCrowley wrote:Dido, sensible given her full name -Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong

Likewise Eno aka Brian Peter George St John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno

Yeah, but by that reckoning we'd also have to accept Boris aka Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Lafite Rothschild Pauillac Blattablattablatta Normandy Beaches de Spaffer Johnson, wouldn't we?

BJ

Could some of those long names be abbreviated? So Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel becomes just Tarquin Posh? Though in his case he wasn't really, it fits most of them.

(He was disappointed when the returning officer on by-election night 1981 was given special dispensation to abbreviate his name in reading out the results).

UncleEbenezer wrote:Could some of those long names be abbreviated?

'Dildo' fit the bill?

Gaggsy wrote:

bungeejumper wrote:The way media stars style themselves according to just their first names. Adele? Rihanna? Kylie? Justin? Dido? Gareth? Iman?

Gareth? Really? You just threw that one in to see if we were paying attention.

Last time round, it was Gareth Gates. (Indeed.) I expect somebody else has got the parking space now?

Some of the current crop have at least had the sense to devise their own bizarre but unique names - I'm thinking Stormzy and so forth. Another one who somehow turned up on my browser the other day was an (ahem) energetic young rapper called Melissa who simply styles herself Lizzo. Google if you must. Think I need a lie down.

BJ

gryffron wrote:All the worlds greatest footballers have just one name. e.g. Pele, Best, Beckenbauer, Cruyff and Bobbycharlton.

Gryff

Banks

AiY

bungeejumper wrote:Some of the current crop have at least had the sense to devise their own bizarre but unique names - I'm thinking Stormzy and so forth. Another one who somehow turned up on my browser the other day was an (ahem) energetic young rapper called Melissa who simply styles herself Lizzo. Google if you must. Think I need a lie down.

Not sure on the style of music, as I'm the wrong side of 40, but there's a new-ish one on the block, a bloke who styles himself as Dave. That's just asking to not be found on the internet that is.