What's In a Name?

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

What is it about people with only one name...is it that they are so unusual that they only need one moniker (and we all know who Monica is!), or does the name itself have to be so exceptional that it stands out from the crowd. Do you know that you've arrived if people reference you with the one apellation?

Often they are prickly, minimalist, cold even: names like Twiggy, Skin, Sting, Fish; sometimes they're titles, the Shrimp, The King; often implying station - Prince, Madonna. Then of course there's the whole sub-category of full titles, such as Duke Eliington, Lady Day, etc..

Many are surnames, made up or otherwise: Bardot, Bowie, Brando. Some are interchangeable - Monroe can also be Marilyn. Some can be partners, Posh and Becks, Brangelina.

Nickname, term of endearment, pseudonym, stage name, diminuitive. Does it make them ours, or set them apart from us? Does it make them a label, a brand?

What walks of life do they mainly dominate? The Arts and Crafts, certainly, there's the dancers, Nureyev and Fonteyn, the choreographers, Rambert, Berkeley; the artists Picasso, Klimt, Rodin. But these are all surnames and very often we don't even remember their Christian names.

It often takes a really special kind of fame for us to know someone by just their first name. Certainly it has to be an unusual name, a nickname, or a made up name. 

Sting was so called when making his way as the young boy in a local jazzband, not the only Gordon, so the leader renamed him after a stripey jumper he wore. Bowie didn't want to be thought of as a Monkee, as his name was David Jones.

 But there also has to be an air of mystery or glamour – you rarely get comedians with only one name, possible exceptions being Miranda and Lucy, from I Love Lucy fame with not much in between. No, it has to be an icon, someone who seems up with the gods somehow. How many of these do you recognise?