Talk:Dennis

Dennis the whale

 * According to the account of Mocha Dick in The Knickerbocker of January 1839, "Dennis" is the name given a whale when, because of injury from a harpoon or lance, it begins to spout blood. I'm guessing it may be derived from the wine-like color of the bloody foam and also be derived from Dionysos. --Dystopos (talk) 05:00, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

Dennis is directly derived from The Greek god of wine 🍷. Bacchus (Dionysus) Dennismary (talk) 06:02, 9 September 2017 (UTC)

Not a Turkish variant

 * I removed the Turkish "Deniz" from the list because it is not a variant of the name. There is only a phonological similarity, Deniz is a very old Turkic name unrelated to Dionysos meaning "Ocean". Additionally, I removed the part that mentions Dennis also being a name used by Muslims which is not the case at all and quite ironic if you consider the belief that stands behind the name and its references to polytheism and alcohol, both being strictly prohibited in Islam. 188.105.234.91 (talk) 12:39, 3 September 2011 (UTC).

I removed Deniz once again for the reason above. Please stop changing it back - look up deniz in a Turkish dictionary, it merely means "ocean" and has nothing to do with the name Dennis or any variant of it. If you insist on changing it back, please be so kind and add a source to verify your claims. 178.7.4.214 (talk) 14:45, 28 December 2014 (UTC)


 * This point is really nothing to fight about, especially since it is plain that neither one of you know very much about it. My advice is that you both leave it alone and leave it to someone who has better knowledge. How do you know what is used by whom unless you look it up? So you found a word for ocean in a dictionary. It often happens that foreign words, especially names, pass from one language to another by a process called the wave theory, or by borrowing. Homonyms also happen, words that are pronounced the same but have no etymological connection. If I were to work on this now I would start by deleting everything you both have put in the article. All of it is unsourced. For another thing, Dennis has no connotation of alcohol and polytheism. That is all in your head. When parents name their infant Dennis they don't have any mystical theory. Bottom line: get out of this article, as you are not qualified to say anything meaningfull. Don't try attacking me, I'm not going to answer.Botteville (talk) 01:28, 23 April 2017 (UTC)

Suggestions for improvement
I see there is a lot about Dionysus. Don't you think this material goes under Dionysus? Dennis comes from Dionysius, to be sure, but between Dionysus and Dennis stands Dionysius. All we need to do here is show the transition from Dionysius to Dennis. Dionysius is already covered in its article. Second, long lists are usually broken up by a topical arrangement with TOCright showing the arrangement up front so you don't have to spend all your time scrolling. Third, it would be useful if the items had dates and a little more description. Fourth, the list is incompletely formatted. Much list material is in the intro. Fifth, etymology is something best not guessed at if you have no linguistics background. The etymological part needs a lot of error-fixing. I would say, if you really want to do it and not rely on someone more educated in it, spend some time looking it all up in etymological dictionaries and trying to cram on beginning Greek and Latin. There is no disgrace in not knowing everything there is to know, you know? I'd work on this but I just improved Dionysius and I want to get back to something else. Luck.Botteville (talk) 01:28, 23 April 2017 (UTC)