President who?

September 25, 2006 1:52 PM

Does a potential presidential candidates' (sur)name matter in the US?

I've wondered this off and on for years. In so far as words matter and names are words, are some names so unpresidential as to leave the candidate or potential candidate unelectable?

Let's omit the obvious such as bin Laden or Xiang. For instance I just can't envision a president named Giuliani. Even 'President Kerry' doesn't sound quite right, though closer than Giuliani. I can't remember thinking this about Clinton(when I came of voting age) or Bush. Reading a list of our presidents, I see a lot of names that "make sense" or just seem "strong".

Also: Aside from the fact that candidates have built their careers over decades, is there any sort of vetting process(explicit or implicit) as the nominations come up, similar to how words would be chosen carefully for an important speech?

Pardon if this question seems silly, what with far more important factors being involved, it just seems that it would be/is a factor and I must know more.

posted by a_green_man to law & government (24 comments total)

In Middlesex, one of Jeffrey Eugenides's characters presents a theory that a presidential candidate's name can't have more than a certain number of vowels or syllables, which is part of what doomed Dukakis.
posted by black bile at 1:56 PM on September 25, 2006

In Middlesex, one of Jeffrey Eugenides's characters presents a theory that a presidential candidate's name can't have more than a certain number of vowels or syllables, which is part of what doomed Dukakis.

Dwight Eisenhower would likely disagree.
posted by deadmessenger at 1:58 PM on September 25, 2006

I'm sure there was a time period involved--post-Eisenhower or something. It's one character's opinion, but it seemed related enough to post.
posted by black bile at 2:03 PM on September 25, 2006

Ahh but its the exception that proves the rule. :-)

As for a vetting process...Presidential canidates endure a long tough slugfest in trying to gather name recognition and raise funds. That is certainly an implict vetting process. As for the VP canidates which are more closely "selected", I have never heard surname being used to promote or demote a person. I wouldn't doubt that in the back of some minds this is happening but I don't know of anything that states that it is explict.

What would be explict is vetting the VP canidates for their associations and pull with various ethnic, cultural and religious groups as well as with the various geographies of the country.
posted by mmascolino at 2:05 PM on September 25, 2006

here in illinois we have governor named 'blagojevich'. he's not presidential, but a governor isn't too far off.
posted by lester's sock puppet at 2:07 PM on September 25, 2006

lipshitz?
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 2:08 PM on September 25, 2006

Even the surnames of fictional Presidents tend to be punchy English or Scotch-Irish names. Ray Bradbury satirically tweaks that electoral bias in Fahrenheit 451, in which the dashing candidate Winston Noble defeats his homely opponent, Hubert Hoag, in a landslide.
posted by Iridic at 2:13 PM on September 25, 2006

Clinton's original name, before being adopted, was William Jefferson Blythe. Losing that surname was his first lucky break.

Men with 4-letter names seem to run for president a lot, but perhaps they do so in the same proportion as 4-letter names occur in the general population. (Bush, Bush, Ford, Dean, Dole, Gore, Kemp)

I think the general bias has been, for the past 200 years, toward Anglo-Saxon names, with the emphasis on Anglo. If Eisenhower had not been an immensely popular war hero, he would have lost to Stevenson.

But, we may be coming around, if we're electing governors like Blagojevich, senators like Obama, and mayors like Giuliani.
posted by beagle at 2:28 PM on September 25, 2006

It may be worth noting the obvious: for the last 2 terms the presidential surname is identical with a previous surname. And incredibly, a leading candidate for the dems for the next term or two also has exactly the same surname as a previous living president. It is entirely possible we're in the middle of a 16 year stretch of presidents immediately related to previous presidents (and sharing their names).

So, as an example of the larger trend, is this mere brand recognition (name) or something else, a deeper systemic issue related to class, wealth, power?
posted by scheptech at 2:50 PM on September 25, 2006

Well, each candidate in the major parties in the United States goes through pretty lengthy campaigning and a series of Primaries before any decision has been made. I am pretty sure that there is no step along the way where the DNC or RNC says "Your name doesn't fit the formula. You are disqualified" but if a candidate is not very popular (whether it's because of his name, his politics, or his ridiculous mustache) they will not usually be nominated.

So: I am fairly certain there are no explicit requirements on candidate's names.

I'm 100% certain that the name does have some degree of subtle impact on voters; at the very least the people who follow no news and basiclaly know nothing about any candidate (this is probably less than 40% of voters though).

The question of how much is impossible to answer, though I imagine any particular amount you choose* could make a perfectly defensible PHD thesis.


* maybe not "it's all that matters"
posted by aubilenon at 3:07 PM on September 25, 2006

There is a wonderful picture in an old LIFE magazine of people voting for Eisenhower as a write-in candidate. You see a long paper scroll ballot and then the umpteen versions of how people spelled it -- "Isenhower," "Dwight D.D.," "Ike," etc.

The caption explained that there were actually rules on which versions of his name were accepted as legit votes. I can't remember exactly, but I think you had to have more than just IKE for it to count as a real vote. But apparently people were more than game to attempt that long name.

Clinton, of course, was originally William Jefferson Blythe. "President Clinton" vs. "President Blythe"? I'd pick the former anytime -- the latter reminds me of those creepy, eye-color-changing dolls.
posted by GaelFC at 3:08 PM on September 25, 2006

Norm Coleman (R-MN, Senator) changed his name from "Goldman", FWIW.
posted by unixrat at 3:08 PM on September 25, 2006

And Gerald Ford's original name was Leslie Lynch King, Jr.
posted by Iridic at 3:15 PM on September 25, 2006

Rule No 1. You cannot be president if your name ends in a single vowel (i.e. consonant followed
by vowel). (y and silent e don't count). Indeed, you can't even be a presidential candidate of a major political party. Never happened. No Cuomo. No Giuliani. No nada.
posted by TheRaven at 4:10 PM on September 25, 2006

Names feel "right" as you are exposed to them and you build mental meaning into them. When all other factors are the same, the name that feels the most like other people you know, names you've heard, etc will be the one that gets your attention.

What makes a name sound presidential? That you've heard it a lot, particularly with the word "President". And you will hear the name of candidates a lot before an election.

That being said, I'd guess that among people who actually show up and vote, there are a lot of waspy people who don't know anyone named with a vowel at the end.

(I am a namer, but not a politicito, so I'm just applying the same principle to presidents as I do to Fritos.)
posted by Gucky at 4:37 PM on September 25, 2006

Cuomo definitely would have been nominated, and probably would have been elected, had he ran in either 1988 or 1992.

In 2008, though, we may well be relieved of all of this, what with both parties putting up a candidate outside of the WASP-male category. (Italian Catholic Giuliani or Mormon Romney versus woman Hillary Clinton or Jewish Russ Feingold.)
posted by MattD at 4:43 PM on September 25, 2006

Norm Coleman (R-MN, Senator) changed his name from "Goldman", FWIW.

He did nothing of the sort. His family did, several generations ago. John Kerry's grandfather changed his name from Kohn in 1901.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 5:08 PM on September 25, 2006

I'm surprised no one's pointed out the implicit ethnic bias--Giuliani doesn't "sound right" because it's an Italian (which is to say "ethnic white," a.k.a. Southern Europe a.k.a. recent immigrant) name. Clinton "sounds right" because (as people have pointed out) it's Anglo-Saxon.
posted by maxreax at 6:07 PM on September 25, 2006 [1 favorite]

Like maxreax is sort of saying, presidential names have tended to be kind of similar because presidential backgrounds have tended to be very, very similar.

The kind of person who gets an Ivy league education (one which includes skull and bones?) might have more to do with it than a public preference for "strong" sounding names.
posted by crabintheocean at 7:00 PM on September 25, 2006

Names feel "right" as you are exposed to them and you build mental meaning into them. When all other factors are the same, the name that feels the most like other people you know, names you've heard, etc will be the one that gets your attention.

Example: Obama sounds "right" to me - doesn't sound at all (although perhaps I'm alone in that). But he made jokes during his campaign about being called 'Bama, and described as a "skinny kid with a funny name".
posted by spaceman_spiff at 7:56 PM on September 25, 2006 [1 favorite]

Crap. That should've read "sounds 'right' to me - doesn't sound at all un-electable".
posted by spaceman_spiff at 7:56 PM on September 25, 2006

The president of the United States is named Shickelgruber!
posted by jammer at 8:06 PM on September 25, 2006

I am surprised that up-and-coming politicians do not buy product placement in TV and movies, so that they can get "President Non-Anglo-Name" in front of lots of people and make it a non-issue.
posted by acoutu at 10:43 PM on September 25, 2006

According to my family history, one of my great-uncles failed to win a mayoral election for an agricultural seat in forgotton-ville, south of Perth, Western Australia, because he had a "funny-sounding" spanish surname. If it can happen there, I'm sure it can also apply to the US Presidential Election.
posted by lazy robot at 6:11 PM on September 26, 2006