It’s kind of funny, the things you suddenly wonder about. I was watching some golf highlights the other evening, just relaxing, you know. And the name Tiger Woods kept coming up, naturally. Announcers saying “Tiger lining up the putt”, “What a shot by Tiger!”.
Then it hit me. Like, out of nowhere. I stopped and thought, wait a second… is his actual first name Tiger? It sounds cool, sure, but is it his given name? Seemed a bit unusual for a first name, even for a superstar.
So, I got curious. Had to check it out. I grabbed my tablet right there on the couch. Opened up my usual search browser. Didn’t need anything complex. I just typed in something straightforward, I think it was “real name tiger woods” or maybe “tiger woods given name”. Hit enter.
Got a whole bunch of results back immediately, as you’d expect. Scrolled past the top news stories and the official tour site links. I was looking for something more like a biography snippet or a fact page.
Digging a Little Deeper
Clicked on one or two links that looked promising. You know, the kind that usually have quick facts. And pretty quickly, I found what I was looking for. It wasn’t hidden away in some obscure corner or anything.
And yup, my hunch was right. His first name isn’t Tiger at all.
It turns out his real, given first name is Eldrick.
His full name is actually Eldrick Tont Woods. ‘Tont’ is apparently a traditional Thai name, from his mother’s side.
The ‘Tiger’ part? That was a nickname his father, Earl Woods, gave him. Earl had a friend back from his army days, a South Vietnamese colonel named Vuong Dang Phong, whom he also called Tiger. So, he nicknamed his son Eldrick ‘Tiger’ in honor of his friend. The nickname obviously stuck!
So, there you have it. Spent a few minutes satisfying my curiosity. Just went online, did a quick search, read a couple of lines. Nothing fancy. Now I know. Eldrick Tont Woods. It just sounds so different, doesn’t it? Anyway, thought I’d share that little discovery journey.
