# Plaxico Burress? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 26, 2008, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034 "2008-01-26T00:24:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/1 "2008-01-26T00:24:17Z")
The Giants receiver with the name that sounds like a brand of toothpaste or mouthwash. What is the deal with this? What kind of name is Plaxico? Is there a specific ethnic group that this comes from? ---
**Author:** ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/2 "2008-01-26T00:51:05Z")
[http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1994/vp940930/09300650.htm](http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1994/vp940930/09300650.htm) He was named for his uncle and does not know the origin. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/3 "2008-01-26T00:53:38Z")
I’ll see your Plaxico Burress and raise you one [Flex Plexico](http://news.google.com/archivesearch?hl=en&ned=us&q=flex+plexico&ie=UTF-8), who has the coolest name of any senior officer in the US armed forces. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/4 "2008-01-26T00:57:04Z")
Jesus. That sounds like the name of an action figure. ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/5 "2008-01-26T01:02:30Z")
My word. My dh will be SO pleased to know this! Thanx ever so. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/6 "2008-01-26T01:24:23Z")
I brought up this name in the WTF Names thread in MPSIMS. That poor guy, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/7 "2008-01-26T02:02:18Z")
I was telling my husband last weekend that I thought it sounded like a new cholesterol-lowering medication. Ad announcer: “Ask your doctor about Plaxico.” ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/8 "2008-01-26T02:35:21Z")
And here I thought this would be a thread about his comments on the Patriots versus the Giants receivers. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/9 "2008-01-26T03:17:40Z")
[QUOTE=D\_Odds] And here I thought this would be a thread about his comments on the Patriots versus the Giants receivers. [/QUOTE] Same here. So let me just hijack for a second and say “Umm…hey _Daily News_, you mind not making shit up that the Pats are going to use for bulletin board fodder?” ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/10 "2008-01-26T03:27:30Z")
[QUOTE=Hal Briston] Same here. So let me just hijack for a second and say “Umm…hey _Daily News_, you mind not making shit up that the Pats are going to use for bulletin board fodder?” [/QUOTE] Its funny, I expect that of the Post, the Daily New surprised me with this crap. Churning up dirt where there is no dirt. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/11 "2008-01-27T02:58:39Z")
Plaxico isn’t so bad. His in-town rivals have a “D’Brickashaw”. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/12 "2008-01-27T06:03:07Z")
[QUOTE=cmkeller] Plaxico isn’t so bad. His in-town rivals have a “D’Brickashaw”. [/QUOTE] Although there is, at least, an explanation for his name: he’s named for the character Father de Bricassart on “The Thorn Birds.” How that name turned into D’Brickashaw, don’t ask me. I always wonder if Burress gets annoyed that all the TV announcers call him “Plexico.” Do they not have time to read? None of them say his name the way it’s spelled. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/13 "2008-01-27T06:18:52Z")
That’s the way Burress himself pronounces it - I remember reading more than one article in which he expressly talks about the pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/14 "2008-01-27T06:24:54Z")
Ah, I’d wondered if that could be the case. That either settles the question, or raises a new one, depending on how you look at it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/15 "2008-01-27T06:33:17Z")
The Packers have a safety named Atari Bigby. I’d like to think he wasn’t named after an obsolete video game console, but who knows? A sports name that’s always annoyed me is Andruw Jones. What kind of a stupid-ass spelling is “Andruw?” Where in the English language (or any other language) do the letters U and W ever appear together. It looks horrible and I have to think that either his mother was simply illiterate and didn’t know how to spell the name or she was irredemable idiot. It should be illegal to mispell a kid’s name that egregiously. The government should step in and correct it. There should be someone from the government whose job it s to review birth certificates and say, “No, no, wait a minute. This is retarded. We’re going to fix this. There you go. Next time ask for help before you try to scrawl something on a form.” ---
**Author:** ![DataZak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@DataZak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataZak)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/16 "2008-01-27T09:16:04Z")
[Yancey Thigpen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yancey_Thigpen). C’mon, who didn’t hear it as “Pigpen” the first time? I did. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/17 "2008-01-27T15:16:07Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] A sports name that’s always annoyed me is Andruw Jones. What kind of a stupid-ass spelling is “Andruw?” Where in the English language (or any other language) do the letters U and W ever appear together. It looks horrible and I have to think that either his mother was simply illiterate and didn’t know how to spell the name or she was irredemable idiot. It should be illegal to mispell a kid’s name that egregiously. The government should step in and correct it. There should be someone from the government whose job it s to review birth certificates and say, “No, no, wait a minute. This is retarded. We’re going to fix this. There you go. Next time ask for help before you try to scrawl something on a form.” [/QUOTE] But Jones was born in [Willemstad, Netherlands Antilles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willemstad%2C_Netherlands_Antilles). I hope you don’t expect every other nation to follow our silly spelling rules. Especially when it comes to names. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/18 "2008-01-27T15:49:28Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] But Jones was born in [Willemstad, Netherlands Antilles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willemstad%2C_Netherlands_Antilles). I hope you don’t expect every other nation to follow our silly spelling rules. Especially when it comes to names. Jim [/QUOTE] I don’t think “Andruw” is a Dutch spelling either. Not that I can find. I think it’s just wrong. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/19 "2008-01-27T15:55:27Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] I don’t think “Andruw” is a Dutch spelling either. Not that I can find. I think it’s just wrong. [/QUOTE] But you used the phrase retarded & illiterate in regards to his naming. That seems like a little much when you didn’t even think about his origins, which I thought was obviously from outside the US. How are you checking for the name Andruw? Perhaps it is very common in the Antilles. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034/20 "2008-01-27T16:10:44Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] But you used the phrase retarded & illiterate in regards to his naming. That seems like a little much when you didn’t even think about his origins, which I thought was obviously from outside the US. How are you checking for the name Andruw? Perhaps it is very common in the Antilles. [/QUOTE] I was already aware of his origins. I googled six ways from sunday trying to find out if it was Dutch. I couldn’t find any indication that it is, nor could I find any indication that it’s a Dutch Antilles variant. Andruw Jones seems to be the only person in the world with that spelling. The -uw- letter combination is something that is virtually non-existent in any language. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plaxico-burress/435034.md?page=2)