Talk:Harry (given name)

"Harry" slang

"Harry" slang: common in the Services post-war, particularly RAF, used as a fore-word. For example, a lady I knew, ex-WRAF married to ex-RAF officer used to joke that when expecting her name changed, as in "This is the wife, she's Harry Preggers".

Recent edits

I do not see why my edit was reverted. The reason for the reversion was not written on this page indicated. The main edit that seemed to be reverted was my switch from hypens to commas. Commas are the standard on Wikipedia disambiguation pages and this switch is important for consistancy. Either way, something needs to be done about them as in the switch back to hypens, several of the commas were missed.

Also, in the switch back, several names were put out of alphabetical order, some were inexplicably deleted, and subjectivity was added into some descriptions. Neelix 15:15, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

No names were deleted, honest. The original list (before I came along) was only one list, it is now split into categories - fair enough. However, some fictional characters remained in the list of real people, I moved them to the fictional characters section. There are one or two who are both real and fictional, eg Harry Hotspur. Harry Flashman was/is a hero for two distinct authors. There are no subjective descriptions. The most questionable reference is Harry Corbett/Harry H. Corbett, but they were around at the same time, they were often confused with each other, there was rumour at the time that they did not get on and it is important to distinguish between them. Somewhere in there an earlier compiler said he put Prince Henry at the top because he is the most important Harry, I am sure that they will disagree in Lamar, Missouri. He is HRH Prince Henry of Wales, Prince Harry is a nickname, the major article is headed "Prince Henry".

The real point is that there are so many people called Harry, that is all they have in common, this is rather a silly article to have and getting sillier. Every time I go to the article I think of another name to include. It is getting to be like Monty Python. Sweetalkinguy 01:50, 22 April 2006 (UTC)  ;-)

Right way round

The thought occurred to me that the items in the list should be the other way round, eg Andrews, Harry, as this makes more sense than a list starting off "Harry" for every item, and it would enable items like Debby Harry to be put, if necessary, in a different section. Sweetalkinguy 13:51, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

Why enumerate all of them?

I generally agree with the comment above... what's the point of enumerating every Harry on Wikipedia? Special:Allpages will basically do the same thing. And other names (eg. Joshua, David, Christopher, etc.) haven't tried to be complete. --Interiot 18:33, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

You are right, as I said, it is getting silly, like something out of Monty Python. There are two points. If it is done at all then it has to be complete, or else what is included and what is omitted becomes an arbitrary choice out of keeping with an encyclopaedia. If it is done purely mechanically, then it gets out of logical order (is Harry Dean Stanton under H for Harry, D for Dean or S for Stanton, and then what about Harry F Byrd?). There will also be omissions, look at all the Harry Johnsons. I am sure checking them all individually has still left some out, and some are positioned arbitrarily, but it is as close as possible. And, as you rightly say, what is the point, and why not do it for Tom and Dick as well. There are much bigger messes on Wikipedia which limit its usefulness, for example, descriptions of categories and allotting articles to categories, the worst surrounds Oscars and allotting titles and names to more than one simultaneously or at all. Guy 03:10, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

"Chav"

The 'harry' culture is somewhat similar to the british chav culture.

Is there any evidence to support this? The term chav is a recent invention of the British popular press and is virtually meaningless, wheras "harry" appears to be a Norwegian usage of their upper classes being disparaging about the "hoi polloi". Do Norwegians youths wear mock Burberry caps and get drunk and disorderly in public? If you are making a comparison, I would suggest a better comparison is Sloane Ranger in the original Peter York sense, although in this case the objects of attention are rather higher in the social order, and this term too rapidly became meaningless.

I suggest this comment stay here until any evidence to support reinstatement is produced.

I agree. The term 'harry' rarely appears in the same context as the English term chav. I'd say "slask" is a more appropiate Norwegian word for it, actually, though it's still not exactly the same thing. 85.166.252.68 16:13, 1 November 2006 (UTC) Guy 21:58, 6 June 2006 (UTC)

Harry Tomkinson

• Harry Tomkinson - England and Stoke footballer - awaiting a supporting article

2007-02-11 Automated pywikipediabot message

--CopyToWiktionaryBot 22:39, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Information about the name

I can't find any information about the name - country of origin, first historic Harries, etc. (And this kind of info is what I actually wanted to find.) 212.76.37.142 15:17, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

Wiktionary:Transwiki:Harry or Wiktionary:Harry. Pan Dan 17:24, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Disambiguation

Re:[1], no Sweetalkinguy, it was not a disambiguation page. Notable people are not commonly referred to by the public by their first names. A person searching for Harry W. Addison would not think to enter "Harry" as a search term. BTW, please be aware that calling someone's good faith edits "vandalism" is a violation of WP:AGF. Pan Dan 00:15, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

Harold?

No, I don't have a source, but shouldn't Harold be included in this list? I know for Henry, which the article cites, also can be nicknamed with "Hank", but Harold and Harry are pretty close, and I imagine some Harolds call themselves or are called Harry also. ~ GoldenGoose100 (talk) 06:52, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Harry

Harry is spelt with a c 86.8.3.91 (talk) 20:43, 12 January 2023 (UTC)