Why Beatle?

Well I don’t know how many of you would know about Beetle Bailey but if you were to do a search on your favourite search engine you’d find a few references to him. Beetle Bailey is a cartoon character created by Mort Walker back in 1950 and is set in a Unites States military post. Beetle Bailey is the main character in the comic strip, there are many other equally interesting characters, and is your typical soldier that is forever getting into trouble, in a light hearted way. The cartoon character found himself conscripted into the US army during the Korean conflict and has been a feature in many newspaper ever since. It is among the oldest comic strips still being produced by the original creator.

So that’s Beetle Bailey but what about Beatle Bailey?
When I was but 13 yo and in my first year of high school my bible education teacher, who I became quite good friends with, and rugby coach had the habit of calling me by my surname as opposed to my first name. Not long into my first year of school and obviously drawing a parallel between myself and the cartoon character, I was also a bit of a naughty little boy, my teacher started calling me Beetle Bailey, and it stuck. During my high school years the nickname got used more and more until I fear most people must have forgotten my real first name and only knew me as Beetle.

The very same teacher that started it all off, when meeting my parents for the first time about 3 years into high school, actually addressed my parents as Mr. and Mrs. Lee, obviously getting the first and surname mixed up through lack of use of my surname.

So I had been nicknamed and I thought it was quite a fitting nickname as I could relate to the cartoon character and the shenanigans that he got up to. Beetle Bailey became as entrenched in my life as my real name and I liked it.

During the early stages of all this nicknaming I thought about the implications of using a copy written name and I decided to change the spelling to Beatle. This brought on a whole new level of confusion in people who didn’t know the history or the cartoon character and I started getting associated with the Fab4 Beatles on the 60s. I have had that conversation so many times that it plays through my mind like a well rehearsed script and I am permanently at the ready should anybody get me confused again.

I have owned the beatle.org.uk domain now since 2000 as I couldn’t get my hands on beatle.com at the time and I was moving back to England. I have subsequently secured beatle.me.uk for my personal site and will use beatle.org.uk for my internet marketing site until such time as I come up with a different name to use.

There you have it, the history of Beatle Bailey. I trust you enjoyed reading it and would ask that you post any and all comments as I would be very interested in your opinions.