Yeah, I figured your first one would be the runaway leader. And along those lines, if it had been say “Peggy’s” instead of something with regional meaning, I would have gone with…
P
E
G
G
Y’
S
But the apostrophe is more or less a diacritic showing grammatical function. It must go with the S.
It’s not like the apostrophe in “can’t,” showing contraction, which could more logically be split as in the poll.
Cheddar cheese comes to the consumer in two colors. To stores, for that matter.
Yes, I don’t believe there are any rules on this – even writing style guides are silent on the matter, probably because they’re aimed at longer works of prose like newspaper articles and scholarly articles, where vertical lettering is virtually never used. That’s why I was curious as to what Dopers prefer.
And @Dr.Drake has it right that, linguistically speaking, “'s” functions as a single unit. (It’s variously analyzed as a genitive inflection or a clitic, depending on which linguist you ask.) As a linguist I therefore chose 'S in the poll, though admittedly I think it looks just as strange as the alternatives.
Fun fact: in Hungarian, certain digraphs and trigraphs are considered atomic letters of the alphabet, so in vertical signs you might see “SZ”, “LY”, “DZS”, etc. written together on a single line. (This is also true in word games like crosswords and Scrabble; there are single tiles for letters like “GY” and “ZS”.)
Re markn_1’s poll, these are the characters I immediately thought of:
- Andy Griffith from The Andy Griffith Show*
- Barney Rubble from The Flintstones (though I also later thought of Barney Gumble from The Simpsons and Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show*)
- Bart Simpson from The Simpsons
- Buddy Ryan from Night Court
- Buffy (not sure of the surname) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer*
- Cliff Clavin from Cheers
- Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld
- Ernie from Sesame Street
- Frasier Crane from Frasier
- Gidget (not sure of the surname) from Gidget*
- Ginger (not sure of the surname) from Gilligan’s Island*
- Gomer Pyle from The Andy Griffith Show*
- Gomez Addams from The Addams Family (and its various reincarnations and spinoffs)
- Hawkeye Pierce from MASH*
- Herman Munster from The Munsters*
- Homer Simpson from The Simpsons
- Jeannie (not sure of the surname) from I Dream of Jeannie*
- Latka Gravas from Taxi
- Leland McKenzie from L.A. Law
- Lucy (not sure of the surname) from I Love Lucy*
- Maude Findlay from Maude*
- Maxwell Smart from Get Smart
- Mindy McConnell from Mork & Mindy
- Roseanne Connor from Roseanne*
- Samantha (not sure of the surname) from Bewitched*
An asterisk marks shows that I’ve never actually seen, but have learned about through cultural osmosis.
Some of the names are generic enough that they’re probably shared by characters on TV shows I’m not familiar with. For example, Buddy Ryan was only a minor recurring character on Night Court so I’m pretty sure there must be some more famous Buddy that I’m not aware of.
I hesitated before skipping “Bruce”. Bruce Wayne immediately comes to mind but I’m not sure it’s the comic book one or the Adam West one. It also reminds me of the Hulk, but they didn’t use that name in the TV show.
I agree with a lot of those, but to me, Leland is Leland Palmer in Twin Peaks.
I only chose those where the name itself devoid of any other context made me think of a fictional character: Bart, Frasier and Buffy. The others are common enough I wouldn’t immediately associate it with “one fictional character” except Homer which has an immediate 2 people come to mind and nobody else and things like Gomer which are just meaningless to me.
Leland Stottlemyer
I interpreted it not as, “can you quickly think of a tv character with this name” but rather, “is the first thing that pops into your mind a tv character”
- Adrian - don’t even know this one
- Andy - two friends i see often named Andy
- Archie - i think of the comic strip before Archie Bunker
- Audrey - don’t even know this one
- Barney - not a unique hit
- Bart - BART, in SF
- Bruce - i know a lot of people with this name
- Buddy - don’t even know this one
- Buffy * yup, vampire Slayer
- Cliff - don’t even know this one
- Cosmo - don’t even know this one
- Dale - don’t even know this one
- Ernie - * yup, and Bert
- Frasier - i used to see a dentist in the Frasier building. i haven’t watched it, but i am familiar with the show
- Gidget - wasn’t that a movie?
- Ginger -the spice
- Gomer * yup, Pile
- Gomez - common name
- Hawkeye - isn’t that a super hero? And also mash
- Herman - don’t even know this one
- Homer - the Iliad
- Jeannie - i have a friend with this name
- Jethro - Tull
- Latka - don’t even know this one
- Laura - really common name
- Leland - don’t even know this one
- Lucy - know several people with this name
- Maude - old fashioned name,
- Maxwell - smart, but also the demon and the equations . And the coffee
- Mindy * mork&
- Ralph - just a name
- Roseanne - another common name
- Samantha a know a couple people named this
- Shirley - Temple, and weren’t those movies?
- Tabitha - i know this from a TV show, but also know a cat with this name
Good one! And I love me some Monk. All I can say is that my immediate reaction to the name felt like a definitive Palmer at that moment.
I did the same. The answers mostly depended on whether I had known a human with the name (or, in Latka’s case, a food). I’ve never met an Archie or a Frasier or a Gomer or a (first name) Gomez or a Hawkeye.
Barney Miller, Bart Maverick. etc., Many of these names have some other famous person holding it such as Homer.
As for the apostrophe- I vote “who cares”?
Archie Goodwin, also. Audrey is likely the man eating plant for Little Shop of Horrors.
I chose the names because almost all of them do immediately remind me of a TV character. FTR, this is my list:
- Adrian - Adrian Monk from Monk
- Andy - Andy Taylor from The Andy Griffith Show
- Archie - Archie Bunker from All in the Family
- Audrey - Audrey Horne from Twin Peaks
- Barney - Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show (although there is some interference from Barney Rubble and Barney Gumble)
- Bart - Bart Simpson from The Simpsons
- Bruce - Bruce Wayne from Batman
- Buddy - Buddy Sorrell from The Dick Van Dyke Show
- Buffy - Buffy Summers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Cliff - Cliff Clavin from Cheers
- Cosmo - Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld
- Dale - Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks
- Ernie - Ernie from Sesame Street
- Frasier - Frasier Crane from Frasier
- Gidget - Gidget Lawrence from Gidget
- Ginger - Ginger Grant from Gilligan’s Island
- Gomer - Gomer Pyle from The Andy Griffith Show
- Gomez - Gomez Addams from The Addams Family
- Hawkeye - Hawkeye Pierce from MASH
- Herman - Herman Munster from The Munsters
- Homer - Homer Simpson from The Simpsons
- Jeannie - Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie
- Jethro - Jethro Bodine from The Beverly Hillbillies
- Latka - Latka Gravas from Taxi
- Laura - Laura Petrie from The Dick Van Dyke Show
- Leland - Leland Palmer from Twin Peaks
- Lucy - Lucy Ricardo from I Love Lucy
- Maude - Maude Findlay from Maude
- Maxwell - Maxwell Smart from Get Smart
- Mindy - Mindy McConnell from Mork and Mindy
- Ralph - Ralph Kramden from The Honeymooners (although there is some interference from Ralph Wiggum)
- Roseanne - Roseanne Conner from Roseanne
- Samantha - Samantha Stevens from Bewitched
- Shirley - Shirley Feeney from Laverne and Shirley
- Tabitha - Tabitha Stevens from Bewitched
Buddy Ryan was an NFL coach with the Philadelphia Eagles.
The poll asked about TV characters, so I wasn’t even thinking outside that box. The ones I checked were the ones where, upon reading the name, one specific TV character immediately came to my mind. If there were either none or more than one that immediately came to my mind, I left it unchecked. (Thus, I did not select “Archie” because I immediately thought of both Archie Andrews and Archie Bunker; and I did not select Ralph because I immediately thought of both Ralph Wiggum and Ralph Kramden.)
Yo.
Though she is a big screen star, not a small screen one.
I understood that reference.
Is that a TV show now?
Maybe Audrey is Gene, the Singing Cowboy. He had a TV show, right?