5am thoughts

[dhampyresa]

Why is it (Victor) Hugo, (Miguel) Cervantès, etc, but Dante (Alighieri)? Why are we all on a first name basis with a poet from the 1300s?

Comments

[eller]

This, and the fact that 'Dante' was a nickname. His actual individual name ('first name' by modern European standards) was 'Durante'. So, this is a specific short form of a name that's already quite rare. (The name may have been a bit more common in medieval Italy than it is today, I don't know, but it's not as if the history books are chock-full of guys called 'Durante', either.) When talking about a writer called 'Dante', I think there's exactly one guy this can refer to.

On the other hand, referring to a writer as 'Victor' doesn't make much sense - that's an incredibly common given name, and I'm relatively sure there's more than one guy called Victor who wrote a successful book... Same goes for Miguel.

[flamingsword]

This.

[dhampyresa]

I'm relatively sure there's more than one guy called Victor who wrote a successful book... Same goes for Miguel.

I think those are LIES and Victor and Miuel are the most unique names in the world, how dare you.