# What kind of name is "Waingro?" Is it real? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 9, 2009, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-name-is-waingro-is-it-real/516880 "2009-11-09T04:43:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **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:** [November 9, 2009, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-name-is-waingro-is-it-real/516880/1 "2009-11-09T04:43:27Z")
Any fan of the movie _Heat_ will recognize the name of the villainous Waingro. (I don’t think he even had a first name.) What I want to know is - is this a real name? Waingro? I’ve wondered this for some time - whether it has any basis in reality, or is just something made up out of whole cloth to sound weird and intimidating, like “Anton Chigurh”. Searching Google for “waingro -heat” (i.e. eliminating all results relating to the film) just give me the usernames of people on forums and things like that, which I am assuming were inspired by the character from _Heat._ I can’t find any actual people with the surname Waingro. Does anyone know? If it was, indeed, a real name, I can’t even begin to guess what ethnicity it would be. ---
**Author:** ![Iridescent\_Orb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@Iridescent\_Orb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iridescent_Orb)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-name-is-waingro-is-it-real/516880/2 "2009-11-09T04:59:41Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I can’t even begin to guess what ethnicity it would be. I believe he was descended from Trailer Trash. 😉 ---
**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:** [November 9, 2009, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-name-is-waingro-is-it-real/516880/3 "2009-11-09T05:13:50Z")
Well, even trailer trash had to originate from somewhere back in Whiteyland. Some further searching reveals that “Waingrove” is a real, presumably English name. I’m going to assume that Waingro is just a corruption of that. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-name-is-waingro-is-it-real/516880/4 "2009-11-09T05:18:11Z")
I found at least one: [Brian Douglas Waingro](http://www.veromi.net/order.asp?1=BRIAN;;DOUGLAS;;WAINGROW;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;134283866&2=name&3=people&4=1&5=jill;;;;waingro;;;;;;;;;;;;&rc=1&rel=Y) ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-name-is-waingro-is-it-real/516880/5 "2009-11-09T05:19:30Z")
IIRC, in the director’s commentary Mann says that his character is based on a real thief with that name. I’ll try to find out more. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-name-is-waingro-is-it-real/516880/6 "2009-11-09T05:32:30Z")
_“Kevin Gage’s Waingro character is based on a real Chicago criminal named Waingro who ratted out some influential Chicago criminals. According to Michael Mann, Waingro went missing; his body was found in northern Mexico, where it had been nailed to the wall of a shed.”_ [From here.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113277/trivia) ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-name-is-waingro-is-it-real/516880/7 "2009-11-09T05:40:15Z")
[ROBERT WAINGRO](http://www.theonlyorthodoxy.com/who-we-are/). ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-name-is-waingro-is-it-real/516880/8 "2009-11-27T00:52:32Z")
The name was also given to another crook in another Michael Man flick, _L. A. Takedown_, in 1989, played by Xander Berkeley. See imdb ---
**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:** [November 27, 2009, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-name-is-waingro-is-it-real/516880/9 "2009-11-27T01:40:48Z")
That movie was just the “beta” version of _Heat._ Once Mann was successful enough to make the movie again, he did, with a better cast and production values. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-name-is-waingro-is-it-real/516880/10 "2009-12-01T17:01:39Z")
Everybody knows that “Wayne” is the most evil name known to man. It is perhaps an alteration of that. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-name-is-waingro-is-it-real/516880/11 "2009-12-01T17:12:52Z")
‘Waingro’ is apparently a variant of the surname ‘Waingrow.’ I did a quick look and found 75 people with that surname in the country ([peoplefinders.com](http://peoplefinders.com)). It looks as thought it might have come from the UK, so it might have originally been something like “Westminstergreshamshirerow” but pronounced as “Waingro.” ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-name-is-waingro-is-it-real/516880/12 "2009-12-01T22:22:44Z")
If we’re talking surname etymology, Wain—, as in Wainwright, usually denotes wagons or wagon wheels.