A new Mexican restaurant just opened in my little town. It’s called Adolfo’s.
Doesn’t seem to be a chain, but Googling tells me there’s one more just a few towns away. So, seems it may be a small independent place that is just starting to try to expand. If the first location has done well enough that they’re now opening a second location, then I guess people really don’t care so much that it’s call Adolfo’s. Still, other than actual Neo-Nazis, I kinda thought all of Western Civilization had agreed to allow that name to fall into extinction. It really surprised me to see that someone had decided to proudly display the name over their place of business.
In all honesty, I’ll probably end up going to this place eventually.
It’s open 24 hours and this town has very few places open 24 hours.
Suppose the owner was named after his beloved Abuelo (grandpa) Adolfo? Would that make you feel better?
Anyway, Stalin killed at least as many people as Hitler, but nobody’s stopped naming kids “Joe” (or Jose or Giuseppe), have they?
I think more people associate that guy’s last name with his bad deeds than his firstname.
Wait, I can’t Godwinize a thread that’s about Hitler by mentioning Hitler, can I? So yeah, I think Hitler is the name more people associate with Hitler.
OP, what *made *you assume “all of Western Civilization” had blacklisted the name to begin with? I have a feeling that name in particular had never been popular among Anglophones anyway even before the 30s, so it’s no wonder you’d hardly run into it but it’s not the same as it having been systematically avoided, and you’ll likely only see it in “ethnic” contexts like this one.
Look, I’m not Pitting this place. Just a Mundane Pointless observation based on how surprising it is to me that someone would put that name on his business even if it is his real name. There’s no rule that says your business has to be named after yourself and this is a name that people generally associate with one particular Adolf who happened to be a bit of a dick.
I’m sure the many millions of Johns and Joes and Williams are glad that their names are so popular that they can’t be ruined by just one single bad apple. It’s different with Adolf because it was not a particularly common name when Hitler rose to fame, therefore it’s much more likely that the name will be associated with Hitler than it is that Joseph would be associated with Stalin.
The entire first page of Google results for “Adolf” is filled almost exclusively with results for Adolf Hitler. The one single exception is the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s page for Adolf Eichmann- hardly a saving grace.
Wiktionary says: “Adolf had begun to become less common by the start of the 20th century. It saw a brief rise in popularity, beginning in 1933 and ending in 1942. After 1945, it became quite rare. In 2006, only 1 out of 27700 babies was given the name Adolf.”
The U.S. Social Security Administration doesn’t list it in the top 1000 most popular names since 1928, and from 1900 to 1928 it stayed in the high 800s to 900s if it cracked the top 1000 at all.
(doesn’t seem to be a way to link to the search results page, but you can put any name and number of years in the search fields under the “Popularity of a Name” tab)
“All of Western Civilization” was hyperbole, but the disbelief expressed by Dopers in this Thread is purely the old tradition of Dopers being contrary just for the sake of being contrary. There’s not a single one of you who thinks it’s outlandish to suggest that Adolf Hitler is by far the most common association for the name Adolf. If any of you personally know an Adolf it is no more than a fluke (a fluke several times over in Skywatcher’s case since he knows a Jewish Adolf).
handsomeharry provided one example of a company actually using the name and that surprised me just as much as the establishment that inspired the OP.
Anybody truly think it is outlandish for me to suggest that most people would directly associate the name with Adolf Hitler? If so, wanna point out to me just how much more popular the name is than I think it is?
For Adolf, yes. For Adolfo, no. Dude wasn’t important enough for his firstname to be translated, you see. And apparently you’re confusing the Anglophone US with “all of Western Civilization” and expect Hispanics who may not even be Americans to follow Anglophone US naming conventions - smooth, man.
Um, no, I am surprised that American business owners whose entire possible pool of customers are Americans, a people who had generally unfavorable opinions of Adolf Hitler’s foreign and domestic policy, wouldn’t make extra super sure that their business would not evoke any remote association with Adolf Hitler.
A mundane pointless observation.
And you called me out for saying “all of Western Civilization” when I already admitted it was hyperbole.
