name check

[zelie]

I know what the phrase 'name check' refers to - but where did it come from? And why a name CHECK rather than a tick?

[Quizmonster]

Both 'check' and 'tick', basically meaning 'correct' - as in that Nike symbol consisting of two short lines at an angle - date back to the early 19th century. (If you draw a checked pattern, it consists of a linked series of such symbols.)

Dickens used the earliest-recorded version, in the form of 'check off', meaning to mark as correct in 'Nicholas Nickleby'.

In British English, the words are in effect synonymous; in American usage, 'Check' can also mean 'I agree/that's right.'

[zelie]

So why is it that when someone mentions the names of others it is known as a 'name check'? Where did the phrase originate?

[Quizmonster]

I'm not totally sure what you mean when you say "when someone mentions the names of others". In my experience, a name-check happens only in such specific circumstances as when a teacher ticks/crosses off the names of present/absent pupils in the register.

In that respect, a name-check is no different from a book-check, an equipment-check, a shopping-list check or any one of a multitude of other possible checks...a situation in which someone reads down a list and marks with a tick each book/item/whatever that is present.

It is so general, that I can't imagine you will find where the phrase originated.

[zelie]

I'm thinking more along the lines of when radio or tv presenters invite phone_in guests to 'name check' their friends and family. The generic 'hello to everyone who knows me' usually covers it but who started using the phrase 'name check'? It's not one I have come across in any other context.

[Quizmonster]

My apologies, Zelie, but I've never heard the phrase used in this way - though it does sound like an invitation to the guest to "go through a list of appropriate names" in much the same way as marking a register! Sorry, but I've no idea who started using this radio-commentary device.