Getting upset about "maverick"

When your family name drifts into the English language to take on a meaning all its own, you might seem a bit weird if you protest its use.

From the ombudsman of the Express-News:

Scores of readers reacted angrily Tuesday to a Page 1 story in the San Antonio Express-News that they said painted a negative impression of presidential candidate John McCain, three weeks before Election Day.

As of late Tuesday afternoon we'd received more than 125 phone calls and e-mails.

The story, "A Maverick?,"which quoted several members of the Maverick family of San Antonio, essentially said McCain should not call himself a maverick -- a term whose etymology goes back to Sam Maverick, but whose current role in the American lexicon is to describe a person who takes an independent stand.

Maverick was a mayor of San Antonio and a Texas cattleman in the middle 19th century. Because he didn't brand his cattle, they were known as Mavericks, now a term for an unbranded, wandering animal or a person who thinks outside the box politically or otherwise.

...

McCain, his running mate, Sarah Palin, and their supporters often describe McCain as a maverick who is willing to step outside his Republican Party platform if he thinks the party is taking the wrong stand.

Local Mavericks (big "M") told E-N reporter Amy Dorsett that McCain is going too far.

That seems a little weird to me. If my name became a rather common English word -- and in a relatively positive connotation -- I might consider its use to be something of a compliment. But the Maverick family here comes across as petty, whining that a politician they oppose is using a legitimate English word that happens to be derived from their name. That's laughable.

But what I'm most upset about is that only one commenter (Mark Harden) to the ombudsman's post brought up the most egregious use of the term "maverick": as a mascot for the Dallas NBA team. Apparently Mark Cuban seems to think a "maverick" is a horse! And the San Antonio Mavericks are not bothered in the least about it.

Well, maybe until the Express-News does a story on it, I suppose. Then it will be front page news.