I'm Just Wild About Harry

In 1943 German general Arthur Hoppe legally changed his name to Harry.  His reason for doing so was apparently he felt he might gain a stronger hold on his men's affection if his name was Harry.  This is bizarre for a couple of reasons.  Firstly even in that bastion of free thought and democratic ideals that was the German Wehrmacht in 1943 it was rare for enlisted men to address their divisional commander by his christian name.  Secondly if General Hoppe really was that concerned about the opinion of the men under his command he could have made a start by not welcoming new arrivals to his division with the words, "You are here to die and to be quick about it!"  Simply adding, "but in the meantime please feel free to call me Harry," is unlikely to have been quite the morale booster he seems to have imagined.

Nevertheless the fact that General Hoppe would take such a step is testimony to the enduring magic of the name Harry.  Harry is a great name; friendly, approachable but with a hint of underlying vigour.  People will warm to a Harry in a way that they wouldn't to an Alistair while still hesitating to take advantage in the way that they would of a Clarence.  A lot of the popularity of Prince Harry can be attributed to his name.  Who couldn't like a prince named Harry?  Of course part of his popularity can also be attributed to the fact that he's the only member of the royal family that doesn't look like the results of a successful cross breeding programme of humans with frogs but don't underestimate the impact of the Harry.

Previously in this blog I have written about what an awesome name Gunnlaugur is.  I don't resile from those comments in the slightest but let's face it.  Gunnlaugur is a good name if you're a supervillain or an Icelandic male model.  Not too many people can pull Gunnlaugur off whereas most of us feel we could probably pull Harry off if we had to.  Please feel free to insert your own jokes at this point.

As for General Hoppe, sad to say his troops didn't call him Harry.  Behind his back they called him Stan Laurel due to his (physical only) resemblance to the famous comedian.  Still he probably wasn't wrong to try for Harry.  If newly arrived troops had learnt that their commander's name was Gunnlaugur then the least they would have expected is to be crammed into artillery shells and fired at the enemy.