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Just out of curiosity, was the badge spelt "Marshall" with a double 'l' for a special purpose?

"Marshall" with a double 'l' is the name of four famous men, while "marshal" means:

an administrative officer of a U.S. judicial district who performs duties similar to those of a sheriff.

which would be more in keeping with "Deputy". Perhaps it was spelt after the name of some famous men on purpose?

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According to Merriam-Webster (American), Macmillan British and American, dictionary.com (American), the Oxford English Dictionary (access necessary e.g. through a university network), Longman (British), and Cambridge Dictionaries Online (British), marshal seems to be the variant more commonly used for the official/military title (in both British and American usage), hence I say the badge name should be changed. As mentioned before, the double-L variant mostly occurs as a last name. Some dictionaries list it as that, others don't at all.

Wikipedia may or may not be trusted in this matter, while http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshal claims

Marshal (also spelled marshall, more commonly in British English than American English)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall says

Marshall may refer to:

  • "Marshall", an American spelling for the military rank of marshal
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It would seem more correct with the one "l", although passable either way. But sure, we can rename that (next deploy).

Oh, and for the record - re

In short, /blame Marc Gravell

I deny all blame here!

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  • 15
    Can't blame you.. your last name ends with ll as well :)
    – Shadow Wizard Strikes Back
    Aug 22, 2011 at 12:21
  • 24
    Marc Gravellllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
    – Jeff Atwood
    Aug 22, 2011 at 13:52
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    @JeffAtwood I’m now hypnotised.
    – kinokijuf
    Jan 29, 2012 at 20:10
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I have a old family deputy US Marshall badge and have found 1890s spelling with 2 L's i.e.

red dog saloon Wyatt Earp gun

I think it was a variant from British colonial times:

enter image description here

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I already wondered that and may I quote from Wikipedia:

Marshal (also spelled marshall, more commonly in British English than American English), is a word used in several official titles of various branches of society.

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  • 5
    In short, /blame Marc Gravell
    – Tim Stone
    Aug 22, 2011 at 11:10
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    Huh, I was just looking myself and Wiktionary suggests "marshall" is an alternative US spelling - not British. And all my British English spell checkers on this machine here go with "marshal", and only accept Marshall when capitalised.
    – DMA57361
    Aug 22, 2011 at 11:11
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    @DMA57361: Well, we could ask on English.
    – Time Traveling Bobby
    Aug 22, 2011 at 11:16
  • @Strait we could, but the point is "marshall" is valid somewhere, so does it really matter since it's pretty clear what is meant? Also, Thursagen - the asker - is a very high rep English user anyway, so is more than capable of handling that themselves if necessary (it's probably not the kind of question they want thou', I suspect).
    – DMA57361
    Aug 22, 2011 at 11:17
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    "Marshal" is the original spelling apparently. It comes from Old French, circa 13c. "Marshall" is a variant spelling, that seems to have come from George C. Marshall, a U.S. Secretary of State 1947-49.
    – Thursagen
    Aug 22, 2011 at 11:20
  • Maréchal, from mareschal, from marhskalk circa 800 AD. It originally designated troops charged with caring for horses, a lowly task, but nonetheless delegated to trusted men due to the high value of horses.
    – Kheldar
    Sep 3, 2011 at 17:30
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It would be simpler to just rename it to 'Serialize'.

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