Mac and Bam

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I thought I'd revisit the current presidential-candidate nickname situation, based on a study of headlines in the New York tabloids, well known as the Drosophila melanogaster of onomastic evolution. When I took a look at the nicknames that the French press used for the candidates in their presidential election last year ("Political hypocoristics", 4/18/2007), the consensus among readers was that American papers tend to use first names or initials, like Rudy, Mitt, Hillary, and W, rather than diminutive forms based on last names like  Chichi (for Chirac) or Sarko (for Sarkozy). But my current research results suggest that this consensus was wrong.

Looking at recent headline on the New York Post and New York Daily News web sites, I see plenty of examples of Barack Obama's first and last names in full form, as expected:

"Baghdad Boosts Barack", "Barack's Iraq Trip", "Barack Doubles The Dough Of Mccain", "Barack On 'track'"

"Nyt: All The Views Fit To Boost Obama", "Obama Defends Plan To Talk With Iran While In Israel", "Obama's Overseas Education", "Jesse Griped To Obama Before Going 'nuts'".

But I found two two shortened versions of his last name, "O" and "Bam", and no nicknames based on his first name:

"O Staunch On Support For Israel", "O's Health Rx: Cover Illegals", "Mac And O Go To War", "Radical Joke On O & Wife"

"Wimp Staff Undercuts Bam's Iran Tough Talk", "Bam Is In The Zone", "Bam Buddies Up To Bigs", "GOP gripes: So we're running vs. Prez Bam?", "McCain takes bite from Bam lead in new poll", "McCain rails against Bam's "9/10" mindset"

(I've seen "Barry" in some blog entries, but not in any MSM heads. And I'm sure that Senator Obama's staff is happy that the tabs have ignored the egregious Maureen Dowd's attempts to promote "Bambi".)

John McCain is often represented by his last name ("Mccain: I'll Catch Osama Bin Laden", "Mccain's Way Forward"), but perhaps because it's so common in general use, his first name is uncommon in headlines — I could find only one example, in a rather special context: "George's Advice For Barack & John".

And "Mac" is common as a short form of his last name ("Mac Attacks Dem's Pledge To Meet Mahmoud", "Mac Gives Ny Silent Treatment", "Mac Tattles On O's Secret Trip To Iraq", "Mac To Reveal His 'lesson' Plan", "War hero Mac goes on attack"), along with one instance of "Mcc", which might be a typo: "Mcc Rips O Timetable For 'defeat'", but no headline nicknames based on his first name.

The 53 electoral votes in NY, NJ and CT seem to be pretty securely in Obama's column, so the headline choices of the New York City tabloids aren't going to have much influence on the race. And I haven't been able to find evidence that these headline monickers are being picked up more widely. But if they do spread, my impression is that this will be good news for Senator Obama. "Mac" is a fine nickname, but "Bam" sounds like a winner.

[Note that the capitalization of the quoted headlines is as they were reproduced on the papers' online sites, not as they would have been rendered in print. I've resisted the temptation to correct the resulting oddities, like "Ny".]



22 Comments

  1. Andy Hollandbeck said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 10:01 am

    I don't know much about the NYPost or NYDailyNews, but just from looking at the first set of headlines, it looks like the first set (presumably the NYPost) is from a left-leaning paper, and the second from a right-leaning paper. That might, to a degree, guide headline-writers' choices. If Barack is "your man," you'd be on a first-name basis. If you support McCain, you would be less likely to use such a familiar term for Obama.

    In short, I think the choice of what you call a politician is directly linked to what you think of that politician. "O" vs. "Mac" may be a forced effort to remain nonpartisan, giving equal treatment. (But is it equal? McCain's moniker is three times larger than Obama's.)

  2. Kate said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 10:55 am

    diminutive forms based on last names like Sego and Sarko

    Except that Segolene is Royal's first name – what that says to me is that women are more likely to get first-name nicknames than men. It seems instinctively right on the UK political scene.

    [(myl): Oops, of course — that's what I get for posting on the run when I'm late for something else. I've corrected the mistake in the body of the post.]

  3. Bob Kennedy said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 11:16 am

    If Obama played hockey, he'd be Obie, or possibly Obo.

  4. Theodore said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 11:23 am

    Here in Chicago, "O" would never fly, because that's OPRAH.

  5. Coby Lubliner said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 12:22 pm

    Kate said, "Except that Segolene is Royal's first name – what that says to me is that women are more likely to get first-name nicknames than men." I suppose that's what it would say to someone prone to knee-jerk feminist reactions, except that De Gaulle was called Charlot. So perhaps the French just like nicknames ending in /o/.

  6. Mark Liberman said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 12:43 pm

    Andy Hollandbeck: I don't know much about the NYPost or NYDailyNews, but just from looking at the first set of headlines, it looks like the first set (presumably the NYPost) is from a left-leaning paper […]

    The first set of headlines are mostly from the Post, but the Post (owned by Rupert Murdoch) is certainly not a left-leaning paper — on the contrary (see e.g. here and here). Though it's true that the Post did endorse Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton, as far as I know the paper hasn't made any official endorsement in the Obama/McCain race.

  7. Chad Nilep said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 2:21 pm

    Though I can't find a mention in headlines, there are occasional references to Mr McCain as "Johnny Mac". This one comes from the non-MSM SFGate blog:

    McCain and one Hillary R. Clinton voted against it. Johnny Mac voted against it because he said it included billions worth of unnecessary tax breaks for the oil industry.

    To me, Johnny Mac still calls to mind erstwhile tennis star McEnroe.

  8. rootlesscosmo said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 2:58 pm

    the New York tabloids, well known as the Drosophila melanogaster of onomastic evolution

    I think it's the thoracic bristles that make the resemblance so compelling.

  9. TootsNYC said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 3:03 pm

    None of your "Bam" examples showed one trend that annoyed me greatly in in the early days of the primaries–using "Bam" in a way that indicated it was being rhymed with "Sam"–instead of rhyming with "bomb."

  10. Rob Gunningham said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 3:12 pm

    @ TootsNYC, Brooklyn Academy of Music BAM is also pronounced to rhyme with Sam.

    At Mark, what's egregious about Maureen Dowd?

  11. Sili said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 4:04 pm

    I know that at least some left-leaning bloggers have taken to referring to McCain as "J. Sidney III" to highlight the weasely use of "B. Hussein" by the Right.

  12. Mark Liberman said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 4:36 pm

    Rob Gunningham: …what's egregious about Maureen Dowd?

    She's the Regina George of political columnists.

    For some further thoughts on the subject from various perspectives, there's this, this, or this, or this, or this, or etc.

  13. Jason F Siegel said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 4:59 pm

    @ Coby,

    Indeed, the French suffix /o/ is highly productive, and not just in nicknames. It's a slang suffix that doesn't have any denotative meaning that I can discern. Mark's link above to Political Hypocoristics has some good explanations. I'd also recommend Scullen's 1997 book French Prosodic Morphology for an in-depth look at that phenomena as well as others. It's available through IULC Publications (full disclosure: of which I am an officer).

  14. Rob Gunningham said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 5:55 pm

    Mark Liberman: She's the Regina George of political columnists.
    (Clicks Wiki link): …Regina is then hit by a school bus…(Clicks another link)…

    My god, I had no idea. That's what happens when you read the NY Times sitting in Norway! Thanks for the links, though, I'll be up all night now reading these. I just thought she honestly thought Obama was better than Hillary. My god.

  15. Rob Gunningham said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 6:42 pm

    You know what, I think I've been mixing her up all this time with Anna Quindlen, it's the Irish names. That and they're both women, of course. Oh well, never mind.

  16. AlainB said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 6:51 pm

    Coby Lubliner:
    >De Gaulle was called Charlot

    Well, I never *heard* anyone using that moniker. "Le grand Charles" was the common way of referring to him, I mean, to Him. "Charlot" is the name, in France, of Charlie Chaplin's character, and any comparison between the two would have
    felt pretty strange, to opponents and admirers alike. During the Sixties, a right-wing tabloid tried to popularize "Le grand Mécharlot" (an allusion to another movie star), in print, but this never caught.

  17. Helen-joe Owens said,

    July 24, 2008 @ 11:01 pm

    "Mac" is not three times times larger than "O"; it is three times as long as "O" or two times larger.

  18. Cath the Canberra Cook said,

    July 25, 2008 @ 7:15 am

    I like to call him Bazza, but I'm an Aussie and that's how we'd do it here.

  19. Matt Heath said,

    July 25, 2008 @ 10:18 am

    So the newspapers haven't taken to calling McCain "WALNUTS!" then?

  20. TootsNYC said,

    July 25, 2008 @ 12:25 pm

    @ Rob Gunningham:

    Since I live in NYC, I have even *been* to BAM. I have no problem w/ it being pronounced to rhyme w/ "ham," because its ONLY incarnation is B A M.

    For the politician, "Bam" is short for a different word, "Obama," which if shortened should be pronounced "Bomb."

  21. jackofhearts29 said,

    July 25, 2008 @ 12:52 pm

    I hope the emerging consensus is that both "Bam" and "Mac" are stupid. I haven't seen either example yet in a headline myself, but if the trend gathers steam I propose a wide-ranging boycott. Or should that be "Obamacott" ?

  22. Rob Gunningham said,

    July 25, 2008 @ 3:55 pm

    …should be pronounced "Bomb.
    Not with my accent, it shouldn't. That would be from O'Bommer, some ex-IRA dude.

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