Big Ben or Elizabeth Tower

perhaps, not being officially british, although of scottish and irish extraction, my opinion in this matter may not be important, page turner. however, i think that elizabeth tower makes a lot more sense and sounds much more posh than big ben. furthermore, if the queen has managed to stick it out for sixty years without bringing killing herself or others, she deserves some accolades. i mean, she has not sent people to the tower and chopped off any heads like some of them in the past, has she? i have heard she does not throw her chicken bones over her shoulders when she eats. the poor thing has weathered many disappointments what with her children, and then society completely changing all around her. yet, she soldiers on, hat on head and purse in hand. and she's had to be married to that perfectly dreadful prince philip for one hundred years. she probably wished she could have sent him to the tower a time or too...and had to endure being embraced by mrs. obama...the list could go on...anyhow, elizabeth tower has quite a ring! to it, and is named after a real person...who is this ben anyhow? i mean if the queen ever needed an alias of anykind, she could always just call herself elizabeth tower...

Big Ben is the name of the Great Bell that is located in the tower and not the tower itself which is properly known as "The Clock Tower". I have no problem with renaming the tower as "Elizabeth Tower". Could be far worse and be named after a Prime Minister.

As long as everyone still calls it "Big Ben"! I'm not British, but I can tell you that the name "Big Ben" is well known by many and not many would remember if they changed the name. Although a Diamond Jubilee is awesome and I respect the Queen, isn't there another way to honor her than changing a name that's synonymous with England itself? Just a rhetorical question. Maybe I'm just too much of a traditionalist.

Being British by birth I think it is a very nice gesture. I did not know about the tilt to the tower and am having a problem understanding what that has to do with Her Majesty. Can you please explain???

Ridiculous, why honour this German parasite? all the best urban

hi dear PageTurner I am a fan of the UK and have been there several times. Celebrating the Queens Diamond Jubilee is great but I dont think much of re naming Big Ben to Elizabeth Tower. Its known as Big Ben and should stay that way.

It doesn't matter to me in the slightest what they decide to call it, it will still be popularly (and inaccurately) called 'Big Ben'. If anything, it would be more appropriate to name it in honour of the architect who designed it, Augustus Pugin. It was the last thing he designed before he went mad and he ought to be remembered for it. Will they now have to change the inscription on the clock dials to read: "DOMINE SALVAM FAC REGINAM NOSTRAM ELIZABETHAM PRIMAM"? I didn't know that it had a slight tilt (which apparently won't be a problem for at least 10,000 years), which, ironically, has been said to be due, in part, to excavations for the Jubilee line, but I don't think that has anything to do with the naming of the tower, unless it happens to lean towards the Conservative side of the House of Commons and there is nothing 'gay' about it (see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/01/queen-gay-community-homophobe?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038 )

As "Big Ben" is actually the Name of the Bell struck in the Clock tower,I would be curious for the future if Finally Naming the Tower would take "Big Ben's" Fame away, or down a few notches? As it's not the Bell they're considering for a rename,I think it A good idea to finally give the tower a Name to commemorate the Jubilee...

Of course what I think should bear no weight on the subject since I'm an American. However, not big on changing long recognized names to something else to honor someone. If they want to honor her, which she probably deserves, they should build something new to name after her. Of course that would be expensive and probably is not the way to go. So they should name something that exists but does not have a currently famous name attached to it after her; then it would be something of her own so to speak.

At first I thought it was naff even thinking of changing it from Big Ben to the Elizabeth Tower..but, now I'm OK about it. After all, my middle name is Elizabeth.

There are jokes about that famous Phallic symbol...now why give it a feminine name? Think about it, what ya gonna call it now, Big B_____ (censored)?