Talk:Ian St John

message: Recently a death date was added of 8th February 2007, but I removed this as I can't find any evidence for this anywhere on the internet. Kristmace 16:08, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Death 

message: There's a persistent urban myth that there was a sign outside a Liverpool church saying "Jesus saves!" to which some joker had appended "But St. John scores on the rebound!" If - if - this was real, then the article would benefit from its being mentioned. If it can't be solidly backed up, though, I think it falls into the realms of trivia and should be left out. 81.153.111.37 (talk) 04:10, 23 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Graffiti? 

message: This guy has a song called "Slaughterman" (1988) which includes the line "No would-be Ian St. John's are gonna bring me down". Whether this refers to ISJ's career as a footballer or his contemporary work as a pundit I don't know. It's just a little reference that sticks out like a sore thumb in the song...  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.102.12.150 (talk) 13:11, 13 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Reference in a song by Martin Stephenson 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: How was his surname pronounced? Was it the "sinjun" pronunciation found in other people with this name? Beorhtwulf (talk) 10:12, 2 March 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: No, it was more like "SntJOHN". Struggling to find video examples in a quick search, mostly he's the one doing the interviews so not being introduced. here is an example, not exactly the most polished professional production tho. Crowsus (talk) 11:03, 2 March 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: That's very useful, thanks. I've added this to the article, and have managed to find a video where he says it himself. Beorhtwulf (talk) 12:51, 2 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pronunciation 

message: Most sources just say he died, but  says "Liverpool said St John died on Monday evening"- so his date of death should be 1 March 2021. Please let me know if you disagree, or sources say to the contrary. So far as I can see, all sources were written today, but didn't explicitly say he died today. Joseph2302 (talk) 11:14, 2 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Date of death 

message: The infobox says his birth name was "John St John", and this is sourced to https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/record-results?search_type=people&dl_cat=statutory&dl_rec=statutory-births&surname=St%20John&surname_so=exact&forename_so=fuzzy&from_year=1937&to_year=1939&county=LANARK&record_type=stat_births but that link doesn't actually contain any relevant information, instead being a login/registration page. The only archive.org snapshot of that URL is similarly unhelpful. John as first name doesn't appear anywhere else in this article, nor in today's obituaries, nor in the authority files of ISNI and the LoC which likely take his name from his published autobiography. So it is not clear that he was born John, and if he was, he appears to have changed his name at some point. Can anyone find a source to clear this up, e.g. any mention in his autobiography? Beorhtwulf (talk) 16:48, 2 March 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: I registered an account on their website, so that I can see the search. The only information on that page is that there was someone called John St John who was born in 1938 in Lanark. No further details available there, and this feels a bit like WP:SYNTH or WP:OR to say that it's definitely him, in my opinion. Joseph2302 (talk) 17:19, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

text: I did another search , and that John St John is the only person with surname St John born in Scotland in 1938. Although, I'm not sure that searching through a website is good enough to actually show that it is him. You would have thought if John St John is his name, at least one obituary would have mentioned it. Joseph2302 (talk) 17:21, 2 March 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for your research. It seems likely to me that the John St John in the records is the Ian St John of this article, and that perhaps Ian was a middle name used from childhood (either recorded at birth or not - I don't know if the website you have access to would answer that definitively), with "John" being on the birth certificate but not used in practice. As you say, this requires some inference on our part. We will probably never know whether he dropped John via deed poll, or just never used it. I would guess that these days if you wanted to apply for a passport or a driving licence or open a bank account you would find yourself dealing with sticklers for exact matching of names, but in his younger years this may not have been the case. He could just be "Ian St John" on all official documents other than birth certificate despite never formally renouncing the "John" via deed poll. Beorhtwulf (talk) 17:31, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

text: That website only lists John as his forename, and St John (no .) as his surname. Which is odd, because other people have middle names listed, and there's no mention of Ian anywhere there. I'm getting more and more sceptical about whether we should be using this is a source for his name... Joseph2302 (talk) 17:42, 2 March 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree. It seems quite likely then that Ian wasn't recorded at birth even as a middle name, but his family called him that from a young age, and it ended up as his name whether by formal change or just being adopted as such. Although I would bet the John St John on the website is him, all reliable sources refer to him as Ian. Currently our article says John was his birth name in the infobox, and in the intro calls him John "Ian" St John. I would favour removing the birth name line from the infobox and reverting to "Ian St John" in the opening line of the text. Beorhtwulf (talk) 10:25, 3 March 2021 (UTC)

text: I'll fess up, it was me who added this to the infobox as Birth Name, but not to the lead. I can't remember the exact circumstances, I think I was just seeking to verify the birth year was correct, don't think I read info about John anywhere else (e.g Biography, which had an online preview at the time I looked at it but now doesn't) or else I would have added it as a ref there. Without discounting a small possibility there's some even more bizarre explanation behind his name, I am confident that is him - as as been confirmed above, there were no other male St John's born in 1937-1939 anywhere in Scotland, and no 'St. John' or 'Saint John' either. Furthermore the info on the search term mentioned above was slightly wrong - the county was Lanark (i.e Lanarkshire) but the entry for John St John had the registration District of Dalziel parish, i.e Motherwell. So rather than being a nearby place, it is precisely Ian's hometown. As for the name change reason, I can't account for it specifically; it's fairly common for John to be changed to Iain/Ian (the Gaelic equivalent) in Scottish families where the same forenames dominate, but in this case his father was Alex so no huge need to differentiate - though the same site has John St John born nearby in 1900, 1931 and 1950, I've not looked into that further but it's not a common surname so it would not surprise me to find that was Ian's uncle and cousin followed by a nephew too so maybe that would be reason enough to want a different name. And personally, I think John St John is a slightly silly-sounding name, if it was me and there was a chance to switch it to something else similar, I'd take it. This forum of football historians mentions the matter last year and appears to confirm it further, can't remember if I read it there before my edit here or just reached the same conclusion. Anyway I realise that forum isn't a useable source, and it's all straying into OR so I shouldn't really have added it in the first place. So hope that explains the reasoning behind its inclusion but please do remove it if you feel that's most appropriate. Crowsus (talk) 12:17, 3 March 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Impressive research! I was slightly surprised to see the sheer amount of other notable John St Johns... —Jonny Nixon (talk) 18:05, 3 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  First name