Aptronym
It has been suggested that Charactonym be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since January 2010. |
An aptronym is a name aptly suited to its owner. Fictional examples of aptronyms include Mr. Talkative and Mr. Worldly Wiseman in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678), Truman Burbank (true-man), the lead character in the 1998 film The Truman Show, the principal cast of the Mr Men (1971) and all the characters in Marc Blitzstein's 1937 play The Cradle Will Rock.
Examples
- Steve Almond, author of the book Candyfreak
- Jules Angst, German professor of psychiatry, has published works about anxiety
- Gilbert Arenas, professional NBA basketballer for the Washington Wizards
- Jeff Bagwell, Retired MLB 1st Baseman
- Grant Balfour, MLB Middle Reliever [1]
- Alan Ball, The name of two English footballers (father and son), the latter played in the 1966 World Cup winning team
- Lloy Ball, American volleyball player
- Michael Ball, footballer, currently a free agent
- Layne Beachley, Australian world champion surfer
- Chip Beck, professional golfer
- George Best, Manchester United and Northern Ireland footballer, considered to be one of the best players
- Jahvid Best, Detroit Lions running back, considered one of the best players in the 2010 NFL Draft
- Sara Blizzard, meteorologist (television weather presenter) for the BBC
- Lorena Bobbit, arrested for 'bobbing' a certain part of her husband's anatomy
- Usain Bolt, Jamaican sprinter, Olympic Gold medalist, 100m and 200m world record holder
- Samantha Bond, appeared in four films of the James Bond series, playing Miss Moneypenny
- David Boston, former NFL wide receiver who has played in Boston
- Peter Bowler, cricketer (in fact, primarily a batsman)
- Earl Boykins, at 5'5" was one of the shortest players in the NBA
- Marshall Brain, scientist and writer, founder of HowStuffWorks website
- Russell Brain, neurologist
- Brian Cashman, general manager of the New York Yankees, who consistently have the highest payroll in MLB
- Albert Champion, French road cycling Champion in the past.
- Michael Christopher Coke, also known as Dudus, is a Jamaican alleged drug lord
- Reggie Corner, cornerback for the Buffalo Bills
- Margaret Court, tennis player
- Thomas Crapper, manufacturer of Victorian toilets. (Note that the word "crap" predates Mr Crapper.)
- Rob Curling, British television sports presenter for Sky News. There is a sport called curling
- Tom DeLay, former U.S. Congressman from Texas. (Lawmakers are known for using tactics to delay the progress of bills being considered)
- Thomas Diamond, Major League Baseball player (a baseball field is sometimes called a "diamond")
- Billy Drummond, American jazz drummer
- Carbon Petroleum Dubbs, inventor and early Universal Oil Products executive
- Tim Duncan, F/C of the San Antonio Spurs
- William C. Dement, professor of psychiatry
- Kevin Eggan, Harvard biologist who attempted to transform somatic cells to existing embryonic stem cells, or those found in human "eggs", once "again" (coincidental pun on name)
- Rich Fairbank, founder and CEO of Capital One Financial Corp.
- Cecil Fielder and son Prince Fielder, baseball players
- Bob Flowerdew, gardener and Gardeners' Question Time panelist
- Amy Freeze, meteorologist
- Milton Friedman, (pronounced "Freed-men"), libertarian, well-known proponent of free market economics and author of Free to Choose
- Eric Gagné, French-Canadian baseball pitcher, "Gagné" being French for "win"
- Simon Gagné, hockey player, "Gagné" being French for "win"
- Jeffery Gauss, Magnet art artist, "Gauss" being a unit of magnetic flux desity
- Jamie Gold, winner of the 2006 World Series of Poker, earning him $12 million
- Pippa Greenwood, plant pathologist and Gardeners' Question Time panelist
- Learned Hand, judge
- Henry Head, an English neurologist
- Sara Hoots, Hooters waitress, model, crowned Miss Hooters International 2008
- Butch Huskey, Major League Baseball player (Huskey had a husky build, weighing 255 pounds)
- Quentin Jammer, San Diego Chargers cornerback
- Žydrūnas Ilgauskas, currently second tallest NBA player ("ilgas" meaning "tall" in slang in Lithuanian (literally "long"))
- Derek Jeter, New York Yankees shortstop (jeter is French for "to throw")
- Chip Jett, professional poker player
- Igor Judge, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
- Neel Kashkari, U.S. President Barack Obama's Interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability
- Stein Kruse, President and CEO of Holland America Line Inc.
- Mort Kunstler, American painter, whose name in German directly translates as "artist"
- Rocky Land II, landscape designer in Austin, TX
- Christopher Landsea, Science and Operations Officer at the National Hurricane Center
- Sam Lees, Statistician, known for sleazy (s-lees-y) behaviour.
- Seth Lerer, Stanford professor specializing in literary deconstruction. "Lehrer" is the German word for teacher.
- Chuck Long, former NFL quarterback for the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams, and former NCAA quarterback at the University of Iowa.
- Ryan Longwell, NFL placekicker who holds the record for longest field goal in Green Bay Packers history
- Auguste and Louis Lumière, pioneering 19th century filmmakers (lumière is the French word for "light")
- Bernard Madoff, architect of the world's biggest Ponzi scheme, who "made off" with investors' billions
- Robin Mahfood, president of Food for the Poor, Inc.
- George McGovern, former South Dakota politician and presidential candidate
- Bill Medley, singer, one half of The Righteous Brothers
- Chris Moneymaker, amateur winner of 2003 World Series of Poker, which earned him $2.5 million
- Thomas Moorer, U.S. Chief of Naval Operations (1967–1970)
- Jacques P. Moron, of Queensbury, New York, sold drugs to undercover police
- Vince Offer, infomercial host
- Benjamin Millepied, dancer
- Helmut Nickel, curator of the Arms and Armor Department, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge, first chairman of the Port of New York Authority, for whom the Outerbridge Crossing was named
- Josh Outman, Oakland Athletics pitcher
- Larry Page, computer scientist, co-founder of Google
- Alexandra Penney, author of the 1982 bestseller "How to Make Love to a Man," who lost all but a small fraction of her wealth in the Madoff scandal
- James Cash Penney, businessman, entrepreneur, retailer
- J. P. Pickens, musician, writer, banjo and guitar player
- Gary Player, professional golfer
- Scott Player, professional football player
- Michael Pollan, gardener, botanist, investigative journalist
- Antonio da Ponte, designer of the Rialto Bridge ("da Ponte" translates as "of the bridge")
- Dallas Raines, meteorologist who often serves as the butt of jokes regarding his name on the Jim Rome Show
- Alto Reed, saxophonist with Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band
- Marc Rich, billionaire financier
- Bob Rock, rock music producer, including Metallica and Bon Jovi
- Dave Salmoni, animal trainer, zoologist, television presenter, and television producer.
- Summer Sanders, swimmer, American gold medalist in the 1992 Summer Olympics
- Blues Saraceno, guitarist, brief member of Poison, won audition to play on tour with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker, referred to as the "kid who replaced Eric Clapton"
- Donald Segretti, convicted of dirty tricks against the Democratic Party as part of the Watergate scandal ("segretti" means "secrets" in Italian)
- David Sheppard, cricketer and Anglican Bishop of Liverpool (bishops are sometimes known as shepherds)
- Max Schreck, German actor who played the vampire in Nosferatu. Schreck mean fear or terror in German.
- Martin Short, actor, stands well below male average height at estimated 5'6" (167 cm)
- Mark Shuttleworth, the second self-funded spaceflight participant. (The vehicle however, was not a shuttle)
- Tod Slaughter, actor known for playing killers and maniacs in early melodramas, including the first film adaptation of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. His first name, in addition to sharing it with his character in Sweeney Todd, is also the German word for "death", giving a prolific villain actor a name that amounts to "death slaughter".
- Richard Smalley, Rice University pioneer in nanotechnology
- J. J. C. Smart, Australian philosopher and academic, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Monash University, Australia
- Anna Smashnova, tennis player
- Brenda Song, singer
- Larry Speakes, presidential spokesman under President Ronald Reagan
- Lake Speed, former Nascar driver
- Scott Speed, Nascar racing driver, formerly in Formula One, GP2 and A1GP
- Margaret Spellings, Education Secretary under George W. Bush
- Charlie Spikes, former Major League Baseball player
- Takeo Spikes, NFL linebacker
- Marina Stepanova, former Soviet hurdler, first woman to run under 53 seconds in the 400m hurdles.
- David Stoner, clinical head of community alcohol and drug service, Canterbury District Healthboard, NZ
- Dana Strum, bass guitarist of the rock band Slaughter
- Dr. Robert H. Stubbs, urologist in Toronto, Canada who specializes in penis enlargement surgery
- Eugène Terre'Blanche, South African white nationalist, 'Terre'Blanche' is French for "white land" and Eugene means "born well"
- Willie Thrower, former NFL quarterback; first African-American quarterback in NFL during modern era (post WWII)
- John Tory, former leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party (Tories)
- Marco Velo, professional cyclist (vélo meaning bike in French)
- Richard P. Vine, Professor of Wine Appreciation, Purdue University, Author
- Chad Wackerman, long-term drummer and percussionist with Frank Zappa's band
- Rick Wagoner, former CEO of General Motors
- Hines Ward, NFL wide receiver with the Pittsburgh Steelers who play at Heinz Field
- Lara Weller, model, portrayed Lara Croft, of Tomb Raider 1999-2000
- Kent Wells, U.S. Vice President of BP, who came to prominence during the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil well disaster
- Arsène Wenger, manager of Arsenal FC in the Premier League
- William Westmoreland, an American military general known for being the over-all commander of U.S. Army troops during the Tet Offensive in 1968, during the Vietnam War
- Tiger Woods, golfer (Wood is a type of golf club)
- F.W. Woolworth, Retailer
- William Wordsworth, poet
- Steve Wynn, casino entrepreneur
- Will Wynn, former mayor of Austin, Texas
- Sue Yoo, lawyer
- Marilyn vos Savant, a columnist famous for her extremely high IQ and penchant for puzzle solving
Other examples
In the book What's in a Name? (1996), author Paul Dickson cites a long list of aptronyms originally compiled by Professor Lewis P. Lipsitt, of Brown University. A sampling from the list:
- James Bugg, exterminator
- Dan Druff, barber
- Rev. James R. God, minister of the Congaree Baptist Church in Gadsden, South Carolina and current minister of Bible Baptist Church in New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania
- Priscilla Flattery, Environmental Protection Agency publicist
- William Headline, Washington, D.C. bureau chief for CNN
- C. Sharpe Minor, an organist
- Buck Naked, the name the Seinfeld character George Costanza said he would assume if he were ever in a porno film
- Quentin Jammer, NFL cornerback
- Ima Assman proctologist
- Robert Killingback, chiropractor
- Marge Innovera, statistician (and other fictional staff members) on NPR's Car Talk
Some aptronyms are ironic rather than descriptive. The former Archbishop of Manila, Jaime L. Sin known as "Cardinal Sin," is a notable example. Lance Armstrong became a seven-time Tour de France champion because of leg, not arm, strength. Dickson's book also lists a Rev. Richard Sinner of Fargo, North Dakota. There was a Roman Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool called Derek Worlock. The British barrister Christmas Humphreys was not only born on 15 February rather than 25 December, but was known as a theosophist and later Buddhist. Actress Tuesday Weld was born on a Friday. Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post has called these "inaptonyms"[2] Place names can also be aptronyms, perhaps unintentionally, such as the former Liberty Jail, so called because of its location in Liberty, Missouri, USA.
Other issues
Aptronyms may be called "aptonyms" by other writers. San Francisco columnist Herb Caen used the term "namephreaks". Washington Post columnist Bob Levey prefers the term PFLNs, or Perfect Fit Last Names.
There does not yet seem to be a standard terminology for this linguistic curiosity.
See also
References
- "aptronym". Encyclopædia Britannica (Encyclopædia Britannica Online ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
- Dickson, Paul. What's in a Name? Reflections of an Irrepressible Name Collector. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996. ISBN 0-87779-613-0
External links
- Aptonyms-wiki was Canadian Aptonym Centre
- "Charol Shakeshaft, Topped!", a list of reader-submitted aptronyms by Slate's Timothy Noah.
- Article about Zimbabwean English naming conventions
- Car Talk Fictional Show Credits from the radio show Car Talk.