Ebony - Kimba - Order of Garter - Titles - Etiquette -

[Catlady]

Ebony wrote one hell of a post about racism and sexism in American
history, entertainment, and real life, which was too complete for there
to be anything I can add, except this one tiny thing: most of surnames
of my ancestors were assigned either at Ellis Island or by (German,
Russian, Danish) government employees in the 1811 to 1861 time frame. It
was illegal in the Germanies for Jews to *have* surnames until a new law
(must have been after the unification of Germany?) required that all
Jews be assigned surnames. The surname-assigners demanded a small bribe
or else would stick you with a surname that means 'running sore' or
'excrement', a larger bribe for a name with flowers (all those Rosens),
an even larger bribe for a name with gold, silver, or gems (Baernstein -
burnt-stone - is amber.) The Scandinavian countries had a regularization
of surnames (for all people, not just Jews) in the 1860s. People whose
surname was too common were ordered to choose another surname. My mother
claimed that my father's mother's mother's Danish surname Antonisson had
been Munson before the regularization, but I think it more plausible
that my father's mother's father's Swedish surname Monty was the one
that had previously been Munson.

My brother is friends with huge numbers of anime fans, and he told me
that Kimba the White Lion was really named Simba (said to be Swahili for
'lion') but there was a local beer in Chicago named Simba that sued
whatever syndicator brought the Japanese cartoon series to US, so the
syndicator renamed it Kimba. On seeing a store full of toy Young Lion
Kings, I told Tim that he is the only Disney cute critter that is
actually cute, ie tempts me to buy him, and Tim said: "Because he isn't
a Disney critter, he's a Japanese critter."

Isn't the Order of the Garter designed to have 169 (13 X 13) members
including the Sovereign and the Prince of Wales, for  numerological
reasons?

When I was a child and learned that a female Knight is called a Dame, I
got confused and thought they were Night and Day.

In Georgette Heyer, the quaint medieval titles are used with military
title, like General Lord Place Last-Name (is that right?) and Lieutenant
Sir First-Name Last-Name. But Lord and Sir are not combined in
addressing one person who owns both titles.

In general, most Americans love to bow or courtesy to a British monarch,
but it was all over the newspapers when the Queen visited Australia and
the then-Prime Minister of Australia greeted her with a hug and a kiss
and called her "darlin'" instead of "Your Majesty".

The son or daughter of a duke or marquis (and, in Georgette Heyer, the
daughter of an earl) has the 'courtesy title' of Lord or Lady First
Name. Lord Peter Wimsey, and his wife's title is Lady Peter, not Lady
Harriet. The sons and daughters of an earl, viscount, and baron are The
Honorable First-name Last-Name.

Lord Peter's father and older brother were the 8th and 9th Dukes of
Denver, and they were called Lord Denver, not Lord Wimsey, as peerages
IIRC above Baron are named for places, not for their last names. The
wives are Lady Denver. The Duke's oldest son (only the oldest, and only
a male) uses his father's second title as 'courtesy title' -- in the
case of the Dukes of Denver, the oldest son is Marquis of Saint-George
and people call him "Yo, Saint-George!" not "Yo, Gerry!". If
Saint-George had a (legitimate) son, ie the Duke's grandson, he could
have his grandfather's THIRD title as 'courtesy title'. The Heir using
his father's second title as his courtesy title is the reason for the
title Prince of Wales. If the father only has one title, then the oldest
son is Lord First-Name or The Honorable First-Name as if he were a
younger son.

I mentioned the ranks of marquis, earl, and viscount. Marquis started as
a French pronunciation of marchgraf, which is a graf (which means count,
which originally meant the feudal owner of a county) whose domain is on
a march (border) and therefore has to  have a bigger army and be more
loyal to his monarch than a graf who rules an interior county. Viscount
started as vice-count. Earl came from Scandinavian jarl, which
degenerated from meaning man-at-arms to meaning serf, and the earl's
wife is a countess. I am amused that these three ranks are named for
'count' in three languages.

Christian's examples, which include an older daughter as Heir in
preference to a younger son, are NOT British, which is terribly
masculinist, they are Norwegian, which made a law that their
anti-sex-discrimination law included no sex discrimination in
inheritance of peerages. I forget the date that Norway did that.

Barons' titles are Lord Last Name of Place, like Lord Olivier. Does
anyone remember what Place Olivier's title was? That's why I think that
George Gordon, Lord Byron was George Gordon Byron before he got the
baronage.

Americans always get that stuff wrong. A lead negotiator in the recent
Bosnian war was Lord Owens from UK, and American reporters kept
referring to what 'Lord David Owens' had done in today's negotiations.

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