Dragaera

evolution in language: OT.now on topic

Howard Brazee howard at brazee.net
Mon Feb 7 17:05:22 PST 2005

Jerry Friedman wrote:

> I like it, but I don't believe it.  Google has no relevant hits for
> "Pablo Saves", "Roberto Saves", "Pancho Saves", or "Paco Saves".
> (There are too many false positives to check "Juan Saves" [an
> incident from Byron] or "Pedro Saves" [Christmas].)  So I doubt very
> much that "Saves" is a Spanish surname.

I remember an advertisement for The Bill Dana Show where he complained that
a Fire Hose was a sign telling them to fire Jose Jimenez.  I didn't think
the joke worked back then.

It's funny when an American says "His name isn't Jesus, it's Hey-Suz.
Except Mexicans pronounce Jesus Christ the same way.   It's odd that Anglos
don't use the name Jesus.

The most common given names in the world are Mary and Mohammed.   Both have
religious bases among their cultures.

In Isaac Asimov's autobiography, he mentions when he was an infant
immigrant, Brooklyn Jews urged his parents to change his name from the
Jewish Isaac to something purely English such as Sydney or Bernie.    In
much of Europe this might have made sense, but the U.S. is a country that
had a president named Abraham.   Old-Testament names are *not* primarily
considered Jewish.  Some places "David" and "Jonathan" are primarily Jewish.

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