Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2015 September 8

= September 8 =

Why are so many West African sportsmen named Mamadou Diallo?
There are at least nine of them, from four different countries, playing three different sports. Is it that this is just a popular name anyway in those countries? I can see that our sample may be skewed by the fact that we don't have many articles on people from Guinea, Senegal, Mali and Mauritania, and that most of those we do have are sportspeople. Or is there some other, older Mamadou Diallo, after whom they were all named, but about whom we don't have an article? --OpenToppedBus - Talk to the driver 14:49, 8 September 2015 (UTC)
 * It may be that most of the others are named for Mamadou Diallo (athlete), who was born in 1954 and won a gold medal at the 1982 African Championships in Athletics. All the other athletes bar one were born in 1982 or later.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 15:12, 8 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Why do they need to be named for the same person. If that is a common personal name paired with a common surname, it is no wonder that multiple famous people would share it.  Consider all of the American athletes named Jason Williams for example.  They weren't all named for the same person; they just have a common name!  -- Jayron 32 15:19, 8 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Diallo is an extremely common surname of people who speak any of the dialects of the widespread Fula language and Mamadou is simply the Fula variant of Mohammed. μηδείς (talk) 15:27, 8 September 2015 (UTC)
 * You're probably right, it just struck me as interesting that all of them were sportsmen, rather than being famous for anything else. But it may very well just be a coincidence. --OpenToppedBus - Talk to the driver 15:29, 8 September 2015 (UTC)
 * According to this blog (which repeats what I have read elsewhere), traditionally the Fulani people have one of four surnames, Diallo being one. I started noticing this after the murder of Amadou Diallo. You'll see the name in NYC on taxi licenses and work badges all over the place. μηδείς (talk) 15:42, 8 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Is there any information on the popularity of that first name also? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 19:15, 8 September 2015 (UTC)
 * As noted at Muhammad (name), Muhammad, and its varients, is the most common male given name in the world. Also as noted in that same article "In Senegal and in other West African nations, the variant is Mamadou..."  So, Mamadou Diallo is, statistically, one of the most common names in Fulani, possibly the most common male name, given the commonness of Diallo as a surname.  -- Jayron 32 19:26, 8 September 2015 (UTC)
 * Sort of related - "John" is the most common first name in the USA, and "Smith" is the most common last name, but "John Smith"s are underrepresented, with ~7k fewer than expected . Though "John Smith" is indeed very common, it is far from the most common, probably because of cultural reasons, people with the most common last name may be avoiding the most common first name. Not sure how that would work out with "Mamadou Diallo", but thought it was interesting. SemanticMantis (talk) 14:14, 9 September 2015 (UTC)
 * This article has some interesting statistical analyses. The most common U.S. first name is currently Michael and the most common U.S. last name is currently Smith.  But "James Smith" as a name is slightly more common than "Michael Smith".  Interestingly (perhaps because there is greater variety in female names) there are 6 more male first names than the most common female first name, Mary.  In this case, Mary Smith is also the most common female name in the U.S.  -- Jayron 32 14:41, 9 September 2015 (UTC)