genuine (semi)important historical figures with implausibly komikal names

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1: sir hoare belisha
2: sir cloudesley shovel

― mark s, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(probably VERY important figure redeem the silliness of their given cogs by dint of great repetition)

― mark s, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

U Thant!

― Tom, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ladies and gentlemen, a big hand of applause for Ferdinand Foch and Alfred Wankel. The heroes of many a Year 6 history lesson.

― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hoare isnt that funny a surname you know...

― Claire Hoare, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

(yes yes silly foreign<->english puns too i guess, but i am interested really in just STRANGE names and naming patterns thrust into the limelight...) (there is actually one on the tip of my brane which i cannot quite flip into view)

― mark s, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Didn't Mr Crapper invent the toilet

― Dave, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

urban myth i think: there was a famous book in the 70s, but i *seem* to recall it was recently debunked as a hoax

― mark s, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Is it also apocryphal that the brassiere was invented by a Mr Titzling (possibly Otto?) or is that true?

― Martin Skidmore, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

haha the fact of its urban myth-ness is itself an urban myth, blimey

howevah since his first name was thomas he doesn't count...

― mark s, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Claire, are you a genuine (semi)important historical figure?

― N., Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

George Bush

― Chris, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Didn't the inventor of the vacuum cleaner have a cool name? Something Spangler, I believe. He sold the patent to Mr Something Hoover, which is a great shame because it's such a cool name whereas Hoover is crap ("I'm just going to spanglerise the carpet" is better than "I'm going to hoover up")

― jamesmichaelward, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Slightly off topic but we once saw a great C5 (probably) thing about stunt men in particular a very foolhardy chap called Spanky Spangler which at the time seemed excessively funny.

― Emma, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Armand Hammer.

― Kate Spiren, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sorry to labour the point Claire (hey, I ignored it on the other freaky surname thread) but...

The reference to 'that surname' reminded me of a woman who once received and MBE or such such. Her name was listed as Mrs Hoare- Bastard.

Which is both unfortunate, especially if a marriage was the cause of the double-barrelling. But then again, it's nice that neither party let it get in the way of their wuv for each other.

― Nathan Barley, Thursday, 20 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

nine months pass...

"[Air Force Gen] Roche is expected to announce details of the house-cleaning at a Washington news conference Wednesday. He reportedly has told Senate Armed Services Committee members that he will cashier the academy's second-ranking officer, Brig. Gen. S. Taco Gilbert III.

Current and former students have complained that Gilbert, the commandant of cadets [at the Air Force Academy]-- roughly equivalent to the dean of students at a civilian college -- criticized and disciplined female cadets after they reported being raped by fellow students.

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 14:46 (twenty-three years ago)

(Washington post 3/26/03)

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 14:47 (twenty-three years ago)

i've always been fond of the name Lech Walesa - it just seems to roll off the tongue. perhaps i will start a politically-minded hardcore band called Lech Walesa.

― j fail (cenotaph), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 14:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Omahony Newborn

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 15:12 (twenty-three years ago)

There was a real plumber named Thomas Crapper in Victorian England, but he didn't invent the flush toilet. That myth comes from the same series of bogus biogs from the 50s I believe as Otto Tittzlinger, The Man Behind the Brassiere

Horace Mann is a funny name of a real historical dude.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 15:15 (twenty-three years ago)

The real actual Horace Mann became famous for not reading the threads he posted to...

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 15:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Bebe Rebozo
Adlai Stevenson
Estes Kefauver
Bella Abzug

― hstencil, Wednesday, 26 March 2003 15:24 (twenty-three years ago)

Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox's name sounds really funny if you say it like Archie Bald Cocks. When you're 12.

― Arthur (Arthur), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 16:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Meija Stanks, former publisher of Williamsburg Sentinal sounds really funny.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 16:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Former leader of the Irish Labour Party, Dick Spring.

― Venga, Wednesday, 26 March 2003 16:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Former leader of the British Labour Party, John Smith.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 17:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Former Cdn Minister of Finance Eric Sean Boner.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 17:04 (twenty-three years ago)

there was a Captain Bastard at the battle of the Somme.

all those former American presidents with surnames for firstnames are very funny to me... e.g. Millard Fillmore, Rutherford Hayes, Jefferson Davis, etc.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 17:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmmmmm. Jefferson Davis was an American, he was a president (of the Confederacy) but he wasn't an 'American President.' Not like, say, Martin Sheen. Was. Is.

― Skottie, Wednesday, 26 March 2003 17:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Then there's Carin Driver. Which is (semi)important historical in the sense of having just been made up.

― Skottie, Wednesday, 26 March 2003 17:58 (twenty-three years ago)

In the Marble Cemetary on 2nd St. in the East Village, you can see the grave of important colonial NY merchant...

...Preserved Fish

http://www.findagrave.com/photos/1025/156/9628_1023399433.jpg

― Marcel Post (Marcel Post), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 18:02 (twenty-three years ago)

He was in housewares, obviously.

― hstencil, Wednesday, 26 March 2003 18:05 (twenty-three years ago)

...which of course reminds me of Salmon P. Chase, who once appeared on the US $10,000 bill (back when they made 'em).

Also in Lincoln's administration (where Chase was Treasury Secretary): Vice-President Hannibal Hamlin.

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 18:09 (twenty-three years ago)

based on a loose interpretation of the term HISTORICAL FIGURE:

I hiked the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain a few years ago, and in the course of my travels spent the night in a hostal run by a group of friendly, bearded Dutch evangelists. (imagine eight very well tanned Charlton Hestons).

We'd arrived late in the evening, and were the only guests, so soon after arriving we found ourselves drinking soup, silently, in a low-ceilinged diningroom. They stared. They were creepy and white-toothed and blue-eyed. They had pamphlets. We were too tired resist.

In the course of our introductions it became clear...it became clear that..one of them...one of them, his name...it became clear..his name... was...his name...GOD NO I CAN"T SAY THE WWORDS #&^&(&*&*%@@

― gabriel (gabe), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 23:41 (twenty-three years ago)

BOOZ WIERDSMA!

― gabriel (gabe), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 23:42 (twenty-three years ago)

I have a new god.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 23:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Boutros Boutros Ghali
and in a similar vein: Sirhan Sirhan, the man so un-nice they named him twice

― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 23:44 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

lord cardigan of the light brigade second wife's adeline's father's name was SPENCER HORSEY DE HORSEY

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 21 February 2005 16:23 (twenty-one years ago)

There was a real plumber named Thomas Crapper in Victorian England, but he didn't invent the flush toilet. That myth comes from the same series of bogus biogs from the 50s I believe as Otto Tittzlinger, The Man Behind the Brassiere

Bust-up: The uplifting tale of Otto Titzling and the development of the bra

Flushed With Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper

Both by Wallace Reyburn, both largely bogus. (The previous owner of my copy of Bust-up felt it necessary to write various indignant corrections in the margins.)

The case of the Swedish man whose passport literally reads Odd Person appears to be legit, however.

― j.lu (j.lu), Monday, 21 February 2005 17:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Certainly Poindexter belongs here.

― Matt Chesnut, Monday, 21 February 2005 18:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Alger Hiss

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Monday, 21 February 2005 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Bonar Law, the forgotten (!) prime minister

― fcussen (Burger), Monday, 21 February 2005 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudati Filius Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache

― j.lu (j.lu), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Cotton Mather and his father, Increase Mather.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Ima Hogg, Texas philanthropist

― Curious George Rides a Republican (Rock Hardy), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Olof Palme

― Shmool McShmool (shmuel), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Dick Trickle

I realize he isn't a historical figure, but this race car drivers name is definitely implausibly komical.

― earlnash, Monday, 21 February 2005 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Has enough time passed for Dick Assman to be considered "historic"?

― j.lu (j.lu), Monday, 21 February 2005 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Saskatchewan has propelled both Dick Assman and Brent Butt into fame -> I am right and it is the new Shangri-La.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

eleven years pass...

2: sir cloudesley shovel

Born in Cockthorpe, died in the Scilly Isles. Of course.

― The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Thursday, 17 November 2016 22:04 (nine years ago)

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