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Also WHAT are the Thompsons first names??? I'm enraptured with the Thompsons and must know.

Did Herge do Tintinnation a disservice by not giving us more details?? Surely he'd have known that people would clamor for mundane details!

YAMILAH: Something I find funny is Snowy is Spokie in Afrikaans.

Theodulus and Demosthene in French. Or some variation thereof; i might have one or two vowels off. They're in one of the books for sure, but i can't remember which one, i think Black Gold. When someone over the phone asks which "Dupondt" it is, Dupond answers 'celui avec un 'd' comme 'Demosthene''. The same happens later for Dupont.

To me this is a rather direct indication that these are their first names.

Hmm. I don't think the translators included those names in the English version, so I don't know.

I have looked through the past postings on this subject and I think we should all just resign ourselves to the fact that they don't have first names. Just as Tintin doesn't have a last name. Herge never emphasized it at all.

It is strange though that Captain Haddock DOES have a first name, and it is only mentioned once in passing. So those without an observant eye might not catch the "Archibald, isn't it?" exchange between Tintin and the Captain. My point is, he does HAVE a first name, Herge gave him a first name, but it is de-emphasized. If that makes any sense.

Well, I guess Thomson and Thompson has different first names. Maybe their Thomson and Thompson name, that we always hear could be thier first names. Well, if we put that those are surnames, then is Allan Thomson the villain a relative or brother to Detectives Thomson and Thompson?

Isabel a marche sur la lune
Dupond answers 'celui avec un 'd' comme 'Demosthene''. The same happens later for Dupont.
To me this is a rather direct indication that these are their first names.

Personally, I wouldn't read it that way. I think the phrase "This is Dupond with a 'd', as in Demosthene" (and the phrase "This is Dupont with a 't', as in Theodulus") is simply a comic instance of their confusing over-elaboration when trying to explain anything. Simply saying, "This is Dupond, with a d," would suffice, but he then feels he has to give an example of a name which starts with a D, and picks a particularly archaic one, which adds extra comic effect. That's how I see it anyway. If, to a French-speaking reader, the phrasing does indeed suggest that their first names are Demosthene and Theodulus, then I'm happy to stand corrected.

I can't remember what they say in the English translation, but I think it might be something even more useless, like: "This is Thompson, with a p, as in pterodactyl." But I may be misremembering that completely. I'll look it up later.


Tintinspartan
...is Allan Thomson the villain a relative or brother to Detectives Thomson and Thompson?

He's called Allan Thomson (or is it Thompson?) in the Hergé's French language originals, but he's just called Allan in the English editions of the books (with "Allan" then seeming more like a surname than a first name). The English translators made this change because they'd already come up with the name Thom(p)son for the two detectives (who are called Dupont and Dupond in the French original, of course), and wanted to avoid the confusion of having another character with the same surname.

If the writers of the TV/DVD version (which I'm guessing you might be referring to) have given Allan his Thom(p)son surname back, whilst maintaining Thom(p)son as the name for the detectives, then I can see that this might make Allan seem ike a relative of the moustachioed sleuths - precisely what the English translators of the books were trying to avoid.

Obviously Thompson and Thomson would have to have names like Ian and Iain or Steven and Stephen…

I agree with Balthazar: the names used were just for comic effect, not a statement of their own forenames. Otherwise he might just as well have said “My name is Demosthenes Dupondt…” or whatever - the joke rests on the fact that the “help” isn’t very helpful (and again as Balthazar says the joke works even better in the English).

I think the phrase "This is Dupond with a 'd', as in Demosthene" (and the phrase "This is Dupont with a 't', as in Theodulus") is simply a comic instance of their confusing over-elaboration when trying to explain anything.

In the English editions, this is a running joke. See this page in The Tintin Trivia Quiz for several examples;

Thomson vs. Thompson

Thanks for that nice link, Tintin Quiz.

"With a p as in psychology" was the quote I was trying to remember in my post above. (I was close with pterodactyl.)

"With a P as in Philadelphia" is a nice variation, and "without a p as in Venezuela" is even funnier. I'd forgotten that one.

And I'd never quite noticed the full subtlety of the writing in that panel where we see the captain answering the phone in his bathrobe. The way we only see his side of the conversation - "Who's that? Thompson?... What?... Oh yes, with a "p". Well?" - is a brilliant bit of humour, as we're left to speculate exactly what pointless example of a word with a p in it Thompson has momentarilly confused the captain with.

Balthazar
we're left to speculate exactly what pointless example of a word with a p in it Thompson has momentarilly confused the captain with.
Actually the joke could just as well be that this was the only time that Thompson thought to say “…Thompson, with a ‘p’“, and didn’t give a ridiculous example - and we didn’t hear it!

And I'd never quite noticed the full subtlety of the writing in that panel where we see the captain answering the phone in his bathrobe. The way we only see his side of the conversation - "Who's that? Thompson?... What?... Oh yes, with a "p". Well?" - is a brilliant bit of humour, as we're left to speculate exactly what pointless example of a word with a p in it Thompson has momentarilly confused the captain with.

Yes, I also think this was a very funny episode. The exchange between the Thompsons and the Captain was quite priceless.

I also like how the Captain, when dealing with things that irritate him greatly, is polite enough when dealing with them but fumes secretly. He does this with Castafiore, too. It's a highlight of the series in my opinion.