Hello – Colossus 223

Does your name come with a description?  History has given forenames many a soubriquet which makes us curious about their origins.

Some are easy to work out. Doubting Thomas came from the dubious apostle who did not believe that Jesus had arisen from the dead until he saw him with this own eyes. Plain Jane probably comes from Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel Jane Eyre, in which Jane attends a school that enforces plainness among its students.

When the revolving server became popular, it was known as a Lazy Susan, Susan being a generic name for a servant, while Simple Simon, meaning a gullible person, comes from the popular nursery rhyme.

Peeping Tom, meaning a voyeur, comes from the legend of Lady Godiva. To persuade her husband the Earl of Mercia to abolish the crippling taxes of the people of Coventry, she rode naked through the streets of town, first ordering everyone to stay indoors and shut their windows. Only Tom the tailor disobeyed – he looked at her and was struck blind (but the Earl of Mercia DID abolish the taxes).

A Smart Alec is a person considered irritating by their know-all attitude, and possibly comes from a resourceful 19th century thief called Alex Hoag who outsmarted himself in the end and got caught. A similar character is a Clever Dick, also irritatingly knowledgeable, and possibly comes from Dick Whittington, a British folk hero, although Dick was a common name so it could have been any number of people.

Australian boxer Larry Foley never lost a fight and retired at 32, collecting a purse of £1,000 for his final fight, so no wonder we say Happy as Larry.

Old Nick, another name for the devil, possibly came from the name Nickel, a perfidious mountain demon in German folklore.

Some say that Jolly Roger, the pirate flag, comes from the French words jolie rouge meaning ‘pretty red’ but in the Elizabethan era, Roger was a slang term for vagrants. There’s another theory that Jolly Roger is a corruption of the name of a Tamil pirate Ali Raja.

Big Bertha was the nickname given to a heavy mortar-like howitzer used by Germany during WWI. It was named after the owner of the Krupp industrial empire Bertha Krupp.

There are many other names, whose origins are lost in the mists of time, such as Proper Charlie – a fool and a Sloppy Joe, a loose-fitting pullover. A recent arrival is called a Johnny-Come-Lately and an excessively timid person is known as a Nervous Nellie.

Happy Puzzling!