name changing

[darth vader]

Why did George Smith change his name to Iain Duncan Smith and is there any significance in the 'Iain Duncan' names?

[geofbob]

Perhaps he had pretensions to be a playwright, and was following the precedent of George Bernard Shaw, who preferred to drop his first given name. According to an online dictionary of first names - http://www.behindthename.com/ - John is fairly innocuous and stands for "God is Gracious"; but Duncan means Brown Warrior, which may perhaps be crudely and libellously interpreted by some users of AB. Incidentally, I find that I share IDS's birthday

[geofbob]

Sorry, I should have said that Iain is a Scottish form of John etc etc.

[Quizmonster]

Darth, Why the George disappeared, I don't know, but read on for clues. The thing about the 'Iain' version of 'Ian' is that it is - for some utterly insane reason - deemed by certain people to be somehow 'posher', or even more Scottish, than just plain old 'Ian'! The 'Duncan' part is simply a middle name and not - as the impression being given would seem to have it - an element of a sort of hyphenated surname such as 'Cholmondeley-Hetherington', for example. Taken all-in-all, the name seems to be a none-too-subtle marketing ploy.

[Quizmonster]

I forgot to point out that, on his birth certificate, the name is just 'Ian'....with no extra 'i', as I understand it.

[darth vader]

I'm a bit confused now QM - what is his full name according to his birth certificate? i was led to believe it was "George Smith"

[darth vader]

...and has he changed it? (by deed poll for example)

[Quizmonster]

Darth, Click http://www.election.demon.co.uk/cand01.html for the name as on the 2001 election list. (Scroll down to 'Chingford'.) Also click http://www.epolitix.com/bos/epxnews/0000004CD399.h
tm for comments - pro as well as con - on his biographical details.

[darth vader]

Thanks QM et al. 3 stars all round

[archbishop]

darth - why not just give stars where they are deserved? You have been around long enough to know what to do. Quizzy is always a 3 star person and more.

[Pinotage]

I thought that Duncan was only used after he started his bid for Con leader, and that was to avoid confusion (comparison?) with that other failed politician named Ian Smith

[geofbob]

A final (?) word - it all reminds me of an old stupid riddle where you give a rigmarole of a story, which ends "And the driver's name was Smith; why is that?" The answer being "Because his father's name was Smith." IDS's problem lies not in his forenames, but in his venerable, but bland and all-too-common surname - if only his father's name had been almost anything else.

[darth vader]

Archbishop - i'll do what i like thankyou very much! QM knows me well enough by now to know i am always very grateful for his input, without the need for star systems. To explain myself (if i should indeed have to) when more than one person has been inputting to a thread which gets many answers in a short period, I always respond at the end (as in this case) to signify a) that i no longer require input thankyou b) i am grateful to all that contributed to it.

so ner

[darth vader]

Hello Pinotage don't see you much these days!.....