Benedict Cumberbatch, a British actor with a most unusual name, has been an inspiration to people who study or teach about language. Let’s be more specifically accurate about that: his name has been the inspiration. Here are three items that would not exist but for the existence of Benedict Cumberbatch’s name.
Benedict Cumberbatchia (1)
“A Linguist Explains the Rules of Summoning Benedict Cumberbatch,” by Gretchen McCulloch on December 2, 2013, published in The Toast. (Thanks to Suzie Day-Davies for bringing it to our attention.) The author begins:
“Bandicoot Cabbagepatch, Bandersnatch Cumberbund, and even Wimbledon Tennismatch: there seem to be endless variations on the name of Benedict Cumberbatch…. But how is a normal internet citizen supposed to know, when they hear someone say “I just can’t stop looking at gifs of Bombadil Rivendell” that this person isn’t talking about some other actor with a name and a voice and cheekbones? Or in other words, what makes for a reasonable variation of the name Bendandsnap Calldispatch?”
Benedict Cumberbatchia (2)
“What’s in a name? Teaching linguistics using onomastic data,” Laurel MacKenzie, Language, Volume 94, Number 4, December 2018, pp. e293-e310. The author explains:
“This article describes how students can be introduced to the basics of linguistic analysis using personal, product, and place names as data…. I demonstrate that the everyday familiarity of names and the ready availability of name data combine to create a class that not only engages students but also teaches them practical data-analysis skills.”
Bonus Cumberbatchiana: Profuse Generation
An app called “Benedict Cumberbatch Name Generator” comes with the claim that it “can create over 573 million unique names, based on Benedict Cumberbatch’s glorious name”.