Daft names for British characters in US things

[Dr Rock]

What's that from? Tip of my tongue...

Good point at 4.40

[Twonty Gostelow]

Emily Waltham in Friends is just the right side of on-the-nose. Seems to match her prissy annoying character.

Roger Rees's Robin Colcord in Cheers is an odd one. I wondered if it was a play on Concorde, which Americans would associate with Britain more than France, but it's a real surname - and ironically, there are more people with that name in the States than anywhere else; and Roger Rees was born in Aberystwyth three exclamation marks I've forgotten what my point is

[George White]

Columbo - Sir Roger Haversham, Nicholas Frame and Lillian Stanhope
The Winds of War/War and Remembrance - Alistair and Pamela Tudsbury, Vice Admiral Rodney
QB VII - Clinton-Meek, David Shawcross

[Mister Six]

Good point at 4.40

Ah! Brilliant, I've not watched 30 Rock on yonks. Ta!

[rack and peanut]

[The Late Satoru Iwata]

Cecil L'Ively from The X Files (although that show was chock-a-block with stupid character names, like Daniel Trepkos and Virgil Incanto)

[samadriel]

My favourite concocted British name is Japanese in origin: "Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing" (a woman) from the manga Hellsing.

[George White]

Cecil L'Ively from The X Files (although that show was chock-a-block with stupid character names, like Daniel Trepkos and Virgil Incanto)

And Charles Nelson Reilly playing a character called José Chung.


Just reminded of Gaylord Duke (Simon McCorkindale) in the Dukes of Hazzard.

[Mr Trumpet]

With this SAG-AFTRA palaver going on I read up on Fran Drescher. Her sitcom The Nanny featured a British family, highlight of which was the Anglo-American son named Brighton Sheffield.

There's also Rita Leeds in Arrested Development. It's not a terrible idea to look at a map of UK place names for character surnames, but the mistake they make is going too obvious - and major industrial cities are a bad choice because they were generally obscure little places back when surnames were becoming formalised.

[George White]

The Hardy Boys had Pernell Roberts off Bonanza as  DS Molly of Scotland Yard.

[DrGreggles]

There's also Rita Leeds in Arrested Development. It's not a terrible idea to look at a map of UK place names for character surnames, but the mistake they make is going too obvious - and major industrial cities are a bad choice because they were generally obscure little places back when surnames were becoming formalised.

Pretty sure AD gets a pass, as they deliberately made all the British things wrong, and Rita Leeds is almost certainly a reference to something specific.
They even cast non-British actors for all the British roles (which I've always considered to be a nod to Daphne's family on Frasier).

[Dr Rock]

Good point at 4.40

Come to think of it, it's not a good point is is? Has 'Wesley' ever been a common British name?

[Mr Trumpet]

Wes Streeting is the only one I can think of off the top of my head

[Theoretical Dentist]

Come to think of it, it's not a good point is is? Has 'Wesley' ever been a common British name?

It was the 178th most popular name for boys born in England and Wales in 1996, which is pretty popular, although it declined to 618th by 2021. Wesley Snipes in that 30 Rock clip would have been older than that, and since it was already declining in 1996 it may have been more popular when he was born, although it doesn't appear in the top 100 for any year in the older data.

It does seem to be more popular in the US though, and currently rising – the 137th most popular for boys born in 1996, up to 70th in 2022. So the 30 Rock guy is wrong in that regard.

He also implies that Wesley is more common for white people in Britain than black people in America, and while it's harder to get data about given names by ethnicity, it looks like he may be onto something there. The New York City government publishes baby name data that inlcudes the mother's ethnicity, and from that it appears that Wesley is most popular in the 'Asian and Pacific Islander', 'Hispanic' and 'white non-Hispanic' ethnic categories, in that order, and not popular enough with black non-Hispanic mothers to show up in the data at all. So if similar ethnic differences apply across the US, and as long as in Britain Wesley isn't disproportionately unpopular among white people, it may be feasible that there are more white British Wesleys than black American ones.

I guess to judge the 30 Rock guy's claim you also have to look at the popularity of the surname Snipes. There doesn't seem to be as much official data about surnames, but this site says it's the 4,205th most common surname in the US, whereas it doesn't show up on this UK site which I think means it's not in the top 1000. So I don't think you can draw much of a conclusion from that, other than that it's a pretty rare name in both countries.

Anecdotally – and it's a good one, this – I once worked with someone called Wesley. He was white and British, I think.

[George White]

The only British person called Snipe(s) I can think of is the character Hector Snipe in Theatre of Blood.

[idunnosomename]

Leeds isn't an unusual surname, it is also a placename in Kent after all. It actually is more likely to have a toponym after a small place than a city isnt it? You dont get Norwich, Bristol, Coventry etc as surnames do you?

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I know someone with the surname Coventry and I promise I'm not saying that just to be a dick

[Theoretical Dentist]

My favourite concocted British name is Japanese in origin: "Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing" (a woman) from the manga Hellsing.

If we're allowing Japanese attempts at Anglophone (and Hispanophone) names, don't forget the player names in Fighting Baseball for the Super Famicom:



(If it has to be British names, imagine this with made-up cricketers instead.)

[samadriel]

I wonder if Dwigt inspired the typo in Threat Level Midnight.

My favourite is definitely Bobson Dugnutt. Just poetry.

[George White]

Dr. Clement Molloch in the Evil that Men Do.

[idunnosomename]

I know someone with the surname Coventry and I promise I'm not saying that just to be a dick

found em

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Coventry,_13th_Earl_of_Coventry

I think big old towns can mean your surname is of noble origin. Small places toponyms come from migrating into cities in the industrial revolution.

Cant think of anyone called Johnny Manchester or Billy Birmingham though. Not the easiest thing to google.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I don't know if Idris Elba's character in Pacific Rim was specifically written as English, but "Stacker Pentecost" is a completely barmy name.

[Mr Trumpet]

Let us not forget Don Cheadle's cockernee geezer character in Oceans Eleven, Basher Tarr.

[grainger]

There was a character in Last of the Summer Wine called Wesley.

Wesleyism was popular in Yorkshire - it could be to do with that, I suppose.

[grainger]

Let us not forget Don Cheadle's cockernee geezer character in Oceans Eleven, Basher Tarr.

Sounds like a bully in the old Whizzer and Chips comic.

[Jockice]

found em

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Coventry,_13th_Earl_of_Coventry

I think big old towns can mean your surname is of noble origin. Small places toponyms come from migrating into cities in the industrial revolution.

Cant think of anyone called Johnny Manchester or Billy Birmingham though. Not the easiest thing to google.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Manchester

[Cold Meat Platter]

Leeds isn't an unusual surname, it is also a placename in Kent after all. It actually is more likely to have a toponym after a small place than a city isnt it? You dont get Norwich, Bristol, Coventry etc as surnames do you?

Used to know a guy with the surname Glasgow. He was from Edinburgh.

[George White]

I don't know if Idris Elba's character in Pacific Rim was specifically written as English, but "Stacker Pentecost" is a completely barmy name.

He was written as an American and Del Toro cast Elba not realising he was a Hackney lad, and let him use his accent.

[Terry Torpid]

Used to know a guy with the surname Glasgow. He was from Edinburgh.

And Irvine Welsh is a Scot. False advertising!

[idunnosomename]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Manchester

huh interesting. her father David was born in New York in 1920. cant find any further back than that