Why is Saddam Hussein referred to chiefly as "Saddam"?

[Stargleamer]

and not Hussein? Hitler and Mussolini weren't referred to as "Adolf" or "Benito". I've been puzzled by this, and the only reason I can come up with is that there's a "King Hussein" of Jordan, I believe, but he's always referred to as "King Hussein."

[htuttle]

1. It started under Bush the First

He called him 'Sodom', and it stuck (not by accident, however).

[hexola]

15. no, Bush the First called him "Sadam"

Like "Adam" with an S...

[htuttle]

16. Oh, that's right

Was it Bush II who came up with SOD-um? (as opposed to sod-DAAM).

[NMDemDist2]

2. cuz

Saddam is so dam sad

:evilgrin:

[Screaming Lord Byron]

3. Hussein's a pretty common name out Mesopotamia way.

Kinda like hunting the evil dictator Smith through New England.

[Michael Costello]

24. I would agree

Jordan was run by a Hussein as well, it was probably to avoid confusion.

[porphyrian]

4. The Administration's On A First Name Basis With Him

...and has been since they put him in office years ago.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. Hussein isn't really his family name

His actual, real name is quite long. Since he's from Tikrit, part of it is "Tikriti", so you could also call him Saddam Tikriti. Central Asian cultures are extremely old and have retained many features of their prehistoric cultural roots.

Five minutes on Google ought to produce the definitive answer. I've read it before, but with my steel-sieve mind, it is a forgotten factoid.

--bkl

[Dogmudgeon]

8. Saddam Hussein al-Majd al-Tikriti al-Awja ... maybe

From Wikipedia:

Hussein is not a surname in the Western sense. Saddam (pronounced "Sad-DAHM") is his given personal name; Hussein is his father's given personal name; al-Majid is his familial name, and al-Tikriti is his regional affiliation. In many Arab countries he is most commonly referred to as Saddam Hussein or Saddam. However, in Iraq, he was and is most commonly referred to by his formal presidential title. Some observers have argued that referring to the man as only Saddam may be derogatory and academically inappropriate. It is common for Arab men to add the name of their town or village onto their name. This would give Saddam Hussein al-Awja.

From Bruce Gottleib at Slate.com:

The name "Saddam Hussein" isn't like "Bill Clinton" or "Jiang Zemin", which are both composed of a given name and a family name ("Bill" and "Zemin" are the given names). Saddam Hussein has no family name. Rather "Hussein" is the name his parents gave the nascent dictator, and "Saddam" is an epithet he adopted before he grabbed power, and is derived from the Persian word meaning "crush." "Saddam Hussein" is best translated as Hussein-Who-Crushes-Obstacles or Hussein-the-Destroyer.

From Iraqi News:

Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti
He who confronts (Arabic)

That ought to give you a start!

--bkl

[stavka]

22. I like to call him MC SHaMaTaA for short

I hope his new album is as good as his last

[Dogmudgeon]

26. His new album

On the Washington charts, it's Number One -- with a bullet!

--bkl

[bluedog]

6. His Trial

Think Bush Sr and Rummy will be called
as character witnesses for Saddam since they sung his praises in the late 80's and trusted him enough to give him millions even though he was killing his own people. (question from another poster)


Also if the Iraqis set him free.does he run for president again? And if the answer is the Iraqi people elected him.doesn't this mean we wasted all the lives and monies in Iraq??

Yet another question: When the Germans invaded Warsaw Poland.the underground fought for their county..they were called "freedom fighters".the Iraqi fighters are called "terrorists" or "insurants".......I do not see the difference.in their minds.Americans are the invading force as Germany was in Poland!!!!

[Fear]

7. Bush can't pronounce 'Hussein' - Saddam probably took him over 2 weeks

the Bush English teachers then made a decission......from now on it's SADDAM / let's forget about Hussein.

And also it reduces the amount of respect given to a person by only pronouncing his / her first name.

[Sabriel]

13. I agree

It's similar to the way the GOP referred to President Clinton and the First Lady as "Bill" and "Hillary." Denigrating their position by refusing to adhere to agreed-upon social conventions.
Sabriel

[Fear]

17. so what should we call * now......"toady boy" or Georgie, but never

refer to him as *.

[returnable]

14. "reduces the amount of respect"

Yep.

Anyone else reminded of how Papa Bush and his toadies employed the same tactic against Cuomo back in the day?

He and his minions would only refer to him as "Mario" - "If Mario wants to run for president, he should run." That kind of thing.

When called on it, they simply said, "Well, Mario is his name, isn't it?"

What a bunch of clowns.

[noiretextatique]

19. absolutely...it's a way to diminish a person

using his first name only is disrespectful.

[Cheswick2.0]

9. because we keep forgetting if the i or the e comes first in Hussein

:shrug:

[JuniorPlankton]

10. Probably for the same reason we refer to * as Shrub or Chimp n/t

[Lorien]

11. Because it sounds more negative

Like "Sodomy" or "Satan", plus there's more disrespect in using a first name only

[MrMonk]

12. To differentiate Saddam Hussein of Iraq from

King Hussein al-Talil of Jordan.

[stavka]

23. Probably the best answer I've heard....

It used to drive me crazy when they just said, "The Ayatollah" too....

It would be like Jesse Jackson being referring to as "The Reverend"

[Mechatanketra]

18. Names is strange.

We know Lee Harvey Oswald as "Lee Harvey Oswald"; IIRC, to himself, he was just 'Harvey', and almost never used his 'real' first name. (My mother's the same way -- she had an aunt with the same first name, so as a kid she went by her middle name, to the point where her first name is practically vestigial, existing only on credit cards and the like and even then only as an initial). The world knows him as "Lee Harvey" because the press picked up his name from the police blotters.

In this case, while there's probably something to both the "Sodom" and "King Hussein" suggestions, ultimately he's probably just "Saddam" because it wins on brevity, specificity (to Joe Sixpack, at least), and euphony (it's easier, IMO at least, to enunciate 'Saddam' than 'Hussein'). I think by the same token, "Chimpy" and similar epithets may get as much push from the fact that "George W. Bush" is a rotten name on those counts (the only specifying factor is the awkward-sounding "dubbelyu") as the general hostility we feel towards him.

[noiretextatique]

20. using a familiar form of address shows disrespect

to the person you are addressing of talking about. that is why.

[oblivious]

21. I remember James Baker calling him SODdum over and over in '91

And I found it hilarious because we were told that mispronunciation meant something nasty but I can't remember what. Like 'asshole' or something. He'd say it ten times in one short interview. And then Soddum got back at them by putting GH Bush's face on the floor of his palace so that all visitors got to step on it. Like a bunch of school kids. But funny.

[hel]

25. People well known are usually called

by their first name in this part of the world (Middle East). In fact, even in Turkey nobody had a surname before 1930s. Since Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire, I guess it is the same for them too.