A Random Poll for a Thursday Morning

[gnomi]

[Poll #1138406]

Comments

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

Check? No, I'm Hungarian...

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

::hands you a snack::

[tygerseye.livejournal.com]

HAHAHA

*shakes head*

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

As I've said before, I'm virtually incapable of letting a pun go. :-)

[kmelion.livejournal.com]

Check mate!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

That, too. :-)

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

I've never heard the phrase 'given a name check' before. Shout out conveys (to me) a positive reference.

[byrne.livejournal.com]

me too, on both counts.

[dpolicar]

Tritto. Also, shout-out suggests a targeted naming, as in "Hi Bob!" rather than an incidental one, as in "Bob was indicted today for smoking shoe leather"

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's how I'd use "shout out." "Name check" is more along the lines of your second example.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Above, in the poll, I used "Bob was name checked," which I've heard a lot recently.

[byrne.livejournal.com]

never heard or read it before in my life. Regional?

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think generational.

[byrne.livejournal.com]

oh jeeze, I know I just had a birthday, but now I really feel old.

ack.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

::snerk:: I'm a month older than you, young lady. :-)

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

dude, we're almost the same age and i've heard it before. i've used it before. maybe it's an american vs canadian thing.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

Actually, the phrase I used was "Bob was name checked."

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard that phrase either.

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

As I said above to byrne, I think it's a generational thing.

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

And their music is just noise!

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

And they should just get off my lawn!

::shakes fist::

[sorek.livejournal.com]

A "name check" is used when a not famous person mentions meeting someone famous e.g. "I was speaking to Senator Clinton the other day". On sports radio in Boston, this is frequently followed by a bicycle horn sound aka "they're tooting their own horn". It's considered tacky. Also known as name dropping.

A "shout out" is the same thing in reverse. A famous person mentioning someone not famous. An example of this would be a radio personality mentioning someone from his/her childhood: "Id like to give a shout out to my 6th grade English teacher. Mr Smith told me I could have a great career in radio". It's considered a positive. A shout out can also be from one non famous person to another such as one radio caller professing his love to his sweetheart, on the radio "I'd like to give a shoutout to my girlfriend, I love you Becky!"

[glishara.livejournal.com]

I am with you on this. Name check always feels very self-aggrandizing, as in, "Well, you know that Soandso agrees with me!" Shout-outs are good for the people being mentioned, and name-checks are good for the mentioner.

[violetcheetah.livejournal.com]

i've heard both, but they both sound weird to me with bob as the subject. i'm much more used to hearing "fred gave a shout-out to bob" or "fred name-checked bob."

[csbermack.livejournal.com]

I think of a shout-out as the speaker using their fame (or at least their media platform) to bring attention to someone else. I think of name checking as someone trying to use someone else's fame to bring attention to them. Both imply some kind of personal or professional connection between the speaker and the spoken-of.

But I think usage is also pretty blurry, and that name checking is starting to mean anytime you mention someone you know by working them into the conversation.

[twitch124.livejournal.com]

cshiley's first paragraph is the usage I know. the relative fame levels are the key part of it for me.

[madfilkentist]

Both of those sound strange to me.

[byrne.livejournal.com]

Oh, name DROPPING! Got it. Well, in that I've still never ever heard name check but it seems to be the same thing as a name drop.

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

See, I don't think of "name check" and "name drop" as being the same thing - a "name check" doesn't have the self-aggrandizing feel of a "name drop." "I was working out with Bob Harper yesterday, and he said the most amazing thing.." is a name drop. "My neighbor Bob had the funniest story to tell yesterday" is a name check. A shout out is specifically mentioning someone on radio to boost their ego/wish them a happy/merry/joyous whatever: "I just wanna give a shout out to all my girls on the East Side for their great basketball game yesterday - go Tigers!" A "shout out" is almost always labeled as such, whereas a "name drop" and "name check" is generally parenthetical.

[byrne.livejournal.com]

But... then how the heck is a name check anything other than normal conversation? In your example I would never retell a story without giving credit, you know?

maybe it's my fever, but the whole thing makes no sense to me.

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

"Name checks" and "shout-outs" also have to be broadcast - a "name drop" can be in private conversation.

[byrne.livejournal.com]

But your example was a private conversation?

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

It wasn't, really - it was, in my head, in the context of your basic top-40 station morning show.

Sorry that wasn't clear.

[byrne.livejournal.com]

Oh! I haven't listened to commercial radio in 20 years or more, so that went right over me. (is Bob Harper a 'name'? *is Canadian and out of the loop, too* )

I still find myself thinking there are far too many names for the way people talk. Or maybe that's the fever. ;-D *goes to bed, yo*

[thespisgeoff.livejournal.com]

Bob Harper is the trainer on Biggest Loser.

I have a crush on him.
He's lean and hairy and yogic.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Yay Radek! Nerds are love.

As may have been evident in the 'what is fanfiction' thread in my own journal, I don't think of namechecking and namedropping as the same thing. Namedropping is clearly meant to imply that the namedropper is cool because she has met (or is known to) the droppee. Namechecking, as I think of it, is meant to imply that the namechecker is cool because she has heard of the checkee.

Namedrop: "Songs about ninjas? I had coffee with Jonathan Coulton the other day and he told me he's writing one."

Namecheck: "Songs about ninjas? That'd be cool. Maybe someone will write one as an answer song to Jonathan Coulton's song about zombies."