ATLANTA — An old English-language name that’s relatively new to politics is in focus. The name is Doug, as in Doug Emhoff, the husband of the Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I’m not a big fan of my name,” said Doug Teper, a former Democratic Atlanta politician now working as an environmental lobbyist.
He spoke with 11Alive’s Doug Richards, the author of this story, now writing about himself in the third person.
The two share a first name with Doug Emhoff, who spoke to Democrats this week at the convention in Chicago.
The audience responded with hundreds of chants and red signs bearing that first name.
Yet the name Doug “lands with a thud. Like bug, slug, glug,” Richards told Teper during a Thursday visit at an Atlanta park.
Doug is the name comically attached to one of the two main characters in the Liberty Mutual Insurance company ads, which were spoofed by Saturday Night Live.
“The emu is smarter than the guy named Doug in those ads,” Richards posited.
“I think so,” Teper agreed. “And the way they say ‘and Doug’” with thudding finality.
Both of these Dougs—as well as Emhoff—could have been “Douglas” but stuck with the casual single-syllable name.
Teper said his mother called him “Douglas” only when he was in trouble as a child.
“To this day, everybody I know just calls me by my last name, Teper. Because ‘Doug’ is just such a kind of nondescript thing,” Teper said.
“If you say it out loud... it just sounds like me shouting,” Richards added.
The name did get a bit of redemption in some of yesteryear’s hip hop. But notably, it’s “Dougie” or “Doug E Fresh” rather than just the clunk of “Doug.”
This week, a social media user spotted Atlanta director Spike Lee in Chicago with a Doug Emhoff keepsake – a red “Doug” sign shared by thousands for one brief night.
“I’m gonna get a ‘Doug’ sign,” Teper said. “I think there are more Dougs out there than we really know.”