Wednesday 13 January 2010

Names

Something that has always struck me about cricket players is how many of them have surnames that are just ordinary verbs, nouns, adjectives or job descriptions. In the past we've had Old, Young, Boycott, Lever, Lamb, Knott, Fletcher, Smith, for example, although that looks as if I'm being selective.

But look at the current England squad of thirty players - it includes Cook, Bell, Key, Trot(t), Foster, Prior, Flint-off, (W)right, Broad, Onions, Side-bottom, Batty and Swan(n). Even 'Strauss' is a noun - it's German for a bouquet (of flowers), meaning nearly half of them fall into this category.

4 comments:

dearieme said...

Someone made a similar remark about one of the Thatcher cabinets - Thatcher, Baker, Clarke.......

Roue le Jour said...

Surely you remember "The batsman's Holding, the bowler's Willey"?

bayard said...

"Boycott" doesn't count, it's an eponym.

Mark Wadsworth said...

D, more to the point, they were all called "Norman".

RLJ, no, but thanks nonetheless, that's the general idea.

B, fair point, but as a kid I learned the meaning of the verb before I learned its derivation.