In view of recent posts on this thread, I have been wondering about “Dr Robert”, the eponymous subject of the famous Beatles song (“Ring my friend I said you’d call, Dr Robert / Day or night he’ll be there any time at all, Dr Robert …”). If this were a surname, one would rather expect the genitive patronymic “Roberts”. Indeed, according to the informative webpage http://www.beatlesebooks.com/dr-robert, it appears that candidates for real-life characters upon whom this Dr Robert might be loosely based include a Charles Roberts; but the writer of that page plumps instead for Dr Robert Freymann – without, I should add, any indication that this title-plus-first-name moniker was influenced by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi or any other acquaintances of subcontinental origin.

Yours, Simon Brodbeck

Cardiff University

From: INDOLOGY [mailto:indology-bounces@list.indology.info] On Behalf Of Dominik Wujastyk
Sent: 17 June 2015 14:47
To: Jonathan Silk
Cc: Indology
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] prof. or mr. or mrs. or ms. etc first name

Ah, yes, ecclesiatical titles.  Of course. 

"You are old, Father William, the young man said,"

And yet,

"The Amazing Adventures of Father Brown."

And nobility.  As in one of our own,

Sir James.

Isn't it pleasant to speak of inconsequential matter

s

, just for a while?

Dominik