The Little-Known Supreme Allied Commander Exception

Jeff Greenfield in Slate on "the perils of running for President with an unusual name":

Run down the names of the 42 men who have held the office: From Washington to Madison to Grant to Wilson to Clinton to Bush, the names ring with echoes of Northern Europe, of Scotch-Irish or Dutch or German ancestry. Of all our presidents, only one bore a name that could fairly be called unusual: Eisenhower, our only four-syllable president. About that exception, two points:

Everybody called him "Ike."

When you win a world war, you can have any damn name you want.