General Discussions

[Mav]

Wonder how the Coon family are going?

Probably the same as the Dicks, the Kochs, the Hoares, the Rapers and other families that are unlucky enough to have surnames that also have a less-than-pleasant slang or dictionary meaning. They could do what Koch’s around the world do: pronounce their name differently (Port’s President says “Cosh” while the Koch brothers in the US say “Coke”). Dr D’Arth battled on bravely. They could change their surname or marry out of it. The Saxe-Coburgs became the Windsors and the Battenburgs became the Mountbattens, both because of anti-German sentiment. Scott Camm of Block fame’s surname lost the Italian ending.

But most people with unfortunate surnames either take on a stage name or avoid naming their businesses or products after them. But in the case of the surname Coon, there’s a simple work around. Include the first name and straight away you get rid of the racial overtone. If they’d called it Henry Coon’s or Mervyn Coon’s, whatever he was, the problem disappears. That would assume that this guy was a true patriarch of the business, though, like Levi Strauss. Which just wasn’t the case here. Or if the other supposed root of the name is valid, maybe they could have named it “Racoons”. I can’t see why naming it after a disease-carrying, dumpster-diving, aggressive North American animal wouldn’t go gangbusters.

Taking the LP approach, I’m sure the Coon families living in Australia are overjoyed to be rid of a product that highlighted the negative association their name carries. Mind you, I have no evidence to support this conclusion but evidence is so last century.