# The oldest Marx Brother: Cheeko or Chicko? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2017, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544 "2017-03-19T14:59:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/1 "2017-03-19T14:59:02Z")
How do you pronounce the name of Chico Marx? ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/2 "2017-03-19T15:02:39Z")
I said Cheeko in my head and don’t recall hearing that Chicko was correct until much later. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/3 "2017-03-19T15:45:20Z")
Man-fred. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/4 "2017-03-19T16:01:49Z")
The oldest was Karl. ---
**Author:** ![igor\_frankensteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/839c29/32.png) [@igor\_frankensteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/igor_frankensteen)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/5 "2017-03-19T16:11:14Z")
When Groucho talked about them, he said “Chicko.” ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/6 "2017-03-19T16:20:01Z")
I know it’s Chicko but most people don’t know that so when I say Chicko they don’t know what i’m talking about. I don’t know what I’m talking about either to keep it fair. I remember Groucho saying something about this, i don’t remember exactly what he said, but something along the lines of “a lot of people call him Cheeko”. He’s commonly known as Chicko. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/7 "2017-03-19T16:55:38Z")
Chick-o, because he was a chick chaser. But I agree that “Cheeko” has almost completely displaced the pronunciation for modern discussions. There are many oddities about the names. For one thing, Groucho claimed in his mid-1950s autobiography that the family name was Marreck or Marrex in France and changed on arrival in America, but no current reference supports that. Perhaps it was just an era way to distance them from that Karl fellow. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/8 "2017-03-19T17:12:39Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > How do you pronounce the name of Chico Marx? You of all posters have to ask that?!? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/9 "2017-03-19T17:16:31Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Chick-o, because he was a chick chaser. But I agree that “Cheeko” has almost completely displaced the pronunciation for modern discussions. Yup. The only reason I know that the proper pronunciation is “Chick-o” is from conversations on this message board; for decades, I’d always believed it was “Cheek-o,” and had never heard anyone pronounce it otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/10 "2017-03-19T17:25:37Z")
Someone else who used “Cheeko”: Neil Diamond, in his song “Done Too Soon.” See the video versions on YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/11 "2017-03-19T17:27:07Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > The oldest was Karl. Karl died five years before Chico was born. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/12 "2017-03-19T17:30:07Z")
As an abstract, intellectual footnote, I am dimly aware that the brothers pronounced it with a short I. But, having grown up in an area with a large Hispanic population, my knee-jerk impulse is to pronounce it with a long E. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/13 "2017-03-19T18:06:31Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > The oldest was Karl. > [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Karl died five years before Chico was born. _Whooooosh!_ I used to think it was pronounced Cheek-o, mainly because I grew up when _Chico and the Man_ was on the air. Also, my grandfather, who was Spanish, had a dog named Chico. Then I read Groucho’s autobiography and learned it was pronounced Chick-o. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/14 "2017-03-19T18:26:10Z")
I always pronounced it “Chick-o,” correctly, due to the approximately 300 books I read about the Marx Bros. as a teenager (it was a real cottage industry in the 1970s!) Also because the first complete film I saw was **Duck Soup** , where his character’s name is pronounced “Chick-o-lini.” ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/15 "2017-03-19T18:27:53Z")
I know it’s supposed to be Chicko, but I’ve been saying Cheeko so long, I can’t change now. It’s far from the only word I pronounce wrongly … and I’ll bet there isn’t a soul here that doesn’t have one or two mispronunciations (and misspellings) in his or her repertoire. (Wasn’t there a similar poll on Betelgeuse?) ---
**Author:** ![Fleetwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fleetwood/32/271_2.png) [@Fleetwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fleetwood)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/16 "2017-03-19T18:31:45Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Someone else who used “Cheeko”: Neil Diamond, in his song “Done Too Soon.” See the video versions on YouTube. Thanks for the link! [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XSmJH1kxiHQ/hqdefault.jpg "Done Too Soon: By Neil Diamond") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSmJH1kxiHQ) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/17 "2017-03-19T18:32:26Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Man-fred. You are a gentleman and a scholar. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/18 "2017-03-19T18:34:18Z")
Cheeko. But I’ve read that the Marx Bros. themselves favored Chicko. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/19 "2017-03-19T18:45:13Z")
I only very recently learned (here on this board, even) that it was supposed to be “chick-o”. Prior to that, I didn’t even realize that there was a debate, and assumed it was “cheek-o”. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2017, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544/20 "2017-03-19T18:48:13Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > _Whooooosh!_ > > I used to think it was pronounced Cheek-o, mainly because I grew up when _Chico and the Man_ was on the air. Also, my grandfather, who was Spanish, had a dog named Chico. Then I read Groucho’s autobiography and learned it was pronounced Chick-o. Don’t forget: the short “i” sound does not exist in Spanish. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-oldest-marx-brother-cheeko-or-chicko/782544.md?page=2)