Ashley

Back in May, Jeré Longman’s “Racism and Soccer Are in Play at a Big Event in East Europe” appeared in the New York Times. I wish to draw your attention to the following:

In 2011, the Bulgarian soccer federation was fined after fans made monkey chants toward the English players Theo Walcott, Ashley Young ... and Ashley Cole during a European qualifying match in Sofia.... Ashley Walcott, the brother of the English wing Theo Walcott, said recently on Twitter that the family was avoiding Euro 2012 “because of the fear of possible racist attacks/confrontation.”

Three Ashleys. All men, all born in the eighties, all English, all British African Caribbean.

I know very, very, very little about naming trends outside of the United States. I know that names like Alfie are popular in Britain, and that names like Graham come freighted with certain class and age associations, although I could not tell you exactly what those associations are.

I know very, very, very, very, very little about naming trends in mid-eighties England. Whereas I can say something somewhat profound, if perfunctory, about what a given name tells us about race and class in the United States, I am at a total loss when it comes to how these things bear out elsewhere.

Do the three Ashleys cited above reflect an actual naming phenomenon? Is there is a popular culture figure we can identify as its primary source? Is there a significant number of twenty- and thirtysomething white Englishmen named Ashley? Who, if anyone, is being named Ashley these days? Male babies? Female babies? The children of immigrants? The brothers (or sisters) of Alfies?