Interesting story here:
HOUSTON — Ferdinand Frank Fischer, III would be a great name for a Mexican monarchist trying to reclaim the crown of Emperor Maximilian, but it’s a lousy name for an ambitious [Democratic] American politician from a Latino district of San Antonio.
That’s why Fischer ditched it years ago, trying on a couple of monikers before building a name for himself as Trey Martinez Fischer, politician on the rise.
The trick worked, as it has for so many starlets, but now he is easily startled by questions of authenticity and vanity. When he found out that Gov. Rick Perry had used the term “charlatans and peacocks” to describe a group of politicians – Fischer among them – who were threatening to impeach Regent Wallace Hall, he bristled.
Three things that I find interesting about this story:
- Under normal circumstances this would be be ‘meh’ kind of story. Guy’s using his mother’s maiden name as a middle name to get Latino votes. Cagy, in its way.
- Unfortunately, in Texas it’s a problem because the guy’s been using that name for the ballot, which is a definite no-no: your name is your name, and there are severe limitations on what you can use. As the article notes, even “Kinky Friedman had to go by “Richard ‘Kinky’ Friedman” on the 2006 ballot for governor.” If it turns out that the guy put his name on the ballot that way – and the local Democratic party is sitting on that info, because Texas has interesting laws* – it’s a potentially big deal.
- Apparently if I lived in the South-South growing up, my nickname would actually be “Trey.” That’s the nickname given to people who are Moe Lane the Third or whatever.
Moe Lane
*Like, you know, every other state.
I presume that Texas, like pretty much every other State, has a way to legally change a person’s name .. which means all Trey or Kinky had to do was .. legally change their names, yes?
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Is there some additional weirding here?
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Mew
You would have to be on the preppy side to get a nickname like that, Moe. If you were really preppy, you would have a given name as an homage to your ancestors, like “Winfred Myrtle”, then a totally different one that you actually go by, like “Jackie”. For girls, a masculine or at least androgynous nickname is best, for males a nickname that is also a verb works well.
Anything I can do to help. That’s why I come by.
Technically Moe, Maryland (and I understand you live in Marylad?) is listed as a “southern” state in the U.S. Census, along with Delaware and everybody south of that.