Why is this name so often mis-quoted? the world famous medical research group is Johns / Hopkins named after two people not one. I wonder how many other famous names there are mis quoted?

Two scientists whose names are often mangled are Stephen Hawking (Hawkins, Hawkings etc) and Richard Dawkins (Dawking, Dawkings wtc).

It must piss them off no end.

Perhaps that is where the expression “Dork” comes from?

bob(from black rock) said:

Why is this name so often mis-quoted? the world famous medical research group is Johns / Hopkins named after two people not one. I wonder how many other famous names there are mis quoted?

Can of worms!

I looked up Johns Hopkins of Google. The alternative text in the search box includes “john hopkins hospital”, “john hopkins actor”, “john hopkins tuition”.

The search finds “Johns Hopkins University” but the second entry is “Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American entrepreneur, abolitionist and philanthropist of 19th-century Baltimore, Maryland.”

And the third entry has both versions “Johns Hopkins Medicine, based in Baltimore, Maryland. Discover how John Hopkins Medicine, headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, is pushing the boundaries of biomedical discovery, transforming health care, …”

That’s even without leaving the Google search page.

Then I looked up John Hopkins on Google. Same first six websites pop up!

Looks like “Johns Hopkins” is one of those combinations that is misspelled more often then it is correctly spelled.

> It must piss them off no end.

John Elton is.

Bubblecar said:

Two scientists whose names are often mangled are Stephen Hawking (Hawkins, Hawkings etc) and Richard Dawkins (Dawking, Dawkings wtc).

I knew there was another surname that is also an occupation ending in “ing”, after the Hugo Weaving thread, could not think of it. Duh.

There was a time when “Britney Spears” topped the list for the largest number of different misspellings in Google searches. Just look at this:
http://marc.merlins.org/linux/talks/google/britney.html

> Dork

See http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-secret-origins-of-nerd-dork-and-other-things-you-1482137598 for the origins of words: dork, nerd, geek, weirdo, dweeb, goof, dickweed, egghead and poindexter.

Too rude for me to repeat here. So perhaps it does come from Dawkins.

bob(from black rock) said:

It must piss them off no end.

Yes bob(from block rack), it probably does.