When exactly and why did Siddig El Fadil (Dr. Bashir) change his name to Alexander Siddig?
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Posted by Lt. Tom on :
IIRC, he changed his name between the third and fourth seasons of DS9 to make it more "American"-sounding.
Posted by Lt. Tom on :
Oh, and welcome to the forums! Posted by Masao (Member # 232) on :
I'm changing my name to "Alexander Masao" so that I will sound more American.
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Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Where is Siddig from, anyway?
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Posted by Lt. Tom on :
According to this mini-bio at IMDB, he was born in Sudan but raised in England.
That page also says that he changed his name since nobody could pronounce "El Fadil".
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
I saw him speak at a convention once in Columbus and he said something about after several seasons, no one could still pronounce his name correctly. He may have been half joking.
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Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :
Another question, is the character Bashir supposed to be Arab/Egyptian? No offense, but I'm glad about any non-Anglo-American character.
BTW, I actually can't reproduce why people change their names only to suit the customs of the country where they live. I would never do it.
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Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
Bashir is supposed to sort of an English Arabian character. His parents' names are Richard and Amsha. When they came to the station in "Doctor Bashir, I presume?" (DS9) they both had a definately Arab ancestry.
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Posted by Hobbes (Member # 138) on :
As Aban said, he was sick of people not being able to say his name correctly. I kind of understand too, I'd hate to go through life with a name everyone got wrong... actually I do, my last name gets mispronounced all the time.
Also Alexander was one of the names his mother was considering for him I believe. I got his autograph from before he changed his name which I think is cool.
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Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :
Actually, I always thought the casting of Bashir's parents was really cool. Richard is clearly an Englishman living off-island, Amsha is clearly of non-European causcoid descent, but other than that no clue... The two together perfectly make up Bashir...
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