Back on Thursday 11/6, amid the hour-long marathon of signing and notarizing documents, the jaunty house notary remarked, with surprise and delight, that she’d never had an A.Z. before, never in 25 years on the job. (There are a fair number worldwide, but, it seems, very few in the US — and there have apparently only ever been two Arnold Zwickys, the other being my father.) On a quick ramble through my memory, I found only three Americans:
— Anthony Zerbe, a reliable character actor on tv and in film
— Arnie Zane, dancer and choreographer, performing with his lover Bill T. Jones in their joint dance company
— and Allen Zimmerman, better known by his stage name Bob Dylan [see RF’s comment below; he’s Robert Allen Zimmerman, so an R.Z., not an A.Z.]
To these three, net resources add:
— Agnes Zimmerman, who performed under the stage name Ethel Merman
And I personally add, from outside the US:
— Armen Zakharyan, the extraordinary literary scholar, subject of my 10/1/22 blog posting “Armen Zakharyan”
Significance. There’s a silly site that ranks people (from all over the world) with a given set of initials for their significance; for A.Z., I don’t make the top 200. Well, I tell people I’m a person of little significance. (Now value, that’s something else)
On the other hand, in a list of people with the surname Zwicky, with significance values attached to each, I come in as #2 (significance a minuscule 1/100), after the astrophysicist Fritz (significance only 5/100); then, in order, the Australian film producer Karl, the Canadian poet Jan, and the Australian poet Fay (all, alas, 0/100).
I’m not telling you who did these reputational rankings and ratings, because their methodology is surely dubious; they should be treated as entertainment, not research.
And that’s the diversion for 11/8.
November 9, 2025 at 7:11 am |
Someone I know from my dancing community is also a music reviewer for a local newspaper, and her byline is “A.Z. $SURNAME”; her birth name starts with Z and her chosen name starts with A. Since neither is her surname, I suppose it doesn’t count.
November 9, 2025 at 10:07 am |
Ah, so this would be like A.B. for AllenBob (ZimmermanDylan) or C.M. for CassiusMohammed (ClayAli), but used by someone for whom both identities are significant — so, like A.A. for ArnoldAlex (ZwickyAdams)?
November 9, 2025 at 3:19 pm |
Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman (and doesn’t seem to have ever gone by Allen) so not quite an A.Z. in the same sense.
November 9, 2025 at 4:33 pm |
Absolutely right. I will adjust the text, but leave this exchange, since my error has crept into other places.
November 11, 2025 at 8:03 pm |
You mentioning of Armen Zakharyan, reminded me that I planned to post on FB about his new English-language YT channel. So I did.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CwEQbcbqf/
November 13, 2025 at 12:53 pm |
A fictional A.Z. is Arnold Ziffel the delightful television watching pig 🐷 from the television show Green Acres which aired in CBS from 1965-1971.
WikiP: Arnold’s first TV appearance is in the second season of Petticoat Junction, in the episode “A Matter of Communication”.
November 13, 2025 at 12:56 pm |
If you’re going for fiction, you cannot omit the nefarious Arnold Zeck, created by Rex Stout — Nero Wolfe’s Moriarty, you might say.
November 13, 2025 at 1:05 pm
Arnold Ziffel and Arnold Zeck are old acquaintances, often posted about. But they are, alas, fictional. Not likely to appear in my lawyer’s office.