Vanderbilt and the Yeggman. Vipers. Vigor, the Hammersmith wonder.

I always imagined that the Irish and Scottish spoke English due to invasions by English soldiers in the middle ages and that America and the Commonwealth spoke English due to Colonial soldiers displacing indigenous populations and enforcing European systems of government. A simplification of course and I don't think we would speak German if they had won WWII (they don't all speak English after all).