Benjamin Johnson, really? - Printable Version

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Benjamin Johnson, really? - yvonne - 07-14-2011

Stanford has a track athlete named Ben Johnson. He's listed on the roster as Benjamin Johnson, but I've found him elsewhere on the web as Ben. He's a distance runner, and does not appear to be related to that Ben Johnson. He's a junior, which means he was most likely born after the 1988 Olympics (1991 or 1992). Who would name their kid Ben Johnson??

???

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Re: Benjamin Johnson, really? - BobK - 07-15-2011

A family name?  Not like the worst name ever.  BTW Ben of Canada was coached at that time by a Stanford grad. 

Ben is an excellent Steeplechase runner. 

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Re: Benjamin Johnson, really? - Nan3cy - 07-16-2011

When a name is unusual, I tend to react to it according to how I feel about people I've known with that name. Take Lance -- I think Lance Armstrong, whom I admire in some ways, but he's controversial enough that I feel sort of neutral to negative about the name. (And if my last name were Armstrong, I most certainly wouldn't name a kid Lance.) But when a name is really common, I just react to how I feel about the sound of the name. I like the name Benjamin a lot, and I think I've read that Johnson is the most common last name in the country. So even though I've heard of Ben Johnson and the doping scandal, that just isn't the first thing I think of when I hear the name. There must be dozens, if not hundreds, of Ben Johnsons  between the US and Canada. If our Ben Johnson were in a different sport from T&F, my guess is that no one would even think twice about it.

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