Everyone’s got a nickname for ACH-mah-DEE-neh-jad

Sensible people try to shorten the Iranian president’s absurd five-syllable last name to make it less onerous to speak and write. Some people call him A’jad. Other people leave out the apostrophe and call him Ajad. Some people cleverly compress the second and third syllables of his real name into one, thus reducing it from its impossible five syllables to a still difficult and alien-sounding four: Ach-MAH-jeh-nad.

Last night I came across a website that calls him PAM, short for “President Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud,” reversing his first and last name to produce an acronym, which frankly seems ridiculously strained.

As for me, I like to keep things nice and simple, so I just call him Johnnie, turning the last syllable of his obtrusively foreign name into a familiar and easy to pronounce American name.

All of which is bringing on another Dylan take-off, this one based on the last verse of the song, “Gotta Serve Somebody”:

GOTTA STOP SOMEBODY

You can call him Mahmoud, you can call him Achmad,
You can call him Mahmy, you can call him Ajad,
You can call him Johnnie, you can call him PAM,
You can call him anything, but no matter what the name,

You’re still gonna have to stop somebody. Yes, indeed,
You’re gonna have to stop somebody.
Well, it might be the Muslims or it might be the Left
But you’re gonna have to stop somebody.

Based on GOTTA SERVE SOMEBODY
Words and music by Bob Dylan
1979 Special Rider Music

- end of initial entry -

Brandon F. writes:

Ach-ma-dinner-jacket

James W. writes:

My vote is Mad Jad.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 02, 2007 05:30 PM | Send