Newman's name

I just thought of something. . . what's Newman's first name?

OK...first of all, I'm relatively new to Seinfeld (only the past couple of years) so I haven't seen the entire suite of shows. So, if this has already been discussed, resolved, or whatever, well...sorry.

In last night's show, "The Kiss Hello", Kramer puts pictures of all the building tenants in the lobby, in his solo crusade to make their little corner of the world a friendlier place. The pictures all have names on them, and so far as we know, and by all indications from the script, the names are first names. Several scenes showed Jerry and other tenants greeting each other with "Hello...(then looking at picture)...Scott (or Mary, or whomever...I don't remember them all).

Now, one scene showed a number of pictures, and if you look carefully and quickly, you can see Newman's picture (bottom, center), with the name... NEWMAN.

I've seen a lot of traffic on this newgroup trying to come up with a first name for Newman. Well, I propose, based on last night's show, that Newman IS his first name! It's not that unusual a name, is it? Furthermore, I submit that people who really want to figure out Newman's name should spend their time trying to determine what his LAST NAME is...that should be more of a challenge.

--John, with too much time on my hands

However, you can also see Kramer's picture on the board, and underneath it there's the word "Kramer", not Cosmo.

So maybe Kramer just wrote the names that the people were used to being called. Too bad they didn't put Cosmo...that would've solved the mystery of the spelling of his name.

In jhenders@honlab (John Henderson) writes:

Yes, but if you also look closely, you will notice that Kramer's picture is up there, and the name under it is KRAMER, not Cosmo. I can only conclude that the names under the pictures are the names that the people are commonly addressed by, not necessarily their first names. For example, we never hear anyone address Jerry by calling him "Seinfeld." He is Jerry. Similarly, Newman is Newman. (And Kramer is still Kramer.)

-S.Hill

In article jhenders@honlab (John Henderson) writes:

John, since you are new to the group, please take it in the helpful manner in which it is offered. We know that "Newman" is the character's last name bec ause in a previous episode, a judge refered to him as Mr. Newman. This is why we are trying to come up with a first name. It's not a serious attempt, of course, it's just something to do. Keep watchin' The Sein.

I said it once and I'll say it again. The best possible full name for Newman is... Newman Newman Newman If Newman is his first name, then it would make sense that "Newman" is written under his photo. Furthermore, it sounds hilarious. Of course, we are assuming that Newman does have two names (excluding the middle one, though it is a possibility that he uses it as his first name). It could be that Newman is mononymic (a funky word that I just invented), and in this case, his full name would be just "Newman." Nothing more, nothing less. Rather like Heathcliff from "Wuthering Heights." He didn't have distinct first or last names; it was just "Heathcliff." Newman may be a similar case.

Chris