A while back, there was a thread in which someone said that Hickenlooper wasn’t a suitable candidate for 2020 because his surname simply didn’t sound presidential or something voters would like.
Let’s suppose there’s a candidate who is great in every regard - very charismatic, smart, photogenic, totally qualified, passionately fights for all the causes you support and agree with, and appears to be potentially the greatest president the USA has ever had yet…but alas, his surname is utterly unsuitable for politics - something like Buttface or Hitler or Trashbag. Would you still want him to be your party’s nominee?
I don’t think it matters very much. I would have had a different opinion before 2008.
I know it seems like an eternity ago, but we used to have a president named Barack (what kind of name is that?!? What’s wrong with John?) Hussein (hey, same name as one of our major enemies) Obama (sounds like Osama, the guy who orchestrated a giant terrorist attack). Do you remember that long-ago time?
There was a guy running for State Senate here in Maryland whose name is Jesse Peed. I laughed whenever I saw a sign for him, since his first name was always in a smaller size than PEED.
Unless it’s something really aberrant, I think people get used to peculiar names and the greater hindrance to national would be a name(s) easy to mispronounce or difficult to pronounce. So my intuition would be Kirsten Gillibrand is a less ideal name than John Hickenlooper and the somewhat unusual variant of her first name probably doesn’t help, at least in some regions.
Surely you are aware that Obama’s middle name is Hussein?
And his last name of Obama is suspiciously close to Osama?
We all saw how that worked out!
There’s a longtime New Hampshire pol who’s been repeatedly elected under the name Dick Swett.
I think that, ironically, a funny name might even be an asset. There are always going to be people looking for something about a candidate to make fun of, and a funny name is an easy target for that… but it’s not, I think, one that actually has a lot of traction with voters.
Now, Obama’s middle name did have some traction, at least in motivating extreme voters (though probably not much in swaying moderates). But there, the problem was not that it was unfamiliar, but that it was too familiar. Nobody made a big deal out of “Barack”, which is also an Arabic name.
With enough repetition, *any *name will come to sound familiar. Campaigns do create quite a lot of repetition, too.
I don’t think that’s the same at all, though. “Barack Obama” is very different than a name such as Poop (and yes, I’ve heard of a real person with that surname.) The former is merely “ethnically sounding” whereas the latter is just an unfortunately ripe target for endless mockery.
I made this argument at the time, and I was clearly in the wrong. Humanity did something reasonable for once.
Of course, now they’re making up for it.
I don’t think Ed Balls’ name had any major effect on his chances at Labour leadership.
Harry Baals’ name probably helped him.
People voted for Boaty McBoatFace. Not for public office, but still.
I for one, would happily vote to elect Harry Balzac President.
I might hesitate to vote for someone with a truly weird name, thinking that (s)he would’ve been warped by all the crap they took while growing up. Parents should think of their kid’s future political ambitions before saddling them with a goofy name.
“My baby’s name WILL be a revolution. It will push people to question everything. Why name your baby boring and over-used names like Joshua, Brian, Sam, Nick, Mark, Bella, Marina, etc… when you can name it something special.
“Squire Sebastian Senator will live a powerful, wholesome life. His confidence will not dimish simply because his name is out of the ordinary. Instead, he will be extraordinary. F*** you all. Fake a** family. You won’t get to be part of my baby’s life and it’s all because you had to judge him.”
I know a lady who named her kid Knowledge, truly that’s his first name. Too bad he’s dumb as a doorknob.
Names don’t make you who you are.
Millions of people never thought “Donald Trump” was a presidential-sounding name, either. :dubious:
Yep.
THIS was the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title.
And still don’t.