Kathryn, I believe that Washington Post meaning-of-Fred piece is the first in a series:

The phonetics of the name seem integral to the image problem of the Ames Straw Poll: An “Ames” is defined as “a person who does seditious, or treasonous things“. The best-case descriptors an Ames can hope for are terms like “popular male vocal quartet of the 1950s who enjoyed Hit Parade success with ‘The Naughty Lady Of Shady Lane’ and ‘Hawaiaan War Chant’.”
The love of Ames is like the comfort food renaissance — a longing for fried Oreos. If we had achieved our Ames, we wouldn’t be able to aim for them. Because we would already have hit them. But we haven’t, so we do, and ordinary “Ames” seems as exotic as “Alms”, the hard-to-acquire book about Saudi jihad-funding charities. It’s an onomastic combo of the aspirational yet elusive. Like war aims. We once had war aims. We want them back.

Continue for 1,500 words and run on section front.