Life — August 28, 1931 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis of "The Shortest Name Contest" This article satirizes a real 1920s trend where Americans sought extremely short names to get listed first in telephone directories. The Frisbie Cup awards the shortest family name annually. The article mocks contestants who adopted absurd single or double-letter surnames like **Aardvark, Aah, Aaa, Zygote, Zyy, and Zzzz** to gain competitive advantage. One man incorporated himself as the **A.A.A.A.** (Amateur Athletic Association of America) to secure prominence, though he went unrecognized. The accompanying cartoon shows a domestic scene where a woman asks a man, "Good morning, madam. You want men to like your cooking, don't you?"—a joke about changing one's name for social advantage, reflecting the era's absurd status-seeking behavior around telephone book placement and alphabetical ordering.