How Hugo Became Hurley
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By AngeloComet
- How Hugo Became Hurley
- Created: Dec 3, 2007
- Last updated: Aug 13, 2008
- After episode: 3.10: Tricia Tanaka Is Dead
- Status: Current
- Flag this theory:
A nickname is born.
— AngeloComet
Hurley - “My name isn’t Hurley, it’s Hugo Reyes. Hurley’s just a nickname I have, alright? Why? I’m not telling.”
Hurley made this little announcement way back in season one and since then we’ve had no further word. How did Hugo Reyes come to get the nickname ‘Hurley’?
I’m really posting this to hopefully get your best-guess responses but, in the spirit of the theory, I’ll kick things off with my take on it. Here’s my best guess about how Hugo Reyes garnered the nickname ‘Hurley’.
Not so subtly, I am plumping for the idea that ‘Hurley’ is derived from the word ‘hurl’. As in the slang verb for vomiting, ‘to hurl’.
My reasoning? Well, we are informed that after the deck incident Hurley went into a catatonic state and did nothing but eat. Thus he put on a lot weight. Thus we are given the large, rotund Hurley we know and love. However, we also see the moment Hurley’s dad left; the last thing he did was give his son a chocolate bar. We are to understand that since that moment, Hurley has eaten a lot of candy bars.
David Reyes - “Hey, your mom wasn’t kidding about those candy bars.”
So putting a predilection for candy bars and the verb ‘to hurl’ together, I produce a situation where Hurley somehow becomes renowned for scoffing so much chocolate he throws up big-time. I mean the kind of vomiting that goes into legend. He either did it very publicly, once (maybe like that crazy scene in the film Stand By Me) and became known as Hurley ever since, or he just threw up so much and so often that he was simply synonymous with it. Before the catatonic state, all his hurling kept the weight off. The fancy term for this would be bulimia, but I can’t think of any good nicknames to be forged from that word.
That kid Hugo Reyes, man does he puke a lot. I know, we’ll call him Hurley! A nickname is born.
Have to agree that the nickname Hurley is probably to do with vomiting. Though I have to disagree that his weight was kept off before his catatonic state. It was because of his weight that he blamed himself for the accident and went into this state. I’ll +1 though cos I’m in a good mood.
Or maybe he was anorexic. Yeah… He just thought he was large and when the deck collapsed he then went and ate himself that way like a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. Hence, when his mother was asking him to change his ways and stop sitting around eating chicken, he argued that he didn’t want to change, he liked himself just as he was. . .
I began this comment as a joke. I actually kind of like it now I’ve got here.
Maybe he got it when he was just a kid after eating so many candy bars, when he was still skinny, and the nickname upset him so much, he stopped throwing up the candy bars and thus started gaining weight? I had to say something, or you 2 would be into it all morning.
Maybe it has something to do with his childhood alrite!! Also in the episode “Tricia Tanaka is Dead” Hurley has brown eyes when he is about 8 or 9 but now on the island he has blue eyes - strange also!!
lol Ozzig.
No, on this one I’m feeling very mellow, light-hearted and receptive to all ideas and theories. And since even LJ’s in a good mood I think the post is safe from our ranting.
I’m in the midst of posting a 17 page response to this involving time loops, synchronicity, nature vs. nurture, and Don Imus.
This is actually a very interesting… Usually nickname sprout from a persons attribute or ‘lack of attributes’ like calling a tall guy ‘shorty’. Maybe because he was so rotund, its a lack of machismo, or something. I know the name Hurley is synonomous with a ‘girly’ atmosphere. ie…Hurley girl, Hurley Girly, etc.. Hurley is a brand that’s quite prevalant here on the West Coast, where surfers abound. I know Hurley was supposed to be based in California and I always assumed the nickname had to do with the girls line of clothing called Hurley. I’m probably mistaken but just had to throw in my two cents.
Tharde, I was actually hoping for this kind of understanding. Living in the UK I know nothing of such cultural ‘Hurley’ references.
Hurley does make a comment to Walt, that’s was somewhat throwaway but I’ve always kept it in mind, about how he was known as something of “a warrior” back home. Anyone getting a connection with his nickname and this. . .?
Maybe he wore a Hurley t-shirt constantly or something? http://www.loserkids.com/product-exec/productid/3162/nm/HurleyOneandOnlyTShirtBlack/categoryid/329
AC: My take on his nickname would be quite the opposite. The Hurley brand is much more to the ‘skateboarding/surfer’ ideology as opposed to the ‘warrior’ type. In California the skate/surf sect is quite the opposite of the warrior mentality. Skaters see themselves more as anti-establishment, rebel types. I guess maybe they see themselves as a type of warrior. But most average people see them as more of a nuisance, stoners/lazy, bums if you will. KInd of modern day ‘hippies’.
I’m gonna stick with the projectile vomiting idea.
1 bucket of fried chicken + beer = puke.
Has anyone suggested it might be a reference to the term “hurley burley” (used by the witches in Macbeth to describe the chaos of battle—they will speak to Macbeth “when the hurley burley’s done, when the battle’s lost and won”). I think it means not just chaos or confusion—but two opposing things at the same time (black & white, yin & yang) so that would fit perfectly with Lost. Maybe we need to find the burley to match? Or maybe’s Hurley’s size is the burley? :-)
Hugo would definitely fall into the “burley” category in my book. I think “burely” ranks just above “husky” on the Sears scale of kids sizes.
After that you get into “Big Mac” territory and full construction wear. I think carrying a thermos with a Scottish plaid motif becomes a requirement at that point.
I’m with you on this one.
It’s like Calvin’s ‘Noodle Incident’.
The idea of the story is better than the story itself!
You’re all wrong. Hugo was a high school athlete. You should have seen him; He looked like a Greek god with that javelin.
Ahhh. Much like Kurt Russel. He was under Disney’s thumb for years and broke out with John Carpenter’s “The Thing”. I’m feeling ya man. Rock on.
Okay guys and gals I’m a bit under the weather today. I’ve gone thought a whole box of Puff’s Plus, but I did check Lostpedia and they claim reason for nickname ‘unknown’.
So I can’t offer any hard facts, but if you’re right, Angelo, wouldn’t he have been called Hurler? Hurley just doesn’t seem to fit.
Maybe it’s my fuzzy head cold talking, but I think there has to be another explanation. Maybe the West Coast thingy, which I didn’t understand at all.
Please feel free to correct me if you think I’m wrong, just don’t do it too loudly…
Sawyer has been the master of nicknames, and I think he must have bestowed the most on Hurley. Of course this has nothing to do with how Hugo got his name.
I think it’s possible that Hurley was teased about his weight and his given name: Hugo, as in “HUGE-OH!”. You know how immature some adults can be. After that, any old name would be better than Hugo.
As for why it’s “Hurley”… no idea, really. But in additon to what’s already been mentioned,
Maybe Hugo had a crush on Elizabeth Hurley. His friends and family got tired of hearing him moon over her, so they started calling him “Hurley”.
Frank Hurley was the cameraman who recorded Shackleton’s amazing record of survival in Antartica aboard the Endurance in the early 20th century. Maybe Hugo was a fan of that saga.
Maybe Hugo excelled at hurling, which is an ancient Scottish sport of heaving a telephone pole vertically some distance.
just thought i’d throw this in here…
according to wikipedia:
“John Hurley, 19th / 20th century shipbreaker, metal merchant and general dealer, of Bristol, UK” (note the time period, and possible connections to our ship the black rock [which, alas set sail out of portsmouth]… unfortunately there is no article dedicated to this specific ‘hurley’) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurley
a quick search of any references to Bristol in Lost on lostpedia reveals:
“Black rock is another name for a place in Clevedon, Bristol, UK for a cave system near the M5 Motorway (aka Fox’s Cave), where tradition alleges polar bears once dwelled.” (although a brief investigation through google cannot verify this information as true or false…) http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/Black_rocks
I know the link is tenuous at best, but I will let everyone here come to their own conclusions of it’s validity.