Aptronym
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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
- Jules Angst, German professor of psychiatry, has published works about anxiety
- Jeff Bagwell, Retired MLB 1st Baseman
- Grant Balfour, MLB Middle Reliever, although as a pitcher ball four is generally not a good thing
- Alan Ball, a name shared by two English footballers (father and son), the latter of whom 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
- Sara Blizzard, meteorologist (television weather presenter) for the BBC
- Lorena Bobbit, arrested for 'bobbing'[1] a certain part of her husband's anatomy
- Usain Bolt, Jamaican sprinter, Olympic Gold medalist, 100m and 200m world record holder
- Peter Bowler, cricketer (in fact, primarily a batsman)
- Russell Brain, neurologist
- 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.)
- Carson Daly, host of the daily show Last Call with Carson Daly
- Thomas Diamond, Major League Baseball player (a baseball field is sometimes called a "diamond")
- Paddy Driver, former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and race car driver
- Billy Drummond, American jazz drummer
- Tim Duncan, F/C of the San Antonio Spurs, who often dunks the ball
- Nicholas Economides, professor of economics, New York University, Stern School of Business
- 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
- Allen Forward, rugby forward
- Amy Freeze, meteorologist
- Eric Gagné, French-Canadian baseball pitcher, "Gagné" being French for "won"
- Simon Gagné, hockey player, "Gagné" being French for "won"
- Yekaterina Gamova, Russian volleyball player, nicknamed "Game-over"
- Learned Hand, judge
- Henry Head, an English neurologist
- Ryder Hesjedal, Professional cyclist from Canada
- Quentin Jammer, San Diego Chargers cornerback
- Žydrūnas Ilgauskas, currently second tallest NBA player ("ilgas" meaning "tall" in slang in Lithuanian (literally "long"))
- Chip Jett, professional poker player
- Igor Judge, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
- Mort Kunstler, American painter, whose name in German directly translates as "artist"
- Christopher Landsea, Science and Operations Officer at the National Hurricane Center
- Chuck Long, former NFL quarterback for the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams
- Ryan Longwell, NFL placekicker who holds the record for longest field goal in Green Bay Packers history
- Mildred and Richard Loving, interracial couple who challenged miscegenation laws in a landmark American Supreme Court case
- Auguste and Louis Lumière, pioneering 19th century filmmakers (lumière is the French word for "light")
- Bernie Madoff, who made off with a lot of other people's investment money
- John W. Marshall, former United States Marshal for the Eastern District of Virginia
- George McGovern, former South Dakota politician and presidential candidate
- Bill Medley, singer, one half of The Righteous Brothers
- Jacques P. Moron, of Queensbury, New York, sold drugs to undercover police
- Vince Offer, infomercial host
- Josh Outman, Oakland Athletics pitcher
- 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
- Francine Prose, writer
- Alto Reed, saxophonist with Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band
- Bob Rock, rock music producer, including Metallica and Bon Jovi
- Steve Roper, mountain climber, rock climber, mountaineering historian, founding editor of the Sierra Club journal Ascent
- David Sheppard, Anglican Bishop of Liverpool (bishops are sometimes known as shepherds)
- Martin Short, actor, stands well below male average height at an 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.
- Richard Smalley, Rice University pioneer in nanotechnology
- 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.
- Dana Strum, bass guitarist of the rock band Slaughter
- 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)
- Louise Story is a business reporter for The New York Times.[2]
- Marco Velo, professional cyclist (vélo meaning bike in French)
- Marilyn vos Savant, a columnist famous for her extremely high IQ and penchant for puzzle solving
- Rick Wagoner, former CEO of General Motors
- Anthony Weiner, U.S. Congressman embarrassed in a 2011 sex-scandal by a self-taken snapshot of a closeup of his underpants. ('Wiener' can be a slang term for a man's penis.)
- Arsène Wenger, manager of Arsenal FC in the Premier League
- Tiger Woods, golfer (Wood is a type of golf club)
- William Wordsworth, poet
- Early Wynn, baseball pitcher; recorded two wins in Opening Day games for the Cleveland Indians (1952, 1954) and two no-decision Opening Day games for the Chicago White Sox that resulted in wins (1960, 1961)
- Sue Yoo, lawyer [3]
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"[1] 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, although it appears that aptonyms is winning out.
See also
Notes
- ^ http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bob#Verb_2
- ^ Story, Louise. The New York Times http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/louise_story/index.html.
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(help) - ^ Lattman, Peter (3 May 2006). "Law Blog Lawyer of the Day: Sullivan & Cromwell's Sue Yoo!". The Wall Street Journal.
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.