"A good name," it is written somewhere in the Bible, "is worth more than riches."
Shaka Smart, the dynamic young coach of the surprising Virginia Commonwealth University basketball team, provides the latest case in point.
Hollywood couldn't have invented a better name for the figurehead of this unlikely final Four team. You've got "Shaka" (hip, punchy, vaguely exotic) crossbred with "Smart" (what everyone wants their basketball coach to be). Perfect.
Have you ever noticed how many star athletes, actors, musicians and other public figures have unusual names or compelling nicknames? How many James Smiths or Jane Joneses have achieved rock star status?
To me, the classic example is Tiger Woods. Had he launched his golf career under his given name -- Eldrick -- I'm betting that he wouldn't have had nearly the success.
When you hear a TV reporter interviewing the third-round leader of a big tournament and he says: "I can't relax, though, because I know Tiger is lurking out there somewhere," it carries drama with it.
"I know Eldrick is lurking out there," simply wouldn't have had the same effect.
First names are especially important. As celebrities spend more and more time in our livingrooms via television, our relationship changes to a first-name basis.
Look at the two biggest current names in the National Basketball Association -- Kobe (Bryant) and Lebron (James). We wouldn't be referring to them that way if they were George Bryant and Chuck James, because then we could be talking about a million other people.
The nation's leading scorer in college basketball this season was Brigham Young University's Jimmer Fredette. He was an excellent player, but probably not good enough to attract the torrent of media attention that came his way this year. I submit that his slightly off-kilter name had a lot to do with it.
Suddenly, college basketball was awash in Jimmermania. Teams defeated by BYU were said to have been "Jimmerized." And on and on.
As opposed to serial killers and assassins, who are generally referred to in triplicate (Mark David Chapman, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Wayne Gacy), celebrities often condense their identity into a single name.
And some of them manage to transend ordinary names to give them special meaning.
Remember a Lnchburg preacher named "Jerry"?
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