h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm not a boxing fan, but the newspapers today are full of the story of a new British world heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury. He beat the Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko on Saturday night in a fight in Germany. This was a massive shock result - Klitschko had held the title for 9 years and was seemingly unbeatable. Fury was not only unknown on the world stage, he was a bit of a clown at the pre-fight press conferences (dressing as Batman for one of them).

But what amazes me more than anything is that Tyson Fury is his real name. He's the son of a family of Irish travellers (we used to call them 'gypsies' when I was younger). His father, a boxing fan, had named the baby after Mike Tyson.

I wish Mr Fury all the best for his next fight, but I'm struggling to think of a more unlikely real name in sport or entertainment. Maybe you can suggest a few?

(forgot the link)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/34956022

gosh! I heard the name mention on the wireless, this morning, and figured it must be a made-up name! now I know it isn't.... it does seem kinda cooler in an odd way

I'm guessing Tyson Fury isn't related to the Fury Brothers? As in Finbar Fury, the great Uillean pipe player?

Hm, our weatherpeople have names like that. Like Hurricane Schwartz in Philadelphia...bestowed by the stations, however...

Apparently, there was a hockey player named Larry Playfair. Now, that sounds hopeful.

Apparently, there was a Cardinal Sin. And a woman named Ima Hogg.

Need I go on?

People can be careless with names
I have come across a Nora Krust and a Orson Cart

There was a doctor named Butcher.

This might have been why he became a missionary and worked in Thailand at a time when most people there didn't speak English.

There was a lawyers' practice in Sligo town called Argue & Phibbs - the real surnames. They've long since gone, but the lawyers who took it over kept the sign up because so many people found it amusing.

It seems the sign has gone now. http://www.sligotown.net/argue-and-phibbs.shtml

There was Doolittle and Daly Solictors in Bridgenorth Shropshire.

I've worked with a fair few doctors with various names, several Dr Pains, I believe that there are a few Dr D'Eaths, a Dr Cockburn (sadly not a urology), a Professor Kneebone, and a of course a Mr Pepper. Who was a Dr Pepper until he got his membership.

Hello Dmitri- not been around for a while, so saying hello again.

*waves* Good to hear from you again!

eccellent

The Fury Brothers had a strong traveller accent so they may be related.

I know an Arthur mallet and a Remi martain and....mmm.... they're all food or booze related now I think of it ,

Tyson Fury's family are connected with Belfast and the Furey Brothers with Dublin. Both are from Traveller stock but it's a bit problematic saying where travellers 'come from'. You can say where each was born, but the whole point is that they move around.

I was just going to ask that. I wondered how he could be a British boxer if he was Irish. So the Irish travellers who travel in England and Wales - do they have passports? If so, do they have Irish or British passports?

Anyway - good for him. I didn't see anything about this as I was away over the weekend and, understandably, the German news didn't trumpet much about their favourite Klitschko losing a fight!

Irish Traveller is more an ethnicity than a nationality. He lives in Morecambe, Lancashire, England.

Why is Klitschko big in Germany, particularly?

(I know I'm going to regret asking that...)

The ethnicity of Travellers is another problematic issue. At the moment the Irish Travellers are agitating for recognition as an ethnic group with particular rights, but going by DNA their ethnicity is simply Irish -- that is to say, they are largely descended from those people from the north of Spain who populated Ireland after the last ice age. There are strong correlations between the Basque DNA and that found in the west of Ireland, and the Travellers have no other distinguishing DNA (no Romany, for instance).

They have become recognisably distinct, not only from their way of life but also from their tradition of only marrying other Travellers--but that tradition isn't (I gather) of long enough standing to have become apparent in their DNA.

So it would seem that their distinctive features are of lifestyle rather than race. This may not be a sufficient reason to grant them ethnic status.

Besides, granting a group special rights can be more of a curse than a blessing: the reinforcement of what is already a ghetto situation.

Thanks for the explanation of the Travellers, folks. That's more than I knew before. I'm a long-time fan of the Fureys, but I didn't know they had a Traveller connection.

You know, Travellers strike me as being a lot like some North American tribes. They weren't really genetically based - they formed groups that lived together according to a certain set of rules. In fact, if disease, disaster, or war made a group too small to survive, they'd go join another tribe. They weren't 'races', but autonomous collectives.

Maybe we should redefine our concept of 'ethnicity' to include this tribal idea, and leave it at that.