Why did Jimmy Bancks change Ginger’s name from “smith” to “Meggs”?
The mystery of why Bancks changed our hero's name from Ginger Smith to Ginger "Meggs" may be hidden in this strip from 19th February, 1922... Ginger trips over a basket of eggs his mum told him to take to the grocer's while trying to catch a ball in a local street cricket game.
As often happens, someone's nickname very quickly becomes their 'name' in the UK and Australia. It wouldn’t be beyond the realm of probability that from hereon, his mates jokingly called him "Me'Eggs!"
It’s worth remembering that at this time, Ginger was still just a supporting character in a strip called Us Fellers, where the star of the strip was actually a cute young girl who got away with things by being, well, cute. Her name was “Gladsome Gladys”.
The first mention of him being Ginger "Meggs" was when Gladys talks to his Mum after Ginge smokes a cigar to out-do Coogan. He gets wheeled home in a wheelbarrow by Gladys and she calls Ginge's mum "Mrs. Meggs". (23rd April, 1922 - "Ginger's Demonstation(sic)")
(Thank you to Ian Gordon for sharing his old collection of Meggs strips to help me track this down.)
