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I know just about zero about opera. Actually, I can't stand the way operatic music sounds. Talk about grating! Anyway, I don't think anything at all was thought about Dick in most circles, back in the day. It may have had its slang meaning as far back as the early 20th century, but most people didn't immediately think of that meaning when they heard the name, as apparently a lot of people do now. I know a nice 80-something named Dick Hardel. It irks me when people smirk at Dick.

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eta: I'm aware of the slang meaning of Johnson. Even so, upon hearing the name Dick Johnson I don't bat an eye.

This message was edited 8/8/2014, 7:21 AM

Actually my Grandfather was named Richard D. Sweet... aka Dick Sweet.

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No one seemed to notice anything until the last couple of years. Facebook wouldn't let him join ;)

Where I live, there's a highly intelligent, charming, cultured classical musician (singer, conductor, choirmaster, broadcaster - good guy) named Richard Cock. Consider that one. Many people have said, behind his back, that his parents were most unfair. To his and their credit, he never goes by Dick.

I don't know much about opera. In fact, I know very little. So I had to look up when Puccini lived and when he wrote that opera. I discovered he lived from 1858 to 1924 and "La Fanciulla del West" was completed in 1910.

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RoxStar may be technically correct in saying that "dick" meant in 1910 what it does now, because I think I do remember that its very first recorded use as a slang term for the male member dates to the 1890s or around there. But, I guarantee you it did not become widely known or used as such until much later than that. I had an uncle who was named Richard nn Dick. He was always called Dick. He was born in 1929, and I'm pretty sure that nobody in 1929 thought "penis" when they heard Dick. It was a perfectly acceptable name or nickname. There was Richard Nixon, who was called Dick by his intimates, and he was born in 1913. People in 1913 and 1929 were not giving their kids a name that was a commonly known slang term for "penis." That's why I don't think that Dick Johnson would have raised an eyebrow in 1910, not even among anglophones.

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I'm a little defensive about Dick because it's always annoyed me the way some people have snickered when I've mentioned my Uncle Dick.

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Anyway, I suppose now that "dick" is a commonly known slang term, Dick Johnson could be considered funny, but I don't find it particularly so, especially as I'm totally unfamiliar with the slang term "johnson."

Dick had that meaning even back then, though of course nice people pretended they didn't know that. I'm not sure if Johnson had that meaning at the time.
Dick Johnson just as a combo is such a plain, ordinary combination, it could be anybody above a certain age. But yeah, if you know the joke, it's a pretty unfortunate combo.

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But it doesn't hold a candle to the real-life race-car driver Dick Trickle.

I had to urban dictionary Johnson; I knew it was slang for something, but for some reason I thought it was toilet :P I might be a bit of a buzz kill, but I don't really find it that funny; I've known and known of old men named Dick, as I have known and known of old women named Fanny, so whenever I see Dick as a name, I think of one of them in particular, and my heart goes, "Aww!" I actually really like the name Dickon, too, but according to a poll I made on here, no one really finds it usable :(