# Voting for/nominating a candidate with an unelectable-sounding name **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [December 10, 2018, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898 "2018-12-10T17:40:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898/41 "2019-01-02T21:46:37Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > [There are multiple people with the surname Hogg who are or were in politics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogg_(surname)) even aside from James Hogg, who’s in politics as an activist. Scroll down to the **Politics and Government** section to see people who _won elections_ with that surname on the ballot, possibly even multiple times over. While perhaps not quite as unfortunate-sounding as “Hogg,” I’ve always enjoyed the [multiple generations of Hamilton Fish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_Fish_(disambiguation)). ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898/42 "2019-01-02T21:52:17Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I for one, would happily vote to elect Harry Balzac President. My favorite gag name is Ophelia Balzac since it sounds so dignified on first listen. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898/43 "2019-01-02T23:52:40Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > My favorite gag name is Ophelia Balzac since it sounds so dignified on first listen. Similarly with ‘Phil McCracken.’ The OP may have been referencing a lighthearted post I made some days back. (It mentioned that Eisenhower’s campaign team emphasized his nickname “Ike,” and asked what nickname Hickenlooper’s campaign team might advise him to use.) As many have pointed out, unusually-named people have found electoral success. The list of names that would guarantee failure is probably pretty small, these days. We could all come up with our own lists. Self-chosen names or nicknames would probably head my list. People may not blame a candidate for the name given him or her at birth, but they might blame a candidate for a name acquired through a name-change petition, or a nickname. I know I’d hesitate to vote for “Supreme Being” or “Jack ‘Grifter-King’ Taylor.” ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898/44 "2019-01-03T04:20:50Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Self-chosen names or nicknames would probably head my list. People may not blame a candidate for the name given him or her at birth, but they might blame a candidate for a name acquired through a name-change petition, or a nickname. I know I’d hesitate to vote for “Supreme Being” or “Jack ‘Grifter-King’ Taylor.” Metta World Peace for Sec. of State? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898/45 "2019-01-03T23:12:54Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Metta World Peace for Sec. of State? Well, Metta World Peace isn’t as clearly narcissistically deranged as “Supreme Being,” so…maybe? ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898/46 "2019-01-03T23:20:55Z")
So we should vote on the basis of racism? I thought we went with height and sex as the indicator of capacity to perform the role. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898/47 "2019-01-03T23:41:23Z")
> [@susan](#): > > So we should vote on the basis of racism? I thought we went with height and sex as the indicator of capacity to perform the role. Why not all three??? (And don’t forget religion!) ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898/48 "2019-01-04T03:49:39Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Why not all three??? > > (And don’t forget religion!) Excellent idea! ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2019, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898/49 "2019-01-04T14:07:38Z")
Politicians can always change their names, or at least the names they go by. Witness Gary Hartpence and Hillary Rodham. I think Hickenlooper’s nickname is Hick, which is not much of an improvement. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898/50 "2019-02-21T22:15:21Z")
> [@Dacien](#): > > I think there might be something to this. At a very base level, people like things to be appealing. “Trump”, “Clinton”, “Bush”, or “Obama”, it’s very short and to the point. “Huckabee” on the other hand, or “Klobuchar”, or “Dukakis”, these present unique challenges. In fact, that’s probably why Dukakis lost. Depending on how you pronounce Klobuchar, the names you consider challenging have as many syllables. And what’s the problem with Dukakis? José Luis Rodríguez is the second boringest name in Spanish, plus it has the additional handicap of the lastname being synonimous with “forty-plus dude who’s stayed in town while the wife takes the kids on vacation and who’s trying to take advantage to turn his home into a lovenest with girls half his age, who in turn walk away as fast as they can”(\*). Didn’t prevent President Zapatero’s election. - and people say Spanish isn’t brief! Three syllables to say all that! ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898/51 "2019-02-21T22:32:06Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Nobody made a big deal out of “Barack”, which is also an Arabic name. I don’t believe it is Arabic. There is actually no Arabic name like that. The closest phonetically matching word I’ve found is برّاق _barrāq_, which means ‘shining’. I haven’t seen it used as a name, but I suppose it could be. Obama’s first name derives from Hebrew. There was a character in the Old Testament named ברק Baraq, which means ‘lightning’. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898/52 "2019-02-21T23:03:03Z")
Back in the 1930s a lot of people thought the name Roosevelt was Jewish (despite the fact that his fifth cousin had been President just 24 years earlier.) Kennedy’s name was ethnic enough that [he had to promise voters in West Virginia and ministers in Texas](https://www.wbur.org/news/2017/05/25/kennedy-catholicism-presidential-campaign)that he wasn’t taking orders from the Pope. And people were worried about candidate [Joe Liberman’s funny name](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/while-jews-might-vote-for-gore-latent-anti-semitism-may-emerge-1.301465)when he was Al Gore’s running mate in 2000. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898/53 "2019-02-22T00:26:25Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Poppycock. The names Eisenhower, Roosevelt, Garfield, Coolidge, and Buchanan seem normal to you because they’re in your past. Van Buren doesn’t sound overly foreign for the same reason. How Garfield ever got elected with the same name as a comic strip cat, I’ll never know. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898/54 "2019-02-22T01:10:35Z")
I think Budda Judge could work! He’s my favorite so far, so I’m really trying. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2019, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898/55 "2019-02-22T06:21:58Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > José Luis Rodríguez is the second boringest name in Spanish, plus it has the additional handicap of the lastname being synonimous with “forty-plus dude who’s stayed in town while the wife takes the kids on vacation and who’s trying to take advantage to turn his home into a lovenest with girls half his age, who in turn walk away as fast as they can”(\*). Didn’t prevent President Zapatero’s election. > > - and people say Spanish isn’t brief! Three syllables to say all that! Is that a specifically Peninsular stereotype? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voting-for-nominating-a-candidate-with-an-unelectable-sounding-name/825898.md?page=2)