Is 'Punch' Jewish?

The only Punch I've ever heard of is the one in the puppet shows, which I think a generation or two ago were big in England--don't know if that's still true today or not. But from what I remember, Punch's big thing was to beat everybody he disagreed with, which was most of the world, with a large (for a puppet) stick, including most particularly Judy. I'm not sure a name reminiscent of a wife beater is a good choice, particularly for a baby girl.

Ah-ha-ha . . . you know you're really in trouble when she calls you by your brothers' names before she gets to yours.

It was his son, and it was because his wife has a Jewish grandma. I've never met his son, but if he wants to name his daughter after a Jewish ancestor he doesn't strike me as anti-semitic.

I think that's his concern as well.

No, it doesn't strike me that way, either. However, i doubt the accuracy of the claim. It is very common in English family names that common nouns creep in or that they're descriptive--Miller, Carter, Fuller and others are rather obvious. Franklin means a serf who bought his freedom. Palmer means someone who made the pilgrimage to the Holy Land (and brought back a palm frond to prove it). There is something rather Dickensian about it though, kind of like Uriah Heep or Mr. Guppy or the Cherryble brothers.

It's a brand of cigars, but there's nothing Jewish about that. Goys like a good cigar too.

Singing..sing with me ... You got to have fronds!

My family once belonged to a NYC synagog that had almost 5,000 members. One summer it was my job to type all the members names onto label sheets so in the future they could be copied off one of those new fangled Xerox machines. No one on that list was named Punch, first or last. Punch is something you drink at a party or do to a Jew if you are a Nazi. Tell them to go with Lucy Rebecca or Lucy Ruth.

Well I don't think that what I say is worth much, but the kid's grandfather objects to the name Punch, just because it means hit. Next time I see him I'll ask if his objections were sustained or overruled. That may not be for some time, it was about 16 years since we last met.

i'll have to check my copy of Neil Gaiman's "The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch", i think the protaginast and his family might have been Jewish, although they may have been a generic european background

Did he actually tell them he objected to the name they were proposing?

Wow, never heard of this one.

Well, I don't know if he went as far as that, but he was very luke warm in his reaction to it, we are British after all.

it's a great story and the art is spectacular