Why Hillary is called Hillary and Obama is called Obama
It's (mildly) interesting that the two main candidates for Democratic nomination are most commonly referred to in different ways. One by her first name, the other by his surname. When we started to consider reasons, the first is easy - "Clinton" is already taken. Just like we need to talk about "Dubya" because "Bush" often means his father, so "Hillary" needs to be distinguished from her husband. As an added bonus (or drawback), this serves to highlight her gender every time her name is mentioned (if it needed any more prominence).
But I'd wondered why it is much rarer to hear of "Barack". I think I've worked it out.
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8 comments:
that's a very funny (=stupid) site. but telling...
and if you were going to check, it's ok - jesus beats the satan hands down!
Unfortunately, when they talked about "total spectrum dominance", they meant it.
Peace kicks butt and John was right (1 John 4.18) .
ah yes, but put hillary clinton versus hilary clinton and see the results.
to get all serious about it (sorry!) - in my opinion it's a gender thing - women rarely get referred to by just surname. Does it sound too rude to refer to a "lady" that way, or are women taken less seriously?
this serves to highlight her gender every time her name is mentioned
I knew a man called Hillary once
Wow.
And yeah, to be serious, I agree that women are generally not called by their surname. I'm not sure what it means. Is it a way of avoiding having to make a call on Miss/Mrs/Ms? It can't just be this, because when we don't usually say "Mr Obama" anyway. I remember noticing this pattern back in school and not being able to work it out.
I knew a man called Hillary once
Oh, I know one too.
He's from NY too.
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