Kenyans not named Kiplagatchirchirtanuikoech

Ha! Well said. Then there's all the "Kipchoge" and "Choge" names used either as first or last...

So you're saying you would like even more variety in names. How about Wilberforce Talel? My personal favorite.

Look at the Hall Dobson thread, there is an idiot there.

Good thing they don't have a Smith or Jones or Williams or... to confuse you.

steve cram

steve ovett

steve crabb

it was all so confusing...

Paul Tergat?

Kenyan surnames.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=1112411&thread=1111906

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=423731&thread=423006

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=506349&thread=506208

Erbli wrote:

Good thing they don't have a Smith or Jones or Williams or... to confuse you.

1) It doesn't say "confuse" anywhere in the post. I think it is stupid that they have so many people named some variation of Paul - Kip - Rono - Lagat.

2) You kind of proved my point for me. Smith, Jones and Williams are indeed popular Anglo Saxon names ... and yet how many top distance runners do we know from the same era that are named that?

I remember Steve Jones (big star), and Hugh Jones (also from UK and looked totally different from Steve) ... can't think of any others except Kim Jones (female).

Williams? T-Will of course. But for distance runners I can't think of any other internationalists.

Smith? Of course Geoff Smith. After that I can't think of any other great Smiths over the last 30 years.

[quote]Name Game wrote (in part):

1) It doesn't say "confuse" anywhere in the post. I think it is stupid that they have so many people named some variation of Paul - Kip - Rono - Lagat.

2) You kind of proved my point for me. Smith, Jones and Williams are indeed popular Anglo Saxon names ... and yet how many top distance runners do we know from the same era that are named that?

==============================================================

So if they quit using those "stupid" Kenyan [African] names, things would be okay?

You are good with Smith, Jones, Williams, Sanichesky, and Bush...you just have trouble with...hmmm, Kenyan names.

As for the Anglo-Saxon names. is there maybe a slight difference in the size of the sample pool? Maybe several hundred million Anglo-Saxons, but not quite so many Kenyans?

I heard that Kenyans surnames come from the place they are born,for example Kiprono may mean 'born on the veranda' or 'born in the morning'.

I'm always getting Carl Lewis and Carol Lewis mixed up.

Name Game wrote:

2) You kind of proved my point for me. Smith, Jones and Williams are indeed popular Anglo Saxon names ... and yet how many top distance runners do we know from the same era that are named that?

Smith and Jones are "Anglo-Saxon" names? Are you suggesting that Smith and Jones are 5th century German names? I think not..

Yeah and they all look the same too.

OK after reading about how babies are named for 15 minutes and how they can take their father's or mother's name and they can change it later at their discretion and that you will have brothers and sisters with different last names, parents and children with different last names, and brothers with different last names I have concluded that IT IS INDEED STUPID and I am not the one with the problem.

Can't see why this is cast as a racist or jingoist attitude on my part. It is just a stupid system that clearly systematically names a bunch of people the same thing or close to the same thing.

Yes, if America started naming children of a Smith, "Kipsmith" and passing this off as logical I would say the same thing. There may be a Tiffany Williams and a Tiffany McWilliams out there and they might get mistaken for one another in results some day. But that would happen by accident not by design.

You should take an anthropology class to sort out your sheltered life

calcuttaa wrote:

You should take an anthropology class to sort out your sheltered life

It is simply logic. Should we all be named Bob Smith?

How would an anthropolgy class help with the fact that the system for naming babies in parts of Kenya is stupid?

Name Game wrote:

calcuttaa wrote:

You should take an anthropology class to sort out your sheltered life

It is simply logic. Should we all be named Bob Smith?

How would an anthropolgy class help with the fact that the system for naming babies in parts of Kenya is stupid?

I think calcutta is wrong.

I don\'t think an anthropology class would help Name Game any at all. None at all. Nada. Zilcho. 0.

Simply logic??? No. You have a very young understanding of other cultures, that is why I recommend Anthropology classes. Not just for kinships and naming, as in this case, but for you to realize how diverse this world really is.

What do you think of people that live in Indonesia that only go by a first name?

We'll save that for your next thread of ignorance.

What would help?