Talk:My Name Is Mud

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The phrase "my name is mud" appears to have a meaning like "I'm not very popular". As a non-native English speaker I wasn't familiar with this. Maybe someone can properly add an explanation to the page?

-Gave example for when some one would say it.
 * To say say "your name is Mudd" (or less scholastically "mud") is a reference to Doctor Samuel Mudd, who treated John Wilkes Booth after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Though this was his duty as a physician because of the Hippocratic oath, for Americans this ultimately considered a rather traitorous action and he was ultimately convicted of conspiracy to murder the President.


 * Samuel Mudd is sometimes mistakenly given as the origin of the phrase "your name is mud", however this phrase has its earliest known recorded instance in 1823, 10 years before his birth and is in fact based an obsolete sense of the word 'mud' meaning 'a stupid twaddling fellow'.


 * More fool me, I thought it came from Harcourt Fenton Mudd. ;-p 67.5.147.77 06:12, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

Just wondering, the "speaker" of the song is described in the article as a "white collar" drunk. Usually white collar implies a medical profession; the term would be "blue collar." Am I wrong?? If I don't see a response in a week or so I'll change it myself, but I'm pretty sure it's blue, not white.

Also, in the movie "Falling Down" (also released in 1993) one of the characters(the cop, portrayed by Robert Duvall) says at the very end of the "My name is mud," when asked what his name was. Could this be a reference to the movie, or vice versa?
 * Not at all likely. The saying is older than either source in the first place, but also the two were released barely two months apart. Due to the production cycle of both, neither would have been aware of eachother's content at the time of recording/filming.---D--- (talk) 00:06, 13 June 2010 (UTC)


 * White collar is indicative of any intellectual profession(ie doctor, lawyer, executive). Whereas, blue collar, refers to laborers(such as farmers, mill workers or construction laborers). 2600:1700:2442:4270:156A:ABF7:1519:7440 (talk) 17:15, 17 June 2023 (UTC)

Wile E. Coyote is also popular for this saying. I would bet the Warner toons have had a bigger impact on Les Claypool then some action movie.

My name is mudd. this phrase is in reference to Samuel Mudd who aided Booth in the Lincoln assassination. If he helped or not was unclear in studies a long time ago. "my name is mudd" is refering that whether he commited this act of helping booth was UNCLEAR, as in mudd. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.209.224.110 (talk) 19:28, 10 May 2009 (UTC)


 * No, the saying is "My name is mud", with one D. The Samuel Mudd one is a mistake. Here - http://www.thewatchdogonline.com/idioms-my-name-is-mud-282 - shows that the phrase was in a slang dictionary 43 years before Mudd became famous. 188.29.164.84 (talk) 14:32, 29 August 2015 (UTC)

"My name is mud" relates to the idea of a person's "good name". It means your reputation is worsened. Same as "blacken my name". Nothing to do with twaddling or stupid. In the case of the song, I imagine Mud is some poor redneck family's 17th child, and they just couldn't be bothered thinking of a name for him. Since "Mud" is his actual name, according to the lyrics. Cletus Spuckler in The Simpsons is another joke based around redneck families giving large broods of children silly names. 188.29.164.84 (talk) 14:45, 29 August 2015 (UTC)