232 replies to this topic

[David McKinney]

Thanks Jimmy. Fascinating list.
I believe you're right about the Blaton brothers. Jean "Beurlys" is still involved in historic racing, or was three or four years ago (I haven't been going to the right meetings recently to be sure).
I'm also concerned that you do not differentiate between pseudonyms and names changed legally from one to another. I always thought, for example, that Bouillin legally changed his name as Levegh, which means we should call him Levegh, not "Levegh". I have asked in this forum before for confirmation of my suspicion, but without any result. And surely most of those Americans changed their name legally?
Neither Lewis-Evans nor Scott-Brown did anything with their family names, AFAIK. They were born that way. Or are you saying the surnames they were born with were really Lewis Evans and Scott Brown? I knew Giraud had tagged on a Cabntous, but hadn't heard Riseley had given himself a Prichard.
And finally, Mack Fraser never used anything but Fraser as a surname - it is only in recent years that someone decided he should have a hiphen between his given name and surname, and everyone else has religiously followed. How long before we start reading about that great British driver John Michael-Hawthorn?

[anjakub]

Alf Francis:
If he was Pole, his first name was Alfons.

[RDV]

Quote

If I remember correctly, he also used the English name James Bald.

He decided on the surname (which I believe means the same as Calvo, Chauvet and Careca) because of his premature hair loss

.

...also seems to be back on the Euroboss series , or just a homonym? Hey Fritz , is it you?

[Carlos Jalife]

Another french guy who came up was 'Jules' the F3000 champ who was actually Jean Christophe.
And wasn't Jacky Ickx the son in law of one of the pseudonym belgians? Beurlys?

[Jimmy Piget]

Hi, David, thanks for your reply, very interesting about Mac Fraser.

My sources on F1 drivers' "legal" identity are the huge collection of birth & death acts owned by my friends Jean-Paul Lajarrige & Christer Svensson.

According to these unavoidable documents :

- Pierre Bouillin was still Bouillin when he died.
(It is very difficult in France to change one's name ; only when you get a ridiculous one — say : you are born a Mr "F***k" or a Mrs "S***t" and you want to be known by another name, do not laugh, it does happen ! — or if you came from abroad and get French nationality, you may choose a a new name which won't hurt French ears — say you were born Usama bin Laden, now you can be Ursule Blandin)

- This is what birth acts actually read :
William Archibald Scott Brown, son of Mr Brown. (No hyphen, Scott obviously is the third Christian name)
Stuart Nigel Evans, son of Mr Lewis Evans. (Dad is well-known F3 racer "Pop" Lewis-Evans)
Robert Victor Campbell Montgomerie. (No sign of "Charrington")
John Henry Augustin Prichard (No "Riseley")

- I have not yet mentioned anther way to "disguise" one's name, by dropping parts of his when a long and hyphened one.
I think here of Lance von Haugwitz-Reventlow, who had also the Danish citizenship by his father, a count or a baron I don't remember.

Yves Giraud was orphan of his father ; later his mother remarried with a Mr Cabantous who nursed his wife's son. When Yves Giraud began racing in the '1920s, in cyclecars, there was another driver called "Girod" (same French pronounciation as he). Then, he added "Cabantous" to his name, honouring so his step-father.

Oh, by the way, "Eric Lora" was actually Augustin Cochin.

Cheers

[David McKinney]

Jimmy: thank you, thank you, thank you Truly wonderful stuff - just the sort of trivia that I for one find absolutely fascinating
Just a couple of things: I knew Lance's father was Count von Haugwitz-Reventlow - can you confirm Lance was born with the full name? Do you know whether his name was subsequently shortened legally? And I guess it's important to know whether Scott-Brown and Lewis-Evans changed their names legally. Or maybe in UK law you don't have to - perhaps you can bang in a hiphen if the fancy takes you. Official death records should prove all these one way or another.
And thanks very much for settling the Bouillin/Levegh question. At last!
I helped Christer Svensson with a few names about a hundred years ago - good to see his interest has continued!

[lynmeredith]

Quote

Originally posted by David McKinney
Or maybe in UK law you don't have to - perhaps you can bang in a hiphen if the fancy takes you.

David, I think you are right. I seem to remember that you could call yourself anything you wished, provided you had no 'intention to deceive'. So presumably you could call yourself 'Queen Elizabeth the Second McKinney' provided that you were not trying to borrow the crown jewels.

Lyn M

[KJJ]

Motor Sport was using the name Mackay-Fraser in 1957

[Jimmy Piget]

Hi David,

Yes I confirm Lance von Haugwitz-Reventlow.
Incidentally, as he was also the son of Barbara hutton, did you notice that he was one time the step-son of Prince
Igor Troubetskoy (who is srill alive in France now !) ?

Chhers

Jimmy

PS : About pseudonyms, does somebody know about a mysterious French driver called "Macerdady" who raced a bitza Delage/Bugatti at the Gávea circuit (Brazil) circa 1936-1937 ?

[Moyna]

Quote

Originally posted by fines

'Piquet' IS the pseudonym, or rather isn't since his full name is Nelson Piquet-Soutomaior, similar to Ayrton Senna da Silva. IIRC it is the Portuguese way to incorporate the mother's birthname into the last name of the child, as opposed to the Spanish solution which would make it Soutomaior-Piquet and da Silva Senna, respectively. Think Félix can be more accurate about that, can't he?

We here in Brazil (like the Portuguese too) use the mother's name before the father's (when we use both). Nelson's full name is Nelson Piquet Souto Maior, Souto Maior being his father's family name. The old man never wanted his son to be a racing driver, so he did it without the parental permission. He had a clandestine career until he got to Super Vee.

[Moyna]

Quote

Originally posted by Graham Clayton

Can I suggest the poster gives the real name,
pseudonym, and if possible, why the pseudonym
was used?

How about "Fritz" D'Orey?
His real name was Frederico J. C. Themudo D'Orey
I think his mother descends from a German family. That's why he's called "Fritz". In some publications we can find his name as Frederico Themudo.

[hil-nice]

I do not agree for nicknames being considered as pseudonyms.
Every Brazilian named Francisco is "Chico" ; every Italian named Luigi is "Gigi" ; every British named John is "Johnny" or "Jack" ; every French named Jean is Jeannot ; every German named Friedrich is "Fritz" ; any Spanish named Francisco is "Paco" ; and so on...

What does it really mean saying that "Pete" Ryan is the pseudonym of Peter Ryan ?
Are truisms amazing ?

[David McKinney]

Quite right
Problem is, there's sometimes confusion between the two.
But Fritz d'Orey is no more of a 'pseudonym' than 'Mike' Hawthorn or 'Jack' Brabham. They are diminutive forms of their given names, or - if you like - nicknames.

[Prostfan]

I just came across "Ventidue" on Leif Snellman's page. AFAIK it means "22" in Italian. Does anybody know where this nickname comes from?

[Jimmy Piget]

According to Paul Sheldon's black books, "Ventidue" was an Italian whose true name was Wild.
As he was to race, two years ahead, as" Ventiquattro", it is assumed the pseudonym stands for his age at the time of racing.

[Danny1]

Can anyone help me whit the names

"mary"
"Beurlys"

Danny

[David McKinney]

See the post "Beurlys & Mary" started by someone called Danny1
And give people at least a few minutes to answer

[Felix Muelas]

"Beurlys" = Jean Blaton

"Mary" = Jean-Marie Brousselet

Another "Mary" was co-driver to Jean Trévoux at Le Mans 1932 ...

fm

PS : Some notes (in Spanish) about "Mary" here

[petefenelon]

A couple more pseudonyms.

Nigel Moores (of the Littlewoods stores, catalogues, football pools, football clubs, etc. empire that owns a fair chunk of Lancashire) used to race under the pseudonym Willie Eckerslyke. Which amused me.

There was a chap racing a Ferrari in the UK a few years back who took on the dubiously tasteful pseudonym of Lorenzo Bandini. He later reverted to his own name.

pete

[FlagMan]

Willie Eckerslyke raced a white (lightweight?) E-type regularly at Oulton Park in the early 70's

'Lorenzo Bandini' - real name Laurence Rose - raced under the pseudonym as Bandini had been his boyhood hero.

[rtcoman]

Which was Stefano Modena`s name before he changed it to Modena, his birthplace?

[petefenelon]

Quote

Originally posted by FlagMan
Willie Eckerslyke raced a white (lightweight?) E-type regularly at Oulton Park in the early 70's

'Lorenzo Bandini' - real name Laurence Rose - raced under the pseudonym as Bandini had been his boyhood hero.

I remember Nigel/"Willie"'s propensity for D-types too - I think he'd owned about half a dozen of them at various points (at least one of which came from that other Northern legend Brian Classick) and he occasionally brought at least one of them to testing at Aintree. Cue much gawping from a young Pete

Like all good Northern racing drivers Nigel also turned out in glorious Bolton machinery occasionally (Chevrons, often sharing with the usual suspects), and was even down to do Le Mans in a Ferrari Daytona once (Nigel DNS'ed - dont' know why - I think the wonderful historic duo of Willie Green and Neil Corner raced it for JCB).

Sadly he was killed in '77, a passenger in a road accident.


pete

[Eagle104]

Growing up on Long Island, NY, Dan Gurney had a favorite driver called "Ted Tappet" who was an accomplished East Coast Midget driver. Years later, "Ted Tappet" won the Sebring 12Hrs with John Fitch in a Cunningham C-4R, but, by now he was using his given name of Phil Walters. (btw, one of my few 'prized possessions' is a piston from that winning car)

'Fun fact' irony: in 1949, Ted Tappet won a record 14 features at a Massachusetts bull-ring called Riverside Park, in a Stock Car......later, Dan Gurney 'owned' a racetrack in Southern California by the name of Riverside, mainly as a result of his accomplishment there - in a Stock Car!! Cool, eh?

So, why the pseudonym, "Ted Tappet"? ... parents, that's why.

[coyoteBR]

I don't know if it's the case, but one year his CART car was identified as being driven by "Big Mo" Gugelmin.

Also the dominutives, like Wilsinho Fittipaldi. He was called that way to avoid mistakes with his father, who had the same name.
Funny thing is people started to call the Fittipaldi's patriarc "Wilsão" or "Barão". So, in that family we had a big Wilson and a small Wilson but not a regular Wilson.

[TheStranger]

Here's one I've wondered about: the sports car racer (who I think did both world championship and IMSA events) "Fomfor", who is listed under that psuedonym over at Racingsportscars.com.

What was his real name?

[Huw Jadvantich]

Was Norman Hill's family against him doing motor racing?

[Tim Murray]

John Hawthorn's certainly were in favour of him racing.

[Moyna]

Quote

Originally posted by coyoteBR
I don't know if it's the case, but one year his CART car was identified as being driven by "Big Mo" Gugelmin.

Big Mo is Mauricio's nickname in US, like "Emmo" Fittipaldi, but his (Mauricio's) real family name seems to be GUGLIELMIN.

[petefenelon]

Quote

Originally posted by Moyna


Big Mo is Mauricio's nickname in US, like "Emmo" Fittipaldi, but his (Mauricio's) real family name seems to be GUGLIELMIN.

Wonder if he's a distant relative of Steve the British clubbie BMW racer (who I think drops the terminal 'n'....?)

[theunions]

Someone refresh my memory as to Bobby Allison's pseudonym during his early Miami jalopy days.

[llmaurice]

Not of his own making but in 1959 the Freanch (bless 'em ) decided that nobody could be called Innes Ireland , so Innes was announced as "Ives Iveland " !
Today , in Classic FF2000 we have a driver entered as "Sideshow Bob ".

[fausto]

Sorry for not offering quotes, however.........

Pam is Marsilio Pasotti

Gimax is from the names of Carlo Franchi two sons (Gigi/Gi and Massimo/Max)

Luca Cordero di Montezemolo raced a Fiat 500 under the pseudonym Nerone (the emperor who set Rome on fire)

Pooky, another strong touring car/sportscar gentleman driver from the late 60s/early 70s Italian scene is Vincenzo Cazzago

[theunions]

And what's the story behind "Babalus" (Matteo Santoponte), from Italian F3000 and last year's Superfund EuroF3000?

[Stefan Ornerdal]

Anyone who can fill in the blanks in this list?

http://www.formula2.net/Pseudonyms.htm

Stefan

[petefenelon]

Quote

Originally posted by Stefan Ornerdal
Anyone who can fill in the blanks in this list?

http://www.formula2.net/Pseudonyms.htm

Stefan

I've just done a pass through the index of pseudonyms in Janos Wimpffen's wonderful Time and Two Seats and PM'ed some gaps to you, Stefan....

[fausto]

Gianfranco is Gianfranco Trombetti (Promec boss), Pal-Joe is Gianfranco Palazzoli, Merzario manager, Osella/Fondmetal team manager, more later, just some time to make up my mind....

:-)

[Nanni Dietrich]

Quote

Originally posted by Stefan Ornerdal
Anyone who can fill in the blanks in this list?

http://www.formula2.net/Pseudonyms.htm

Stefan

Stefan, I can correct some name in your list:

Armando Floridia is NOT "Black & White", his nickname is only "Ypsilon".
"Bramen" is Romano Bartoli.
"Frate Ignoto", not "Frate Ignato" is Mercanti (I don't know the name).
"Gianfranco" is Gianfranco Trombetti, as Fausto said.
"Hoga" is Gianfranco Horvat.
"Lucky" is also the nick of a good italian rallyman named Luigi Battistolli.
"Matich", not "Matci" is the nick of Gianni Lado.
"M.C." not "Mici" is Marco Crosina.
"Noris" was Giacomo Moioli
"Paul Chris" was Cristoforo Di Giuseppe.
"Pogo" is Sergio Morando.

I can add some other pseudonym of italian drivers, well known in rallies, sportcars and touring cars races:
"Baronio" - Aldo Cerruti
"Bip Bip" - Alberto Brambilla
"Bitter" - Angelo Giliberti
"Cam" - Carlo Fabri
"Dino" - Dino Malet
"Lucas" - Luigi Castiglioni
"Paco" - Spartaco Dini
"Pibo" - Piero Bongiovanni
"Rambo" - Fabiano belletti
"Riccardone" - Carlo Benelli
"Ricky" - Fulvio Braconi
"Rudy" - Roberto Dal Pozzo
"Sonnerkind" - Giorgio Pianta
"Squaw" - Gabriella Mamolo
"Susy" - Alberto Nardari
"Tambauto" - Giuseppe Tambone
"Tango" - Abele Tanghetti
"Tony" - Antonio Fassina
"Victor" - Vittorio Coggiola.

[TheStranger]

A recent one I just saw: Who is the "Bugs Bunny" who finished 11th at the 2004 24 Hours of the Nurburgring?

http://adac.24h-renn...Endergebnis.pdf - I think that's the results page, it should show exactly that name in that finishing position...

[D-Type]

Further to the 'Ives Ireland' tale, I vaguely remember reading that Ivor Bueb was once billed as 'The Russian driver, Igor Bulb'

[Vitesse2]

Quote

Originally posted by Huw Jadvantich
Was Norman Hill's family against him doing motor racing?

Quote

Originally posted by Tim Murray
John Hawthorn's certainly were in favour of him racing.

It always baffles me that people are surprised/shocked/amazed if you are known by your middle name. But then my first name is John and I've always been known as Richard. Just like John Richard "Twice nightly" Whiteley ....

D-Type: was that in the Grauniad perchance?

[Fiorentina 1]

Quote

Originally posted by TheStranger
Here's one I've wondered about: the sports car racer (who I think did both world championship and IMSA events) "Fomfor", who is listed under that psuedonym over at Racingsportscars.com.

What was his real name?

His son is racing in Formula Renault in America, I've seen Fomfor jr in some results.

[lustigson]

Quote

Originally posted by Carlos Jalife
The problem with Piquet and Senna is the same as with other brazilians who use both their family names, as most people do in Latin America+Iberian peninsule. Just think of Mr Neves, also known as Helio Castro Neves, who had to change his name to Helio Castroneves or it would be something strange. The same with Ayrton Senna da Silva and Nelson Piquet Soutomaior and in the end the pres chooses the one they can pronounce easier which in this case was Senna and Piquet but the dad of Ayrton is Milton da Silva, except brasilians put their mothers family name firts and the rest of spanish speaking latinamericans put it afterwards. i.e.
Pedro and Ricardo Rodríguez de la Vega were the sons of Mr. Pedro Rodríguez and Mrs. Conchita de la Vega. Of course you don't need to use both but if you chose to do so as Ayrton then you were in trouble with media which didn't understand the origin.

And sometimes the real common name gets thrown out, like in Pedro (Martínez) de la Rosa the F1 driver or the mexican Rodolfo (Martínez) Lavín the F. Atlantic driver. Since Martínez is very common in spanish speaking countries (and so is Rodríguez), they choose their second (mother's family name) name to make it easier. And even guys like Juan Pablo Montoya, was always known in CART as Juan Montoya, no Pablo please.

If the Portugese/Brazilian practice is [first name] [mother's last name] [father's last name], then I understand Ayrton Senna da Silva and Nelson Piquet Souto Maior, but Nelsinho would have to be called Nelson Angelo (given names) Tamsma (mother's last name) Souto Maior (father's last name). No Piquet in there.

[giacomo]

Quote

Originally posted by lustigson
If the Portugese/Brazilian practice is [first name] [mother's last name] [father's last name], then I understand Ayrton Senna da Silva and Nelson Piquet Souto Maior, but Nelsinho would have to be called Nelson Angelo (given names) Tamsma (mother's last name) Souto Maior (father's last name). No Piquet in there.

Same for Bruno Senna.
In reality: Bruno da Silva Lalli. No Senna in there.

[Vitesse2]

A pseudonym which doesn't seem to be in this thread is "Tim D Davies", a name used by Dudley Folland in the 1930s (Adam F mentioned it in the Welsh Racing Drivers thread though).

Early in his career - at the point where he switched from rallies and long-distance trials - Reggie Tongue adopted a pseudonym in order that his family (and his financial trustees!) wouldn't find out he was risking his life on the Brooklands banking. He raced as A Vincent but "came out" at Le Mans in 1934 and never used the name again.

[soubriquet]

Uk F3, 1980's. Anton Soubriquet.

[Mallory Dan]

Quote

Originally posted by soubriquet
Uk F3, 1980's. Anton Soubriquet.

Whose real name was ???

[David McKinney]

Tony ;)

[soubriquet]

I have no idea; certainly not me. He was quite competitive in the "B" class at the time. I thought it was a smart pseudonym however, and being a smartarse myself....

[humphries]

The British driver Philip Turner perhaps used more pseudonyms than any other driver in the UK. Turner was a regular participant at Brooklands between 1924-1933. He drove a variety of cars, with considerable success, including Bugatti,Talbot, Austro-Daimler, Delage, Lea Francis and Riley.
Turner ran two companies selling cars at the top end of the market, situated in the West End.

Often Turner raced and entered cars using his real name J.P.Turner. However, the pseudonym that Turner is perhaps best known by is "J.Taylor". He used this name regularly in his early racing years but also popped up as "R.Wilson" once in an Austro-Daimler in 1927.

It was when racing Rileys in the early Thirties that he used a number of other names. In the BRDC 500 Mile Race at Brooklands in 1930 he was "S.Bird", comment being made that the driver was not unknown at the track. "S.Bird" did very well and was leading the 1100cc class comfortably and second overall when he retired.

In 1931 there were two pseudonym drivers in Riley cars. "J.Sinclair" and Frank Ashby retired as did E.Martin, whose co-driver was "R.E.Meredith" who never got to drive. "J.Sinclair" I believe was Turner.

In the 1932 "500" race Turner used the obvious soubriquet "J.Philip" and he came home an excellent 2nd overall co-driving with Cyril Paul.

In 1933 Turner was himself, J.P.Turner, partnering Paul again . They finished 3rd overall.

Quite why Turner used so many pseudonyms was difficult to understand until I found out that Turner, more accurately Joshua Philip Turner and that after a deed poll change of name from Joshua Philip Tauchon, was declared bankrupt in 1935 with debts of £30,000 which in today's money is about £1.4 million!! His assets amounted to £100.

At the bankruptcy hearing it was stated "The debtor attributed his insolvency to losses on share transactions, to heavy expenses incurred in connexion with motor-car and speed-boat racing, and to having lived beyond his means". Turner also rode occasionally as an amateur at point-to-point meetings and horse shows.

Obviously Turner may have thought it was prudent to conceal, to some extent, this extravagant lifestyle from possible creditors - thus the use of pseudonyms.

There is a photo of Turner in a 2 litre Austro-Daimler on p168 in Bill Boddy's Brooklands tome at the BARC meeting held on 13 September, 1925.

If anyone can provide additional information or corrections please let me know. His birthday would be useful, although in court he was described as a motor dealer, aged 25, when being prosecuted for his 19th motoring offence! That was in 1922. What happened to him? The last I know of him is when he appealed unsuccessfully in 1937 against his bankruptcy order.

[Geoff E]

His birth was registered in the 2nd quarter of 1897 in the Abergavenny registration district-

Joshua Philip TANCHAN Abergavenny 11a 48 is the way it appears in the BMD index. This is probably the correct surname, as there was another TANCHAN registered in South Wales in that quarter.

He appears in the 1901 census as

Philip TANCHAN 4 born Abergavenny, son of Jacob H TANCHAN 35 a Clothier

Perhaps surprisingly, there was also a Joshua Philip TANCHAN registered in Q2 1899 in the Pontypridd district.

He appears (in Bristol) in 1901 as

Phillip TANCHAN 2 born in Treherbert, son of Tanchan TANCHAN 34 Shopkeeper Furniture Dealer

Both of the fathers were born in Mountain Ash - there has to be the likelihood that they were brothers.