# What's the deal with "Doc" Holliday? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 24, 2004, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-doc-holliday/236134 "2004-03-24T15:17:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-doc-holliday/236134/1 "2004-03-24T15:17:46Z")
How come so many people with the last name ‘Holliday’, or one of its various spellings, end up with the nickname “Doc”? ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-doc-holliday/236134/2 "2004-03-24T15:23:06Z")
He was a dentist. John Holliday, D.D.S. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-doc-holliday/236134/3 "2004-03-24T15:24:04Z")
> [@Jackknifed Juggernaut](#): > > How come so many people with the last name ‘Holliday’, or one of its various spellings, end up with the nickname “Doc”? Out of tribute to legendary Western sidekick, dentist, gunfighter and consumption victim [Dr. John Henry “Doc” Holliday](http://www.americanwest.com/pages/docholid.htm) . ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-doc-holliday/236134/4 "2004-03-24T15:25:11Z")
John Henry (Doc) Holliday was a dentist in Tombstone, AZ, at time of Wyatt Earp, and figures prominently in the “Gunfight at the OK Corral”. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-doc-holliday/236134/5 "2004-03-24T15:25:26Z")
Wait, you mean people in general? They get the nickname after the original “Doc” Holliday, a dentist/gunfighter friend of Wyatt Earp’s who fought with him in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. You know, Val Kilmer’s character in “Tombstone.” ---
**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-doc-holliday/236134/6 "2004-03-25T12:17:24Z")
> [@Menocchio](#): > > Out of tribute to legendary Western sidekick, dentist, gunfighter and consumption victim [Dr. John Henry “Doc” Holliday](http://www.americanwest.com/pages/docholid.htm) . boy those guys lead a full life (sighs and stares out of office window) ---
**Author:** ![RogueRacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-doc-holliday/236134/7 "2004-03-25T16:19:38Z")
> [@](#): > > boy those guys lead a full life (sighs and stares out of office window) It is pretty remarkable since Doc was only 36 when he died. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-doc-holliday/236134/8 "2004-03-25T18:42:25Z")
Ah yes, and who can forget the dulcet tones of that famous blues singer, Billie “Doc” Holiday…? ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-doc-holliday/236134/9 "2004-03-26T06:43:19Z")
I can’t believe anyone would even ask the question- no disrespect to the original poster, it just seems odd that in history, books or even movies people would have been aware of the Earps and the Clantons. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-doc-holliday/236134/10 "2004-03-26T14:52:00Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > I can’t believe anyone would even ask the question- no disrespect to the original poster, it just seems odd that in history, books or even movies people would have been aware of the Earps and the Clantons. Well, believe it or not, I knew about the original Doc Holliday. And I realized that I should’ve mentioned this in my OP after reading some of the responses. But it wasn’t at all related to my question. I mean, many people have the last name “Lincoln”. But you don’t hear “Honest Abe” as a nickname very often. But I seem to hear “Doc” next to Holiday or Holliday or Halliday quite a bit. Or maybe I’m wrong. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-doc-holliday/236134/11 "2004-03-26T16:49:54Z")
I do believe that by the time “Doc” was out in Arizona, he had been diagnosed with and suffering from TB (consumption) for some time, and had abandoned his dental practice.