# Etymology of "I take names...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 2, 2007, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501 "2007-02-02T03:46:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ReuvenB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReuvenB)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501/1 "2007-02-02T03:46:30Z")
I didn’t want to use naughty words in the title for fear of someone getting spanked at work for it. Anyway, my question is what is the origin of the phrase “tak[ing] names and kick[ing] ass”? When was it first used? Why has it caught on so quickly?
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501/2 "2007-02-02T03:58:09Z")
I don’t know about “quickly” as I can recall hearing the phrase (which is actually “Kicking ass and taking names”, not the other way 'round) at least as far back as the mid-ish '80s or thereabouts. [This](http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=42856) WordReference forums thread has a plausible-sounding theory.
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### Author:  [@ReuvenB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReuvenB)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501/3 "2007-02-02T04:08:27Z")
Really? Mid-80s? I must be living under a rock. It’s odd that I haven’t heard it before this year if it really is a Naval term, since I’m a Navy brat myself. Strange how things like that work out.
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501/4 "2007-02-02T15:20:21Z")
FWIW, I first heard it in the movie [Fort Apache, the Bronx (1981)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082402/)
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### Author:  [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501/5 "2007-02-02T15:38:27Z")
Yeah, I mean, you know that a meme is completely washed-up when a show like ‘Dawson’s creek’ is doing variations:
“But I’ll be back. And I promise you, it’s not going to be pretty. Asses will be kicked. Names will be taken. Until then, bye-bye”
(Spoken by the now-Mrs Tom Cruise, penultimate episode, May of 2003.)
😃
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501/6 "2007-02-02T16:52:04Z")
I don’t know the answer but I want to thank you for using “penultimate” correctly. No taking names or kicking asses will be required.
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### Author:  [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501/7 "2007-02-02T17:17:13Z")
[QUOTE=gigi]
I don’t know the answer but I want to thank you for using “penultimate” correctly. No taking names or kicking asses will be required.
[/QUOTE]
Why thank you. 🙂 I haven’t really noticed that many people misusing it myself. (Not that I notice that many people using the word at all.)
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### Author:  [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501/8 "2007-02-02T20:49:57Z")
[QUOTE=chrisk]
Why thank you. 🙂 I haven’t really noticed that many people misusing it myself. (Not that I notice that many people using the word at all.)
[/QUOTE]
Not yet, but my prediction stands that it will be the next “begs the question”, or will begin getting used as an intensified “ultimate”. Stephen Colbert used it and I’m not sure if he meant it the way he used it or not.
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### Author:  [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501/9 "2007-02-02T21:47:04Z")
[QUOTE=gigi]
Stephen Colbert used it and I’m not sure if he meant it the way he used it or not.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve tried and I’ve tried and I’ve tried, but I just can’t wrap my brain this statement. (In fact, trying almost reduced me to giggles, but then again it’s Friday and it’s been a looooong week.)
I mean, of \*course \* he meant it the way he used it; whether or not he used it correctly is up for debate. I think. Or not.
Huh? Please help my tired, work-addled brain.
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### Author:  [@Old\_Goat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Old_Goat)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501/10 "2007-02-02T23:13:51Z")
Heard in the Army ca. 1967 though not all that common. Like most sayings in the military, it probably can be traced back to at least the Civil War. One can readily imagine the hieroglyphic dating back to the union of the two kingdoms.
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### Author:  [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501/11 "2007-02-02T23:17:01Z")
[QUOTE=Turek]
I’ve tried and I’ve tried and I’ve tried, but I just can’t wrap my brain this statement. (In fact, trying almost reduced me to giggles, but then again it’s Friday and it’s been a looooong week.)
I mean, of \*course \* he meant it the way he used it; whether or not he used it correctly is up for debate. I think. Or not.
Huh? Please help my tired, work-addled brain.
[/QUOTE]
Well, that’s because you’re a descriptionist I think. 😉
To a descriptionist, ‘how you use’ a phrase is always the same way as how you meant to use it. To a prescriptionist, it’s what the words you put together happen to mean, which might have nothing to do with what you intended to say. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501/12 "2007-02-03T01:17:43Z")
[QUOTE=Turek]
I’ve tried and I’ve tried and I’ve tried, but I just can’t wrap my brain this statement. (In fact, trying almost reduced me to giggles, but then again it’s Friday and it’s been a looooong week.)
I mean, of \*course \* he meant it the way he used it; whether or not he used it correctly is up for debate. I think. Or not.
Huh? Please help my tired, work-addled brain.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t know about his prescriptionist/descriptionist explanation, but I do know basically what he meant by the sentence you here refer to. You can read it as “I don’t know whether Colbert _meant_ what he actually _said_ or not.” I.e., he actually _said_ next to last, but he may have _meant_ last.
-FrL-
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501/13 "2007-02-03T01:33:20Z")
When did the expression “taking names” come into use? We used it in elementary school in the early 1950’s and I didn’t hear it again for fifty years.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [February 3, 2007, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-i-take-names/390501/14 "2007-02-03T03:21:19Z")
[QUOTE=chrisk]
Why thank you. 🙂 I haven’t really noticed that many people misusing it myself. (Not that I notice that many people using the word at all.)
[/QUOTE]
Just today, I saw an AP article referring to “Order of the Phoenix” as the penultimate Harry Potter movie.
It’s the **antepenultimate** movie!