What’s a “non-Anglican” name? You mean something “Papist”, like “John Paul II”?
He probably means English names like John, Margarette, and Peter, as opposed to names from other languages such as Juan, Margarita, and Petras. Or even Akira, Wang, or Mohammed.
It’s an arbitrary decision, made by a committee of the World Meteorological Organization. Any country hit by a hurricane (or tropical storm, theoretically) can request that the name of that storm be retired.
Note that “retirement” of a name means it is not used for at least ten years, not that it gets retired permanently.
The name list is assigned six years in advance, so you can rest assured that the naming of Ike wasn’t a dig at anyone. It was originally expected to run up the Eastern seaboard rather than head into the Gulf of Mexico anyway.
http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/grounders/retirednames.html
I think a relevant question is this: How did they get “Ike” out of “Dwight David Eisenhower”? Is “Eisen” the German equivalent of “Isaac”?
I just figured it was a silly nickname that came about while someone was drunk, like how a guy I know got the nickname “Wombat F*cker”, through no fault of his own, or how I got called “Phil” or “Jasper” despite my name not being anything close to that.
eisenhower means ironworker in german.
he got his “nick” ike at west point. goodness only knows how or what inspired it.
I suspect it rhymed well with “like”, as in “I like Ike”. Actually, I don’t know if he had that nickname before the campaign or not.
Then there is me…
I just checked your profile, uh, Ike. Be truthful now, did you make up this nick upon seeing this thread? 
Otherwise, whence?
Peace,
mangeorge
Nope, the change was made upon the move to the new server.
Cool! 
I did a search on the origin of Ike as Eisenhower’s nickname.
Most sites have some variation of this same basic story. Ike somehow comes from a shortening of Eisenhower or the iron that Eisen means in German. David Dwight (he switched the order at West Point) was known as Ike from the time he was a baby. Other brothers were also called Ike at some point, with him being Little Ike. Some sites say that each of the six brothers were called Ike at some point.
He didn’t appear to much like Ike as a nickname at first, but eventually came to terms with it.
That makes it likely his father might have been called Ike. It could be a german cultural thing. My dad’s friends all called me “Little John” till I got older, although I was his stepson.
Dadnabbit! I was sent an e-mail from a friend in Corpus Christi that depicted the face of Ike (of Ike and Tina Turner) in the eye of the hurricane with the caption saying “I’m gonna whoop your ass Texas!”
It was pretty darn funny. Wish I hadn’t deleted it! :smack:
I have Stephen Ambrose’s biography of Eisenhower in front of me, and the only reference he makes is that while growing up in Abilene, DDE had the nickname “Little Ike” while his older brother Edgar was called “Big Ike.” So Ambrose would seem to back up Exapno Mapcase’s research that “Ike” was a family nickname that simply stuck with him.
Also Ike (Icarus) Pappas.
I would have called them IKEA and IKEB.
Also Ike Clanton.
About whom I know nothing outside the TOS episode, “Spectre of the Gun.”
Certain to hit Florida.
Names are permanently retired, IIRC, when they’re associated with a storm so big/nasty/memorable that they go down in history. There will never be another Hurricane Katrina, for instance.