It’s a French name, so what the North American Ganots did was Americanize their surname.

Conan O’Brien’s announcer on “Late Night w/…” was named Joel Godard, pronounced GOD-DARD.

But in French, it’s GO-DAR: the “d” is silent.

I had already known this.

In a film class, not wanting to sound pretentious, I made reference to filmmaker Jean Luc-Godard, using the Americanized pronounciation, because I didn’t want to sound pretentious. But some jerk called me on it and embarassed me in front of my classmates.

The best example of this assimilation tactic, I think, is how Stephen Colbert, loses the “t” in his last name. At this year’s Emmys, it was pretty hysterical how Gwen Stefani mispronounced it COL-BERT. Jimmy Fallon then proceeded to rush the stage and claim Colbert’s award after Stefani’s appalling lack of pop culture awareness. Colbert is not obscure.

Bringing it back home, imagine approaching former UH receiver Justin Colbert and asking, “May I have your autograph, Mr. COL-BEAR?”

The look he would probably give you.

Great job Negus!