Aptronym
Encyclopedia
An aptronym is a name aptly suited to its owner. Fictional examples of aptronyms include Mr. Talkative and Mr. Worldly Wiseman in John Bunyan
John Bunyan
John Bunyan was an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, in the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 29 August.-Life:In 1628,...

's The Pilgrim's Progress
The Pilgrim's Progress
The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan and published in February, 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been...

(1678), Truman Burbank (true-man), the lead character in the 1998 film The Truman Show
The Truman Show
The Truman Show is a 1998 American satirical comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. The cast includes Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, as well as Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris and Natascha McElhone...

, the principal cast of the Mr. Men
Mr. Men
Mr. Men is a series of 49 children's books by Roger Hargreaves commencing in 1971. Two of these books were not published in English. The series features characters with names such as Mr. Tickle and Mr. Happy who have personalities based on their names...

(1971) and all the characters in Marc Blitzstein
Marc Blitzstein
Marcus Samuel Blitzstein, better known as Marc Blitzstein , was an American composer. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-union musical The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the Works Progress Administration...

's 1937 play The Cradle Will Rock
The Cradle Will Rock
The Cradle Will Rock is a 1937 musical by Marc Blitzstein. Originally a part of the Federal Theatre Project, it was directed by Orson Welles, and produced by John Houseman. The show was recorded and released on seven 78-rpm discs in 1938, making it the first cast album recording.The musical is a...

.

Examples

  • Jules Angst
    Jules Angst
    Jules Angst is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Zurich University in Zurich,Switzerland, and Honorary Doctor of Heidelberg University in Heidelberg, Germany.He was born in Zurich, where he also grew up.-Education:...

    , German professor of psychiatry, has published works about anxiety
    Anxiety
    Anxiety is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is 'to vex or trouble'; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness,...

  • Jeff Bagwell
    Jeff Bagwell
    Jeffrey Robert Bagwell , is a former American professional baseball player and coach. He played his entire fifteen-year Major League Baseball career as a first baseman for the Houston Astros and was a four-time All-Star...

    , Retired MLB 1st Baseman
  • Grant Balfour
    Grant Balfour
    Grant Robert Balfour is a relief pitcher who plays for the Oakland Athletics. He has previously played for the Tampa Bay Rays, Minnesota Twins and Milwaukee Brewers.-Early life:...

    , MLB Middle Reliever, although as a pitcher ball four
    Base on balls
    A base on balls is credited to a batter and against a pitcher in baseball statistics when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls balls. It is better known as a walk. The base on balls is defined in Section 2.00 of baseball's Official Rules, and further detail is given in 6.08...

     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
    Lloy Ball
    Lloy James Ball is an American volleyball player who represented the United States men's national volleyball team in four Olympics team competitions...

    , American volleyball player
  • Michael Ball
    Michael Ball (footballer)
    Michael John Ball is an English professional footballer who plays for Leicester City, having previously played as a left-back for English Premier League team Manchester City....

    , footballer
  • Elizabeth Báthory
    Elizabeth Báthory
    Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed was a countess from the renowned Báthory family of Hungarian nobility. Although in modern times she has been labelled the most prolific serial killer in history, the number of murders has been debated...

    , 16th century Austro-Hungarian countess, who bathed in the blood of young girls in an attempt to keep her youth
  • Layne Beachley
    Layne Beachley
    Layne Beachley is a former professional surfer from Manly, Australia. She won the World Championship seven times.-Surfing career:At the age of 16 Beachley became a professional surfer. By the age of 20 she was ranked sixth in the world. Beachley became the Women's ASP World Champion in 1998, and...

    , Australian world champion surfer
  • Chip Beck, professional golfer
  • Sara Blizzard
    Sara Blizzard
    Sara Louise Blizzard is a weather presenter for East Midlands Today. Her surname is rather apt for the job and is not a stage name....

    , meteorologist (television weather presenter) for the BBC
    BBC
    The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

  • Lorena Bobbit, arrested for 'bobbing' a certain part of her husband's anatomy
  • Usain Bolt
    Usain Bolt
    The Honourable Usain St. Leo Bolt, OJ, C.D. , is a Jamaican sprinter and a five-time World and three-time Olympic gold medalist. He is the world record and Olympic record holder in the 100 metres, the 200 metres and the 4×100 metres relay...

    , Jamaican sprinter, Olympic Gold medalist, 100m and 200m world record holder
  • Peter Bowler
    Peter Bowler (cricketer)
    Peter Duncan Bowler is a former English-born Australian cricketer who played for Leicestershire in 1986, Tasmania in 1986/87, Derbyshire from 1988 to 1994 and for Somerset from 1995 to 2004.-Playing career:...

    , cricket
    Cricket
    Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

    er (in fact, primarily a batsman)
  • Russell Brain
    Russell Brain, 1st Baron Brain
    Walter Russell Brain, 1st Baron Brain was a British neurologist. He was principal author of the standard work of neurology, Brain's Diseases of the Nervous System, and longtime editor of the eponymous neurological medical journal titled Brain...

    , neurologist
    Neurology
    Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...

  • Novella Carpenter
    Novella Carpenter
    Novella Carpenter is the author of the 2009 memoir Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer. The book describes her extensive garden in Ghost Town, a run down neighborhood a mile from downtown Oakland, California....

    , author
  • Albert Champion
    Albert Champion (cyclist)
    Albert Champion was a French road bicycle racer, who won the 1899 Paris–Roubaix. In 1908 he founded the Champion Ignition Company to make spark plugs in Flint, Michigan. In 1909 the name changed to AC Spark Plug Company, after Champion's initials.-Cycling:Albert Champion was a talented racing...

    , French road cycling Champion in the past.
  • Michael Christopher Coke, also known as Dudus, is a Jamaican alleged drug lord
  • Reggie Corner
    Reggie Corner
    Reggie Corner is an American football cornerback for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Bills in the fourth round of the 2008 NFL Draft...

    , cornerback for the Buffalo Bills
    Buffalo Bills
    The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

  • Margaret Court, tennis player
  • Thomas Crapper
    Thomas Crapper
    Thomas Crapper was a plumber who founded Thomas Crapper & Co. in London. Contrary to widespread misconceptions, Crapper did not invent the flush toilet. He did, however, do much to increase the popularity of the toilet, and developed some important related inventions, such as the ballcock...

    , manufacturer of Victorian toilets. (Note that the word crap predates Mr Crapper.)
  • Mansfield Smith-Cumming, advocated the use of semen as invisible ink
  • Carson Daly
    Carson Daly
    Carson Jones Daly is an American television host. He is the host of NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly, a late-night talk show that began airing on January 7, 2002. Before his role as host of that program, Daly was a VJ on MTV's TRL, and a DJ for the Southern California based radio station KROQ-FM...

    , host of the daily show Last Call with Carson Daly
    Last Call with Carson Daly
    Last Call with Carson Daly is an American late night talk show that is broadcast on NBC. The show is hosted by Carson Daly, the half-hour show featuring celebrity interviews, documentary-style coverage of a topic, and musical performances. Last Call airs weeknights at 1:35 a.m. Eastern / 12:35 a.m....

  • Thomas Diamond
    Thomas Diamond
    Thomas Nicklaus Diamond is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent.-College & draft:...

    , Major League Baseball player (a baseball field is sometimes called a "diamond")
  • Paddy Driver
    Paddy Driver
    Paddy Driver is a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and a racing driver from South Africa.He competed on the Grand Prix motorcycle racing circuit from 1959 to 1965...

    , former Grand Prix
    Grand Prix motorcycle racing
    Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix is the premier championship of motorcycle road racing currently divided into three distinct classes: 125cc, Moto2 and MotoGP. The 125cc class uses a two-stroke engine while Moto2 and MotoGP use four-stroke engines. In 2010 the 250cc two-stroke was replaced...

     motorcycle road racer and race car driver
  • Billy Drummond
    Billy Drummond
    Willis Robert "Billy" Drummond, Jr. is an American jazz drummer.Drummond learned jazz from an early age from his father, who was a drummer and a jazz enthusiast and whose record collection included many recordings of Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Buddy Rich and Elvin Jones, among others...

    , American jazz drummer
  • Tim Duncan
    Tim Duncan
    Timothy Theodore "Tim" Duncan is an American professional basketball player for the San Antonio Spurs of the National Basketball Association . The 6-foot 11-inch , 255-pound power forward/center is a four-time NBA champion, two-time NBA MVP, three-time NBA Finals MVP, and NBA Rookie of the Year...

    , F/C of the San Antonio Spurs
    San Antonio Spurs
    The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio, Texas. They are part of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association ....

    , who often dunks the ball
  • Nicholas Economides
    Nicholas Economides
    Nicholas Economides is an internationally recognized academic authority on network economics, electronic commerce and public policy. His fields of specialization and research include the economics of networks, especially of telecommunications, computers, and information, the economics of technical...

    , professor of economics, New York University, Stern School of Business
  • Rich Fairbank
    Richard Fairbank
    Richard Fairbank founded Capital One with Nigel Morris in 1988, and is currently the Chairman and CEO. He also serves on the board of directors of MasterCard International, and is the Chairman of MasterCard International's U.S. Region Board of Directors...

    , founder and CEO
    Chief executive officer
    A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...

     of Capital One Financial Corp.
    Capital One
    Capital One Financial Corp. is a U.S.-based bank holding company specializing in credit cards, home loans, auto loans, banking and savings products...

  • Cecil Fielder
    Cecil Fielder
    Cecil Grant Fielder is a former professional baseball player who was a noted power hitter in the 1980s and 1990s. He attended college at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas . He played with the Toronto Blue Jays , Detroit Tigers , New York Yankees , Anaheim Angels and Cleveland Indians...

     and son Prince Fielder
    Prince Fielder
    Prince Semien Fielder is a Major League Baseball free agent who plays first base. He is currently listed at 5' 11" and . He was selected by the Brewers in the first round of the 2002 Major League Baseball Draft out of Eau Gallie High School in Melbourne, Florida.He is the son of former Detroit...

    , baseball players
  • Bob Flowerdew
    Bob Flowerdew
    Bob Flowerdew is an organic gardener, and television and radio presenter. He is a regular panel member of BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time. He has nearly an acre of garden in Dickleburgh, Norfolk, England, where he lives with his wife, Vonetta, a care worker, and their twins, Italia and...

    , gardener and Gardeners' Question Time
    Gardeners' Question Time
    Gardeners' Question Time is a long-running BBC Radio 4 programme in which amateur gardeners can put questions to a panel of experts.-History:...

     panelist
  • Allen Forward
    Allen Forward
    Allen Forward was a Welsh rugby union forward who favoured the position of flanker. Forward played club rugby for Pontypool and various Police teams. He played in six internationals for Wales and was part of the 1952 Grand Slam winning side...

    , rugby forward
  • Amy Freeze
    Amy Freeze
    Amy Freeze is the weekend meteorologist at WABC-TV in New York. She was the chief meteorologist for Fox owned-and-operated station WFLD in Chicago from 2007–2011....

    , meteorologist
  • Eric Gagné
    Éric Gagné
    Éric Serge Gagné is a former Major League Baseball pitcher.Signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a free agent in 1995, Gagné began his career as a starting pitcher...

    , baseball pitcher, "Gagné" being French for "won"
  • Simon Gagné
    Simon Gagné
    Simon Gagné is a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger for the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League . Prior to Los Angeles, he spent the first 10 seasons of his NHL career with the Philadelphia Flyers and another with the Tampa Bay Lightning.Drafted out of the Quebec Major Junior...

    , hockey player, "Gagné" being French for "won"
  • Yekaterina Gamova, Russian volleyball player, nicknamed "Game-over"
  • Learned Hand
    Learned Hand
    Billings Learned Hand was a United States judge and judicial philosopher. He served on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and later the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit...

    , judge
    Judge
    A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

  • Henry Head
    Henry Head
    Sir Henry Head, FRS was an English neurologist who conducted pioneering work into the somatosensory system and sensory nerves. Much of this work was conducted on himself, in collaboration with the psychiatrist W. H. R. Rivers, by severing and reconnecting sensory nerves and mapping how sensation...

    , an English neurologist
    Neurology
    Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...

  • Ryder Hesjedal
    Ryder Hesjedal
    Ryder Hesjedal is a Canadian professional racing cyclist for . He is a former mountain biker, winning a silver medal at the 2001 Under-23 world championship...

    , Professional cyclist from Canada
    Canada
    Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

  • Quentin Jammer
    Quentin Jammer
    Quentin Tremaine Jammer is an American football player who currently plays cornerback for the San Diego Chargers of the NFL.- Early years :...

    , San Diego Chargers
    San Diego Chargers
    The San Diego Chargers are a professional American football team based in San Diego, California. they were members of the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

     cornerback
  • Chip Jett
    Chip Jett
    Charles McRae "Chip" Jett is an American professional poker player from Las Vegas, Nevada. He is one of the most popular players on the World Poker Tour....

    , professional poker player
  • Igor Judge
    Igor Judge
    Igor Judge, Baron Judge PC is a Maltese-born English judge and has been Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, the head of the English judiciary, since October 2008...

    , Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
    Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
    The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary and President of the Courts of England and Wales. Historically, he was the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor, but that changed as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005,...

  • Mort Kunstler
    Mort Künstler
    Mort Künstler is a historical artist in the United States of America whose work now focuses mainly on the American Civil War. Before he turned to the Civil War in the early 1980s, he had built a body of work that dealt with America's national story: from portraits of prehistoric American life to...

    , American painter
    Painting
    Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

    , whose name in German directly translates as "artist"
  • Christopher Landsea
    Christopher Landsea
    Christopher W. Landsea is an American meteorologist, formerly a research meteorologist with Hurricane Research Division of Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory at NOAA, and now the Science and Operations Officer at the National Hurricane Center...

    , Science and Operations Officer at the National Hurricane Center
  • Chuck Long
    Chuck Long
    Chuck Long is an American football coach. He played quarterback in college at Iowa for Hayden Fry and professionally with the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams. He is an inductee of the College Football Hall of Fame. In the January 2008 issue of San Diego Magazine he was chosen as one of...

    , former NFL quarterback for the Detroit Lions
    Detroit Lions
    The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...

     and the Los Angeles Rams
  • Ryan Longwell
    Ryan Longwell
    Ryan Walker Longwell is an American football placekicker for the Minnesota Vikings in the National Football League. After playing college football for the California Golden Bears, he started his professional football career with the San Francisco 49ers, but never played a game for the franchise...

    , NFL placekicker who holds the record for longest field goal in Green Bay Packers
    Green Bay Packers
    The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...

     history
  • Mildred and Richard Loving, interracial couple who challenged miscegenation laws
    Anti-miscegenation laws
    Anti-miscegenation laws, also known as miscegenation laws, were laws that enforced racial segregation at the level of marriage and intimate relationships by criminalizing interracial marriage and sometimes also sex between members of different races...

     in a landmark American Supreme Court case
  • Auguste and Louis Lumière
    Auguste and Louis Lumière
    The Lumière brothers, Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas and Louis Jean , were among the earliest filmmakers in history...

    , 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
    John W. Marshall
    John W. Marshall served as Secretary of Public Safety in the Cabinet of Virginia Governor Tim Kaine from 2006 to 2010, and Governor Mark Warner from 2002 to 2006....

    , former United States Marshal for the Eastern District of Virginia
  • George McGovern
    George McGovern
    George Stanley McGovern is an historian, author, and former U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party nominee in the 1972 presidential election....

    , former South Dakota
    South Dakota
    South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...

     politician and presidential candidate
  • Bill Medley
    Bill Medley
    William Thomas Medley is an American singer and songwriter, best known as one half of The Righteous Brothers....

    , singer, one half of The Righteous Brothers
    The Righteous Brothers
    The Righteous Brothers were the musical duo of Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield. They recorded from 1963 through 1975, and continued to perform until Hatfield's death in 2003...

  • Vince Offer
    Vince Offer
    Offer "Vince" Shlomi , known as Vince Offer, the ShamWow! Guy, or Headset Vince, is an infomercial pitchman, writer, director, and comedian . Offer's first major work was the 1999 comedy film The Underground Comedy Movie, which was met with negative reception...

    , infomercial host
  • Josh Outman
    Josh Outman
    Joshua S. Outman is an American baseball pitcher for the Oakland Athletics.-Early life:...

    , Oakland Athletics
    Oakland Athletics
    The Oakland Athletics are a Major League Baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From to the present, the Athletics have played in the O.co Coliseum....

     pitcher
  • James Cash Penney, businessman, entrepreneur, retailer
  • J. P. Pickens
    J. P. Pickens
    Jean Paul Pickens , was a leading force in the early North Beach, San Francisco, music scene, circa 1963, along with David Meltzer and James Gurley, defining the psychedelic rock genre. J.P...

    , musician, writer, banjo and guitar player
  • Gary Player
    Gary Player
    Gary Player DMS; OIG is a South African professional golfer. With his nine major championship victories, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of golf. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974. Player has won 165 tournaments on six continents over six...

    , professional golfer
  • Scott Player
    Scott Player
    Scott Darwin Player is an American football punter who is currently a free agent. He was signed by the Birmingham Barracudas as a street free agent in 1995...

    , professional football player
  • Michael Pollan
    Michael Pollan
    Michael Pollan is an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. A 2006 New York Times book review describes him as a "liberal foodie intellectual."...

    , gardener, botanist, investigative journalist
  • Francine Prose
    Francine Prose
    Francine Prose is an American writer. Since March 2007 she has been the president of PEN American Center. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1968 and received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1991....

    , writer
  • Dallas Raines
    Dallas Raines
    Dallas Raines is a award-winning chief meteorologist at KABC-TV in Los Angeles and was also certified by the American Meteorological Society ....

    , chief meteorologist at KABC-TV
    KABC-TV
    KABC-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, licensed to Los Angeles, California. KABC-TV's studios are located in Glendale, California...

     in Los Angeles
    Los Ángeles
    Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

    , California
    California
    California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

  • Alto Reed
    Alto Reed
    Alto Reed , is an American long-time saxophonist with Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. His most recognizable performances included the introduction to "Turn the Page", and the saxophone solo in "Old Time Rock and Roll"...

    , saxophonist with Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band
  • Bob Rock
    Bob Rock
    Robert Jens Rock, , is a Canadian musician, sound engineer, and record producer best known for producing bands such as Aerosmith, The Cult, Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, 311, Metallica, Our Lady Peace, The Offspring and most recently Bush.-Payola$ and Rock and Hyde:Rock began his music career in Langford,...

    , rock music producer, including Metallica
    Metallica
    Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...

     and Bon Jovi
    Bon Jovi
    Bon Jovi is an American rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Formed in 1983, Bon Jovi consists of lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi , guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, as well as current bassist Hugh McDonald...

  • Steve Roper
    Steve Roper
    Steve Roper is a noted climber and historian of the Sierra Nevada in the United States. He along with Allen Steck are the founding editors of the Sierra Club journal Ascent.Roper is the winner of the Sierra Club's Francis P...

    , mountain climber, rock climber, mountaineering historian, founding editor of the Sierra Club
    Sierra Club
    The Sierra Club is the oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. It was founded on May 28, 1892, in San Francisco, California, by the conservationist and preservationist John Muir, who became its first president...

     journal Ascent
  • David Sheppard
    David Sheppard
    David Stuart Sheppard, Baron Sheppard of Liverpool was the high-profile Bishop of Liverpool in the Church of England who played cricket for Sussex and England in his youth...

    , Anglican Bishop of Liverpool (bishops are sometimes known as shepherds)
  • Tod Slaughter
    Tod Slaughter
    Tod Slaughter was an English actor, best known for playing over-the-top maniacs in macabre film adaptations of Victorian melodramas.-Ealy life:...

    , actor known for playing killers and maniacs in early melodrama
    Melodrama
    The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...

    s.
  • Richard Smalley
    Richard Smalley
    Richard Errett Smalley was the Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry and a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University, in Houston, Texas...

    , Rice University pioneer in nanotechnology
  • Anna Smashnova
    Anna Smashnova
    Anna Smashnova is a former professional tennis player from Israel. She retired from professional tennis after Wimbledon 2007.Smashnova, who has been noted as having a great last name for a tennis player, reached her career-high singles ranking of World # 15 in 2003. She was in 13 finals, and won...

    , tennis player
  • Brenda Song
    Brenda Song
    Brenda Song is an American actress, film producer, and model. Song started in show business as a child fashion model. Her early television work included roles in the shows Fudge and 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd...

    , singer
  • Larry Speakes
    Larry Speakes
    Larry M. Speakes is a former acting spokesman for the White House under President Ronald Reagan, having held the position from 1981 to 1987.Speakes was born in Cleveland, Mississippi...

    , presidential spokesman under President
    President
    A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

     Ronald Reagan
    Ronald Reagan
    Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....

  • Lake Speed
    Lake Speed
    -Background:Lake was named after the best friend of his father, Bob Lake. Lake's father Leland L. Speed took office as the Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi in 1948, the same year that he was born. He started his racing career at the age of thirteen racing karts, much to the displeasure of his family...

    , former Nascar
    NASCAR
    The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...

     driver
  • Scott Speed
    Scott Speed
    Scott Andrew Speed is an American race car driver. Formerly a driver for the Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 team, he made his Formula One race debut at the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix; becoming the first American to race in F1 since Michael Andretti in 1993...

    , Nascar
    NASCAR
    The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...

     racing driver, formerly in Formula One
    Formula One
    Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...

    , GP2
    GP2 Series
    The GP2 Series, GP2 for short, is a form of open wheel motor racing introduced in 2005 following the discontinuation of the long-term Formula One feeder series, Formula 3000. The format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Ecclestone also has the rights to the name GP1...

     and A1GP
  • Margaret Spellings
    Margaret Spellings
    Margaret Spellings was the Secretary of Education from 2005-2009 under the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush and previously served as White House Domestic Policy Adviser to President George W. Bush....

    , Education Secretary
    United States Secretary of Education
    The United States Secretary of Education is the head of the Department of Education. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet, and 16th in line of United States presidential line of succession...

     under George W. Bush
    George W. Bush
    George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

  • Charlie Spikes
    Charlie Spikes
    Leslie Charles Spikes was a Major League Baseball player from 1972 to 1980 for the New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, and Atlanta Braves. He also played 26 games for the Chunichi Dragons in Japan in . He mostly played the outfield...

    , former Major League Baseball
    Major League Baseball
    Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

     player
  • Takeo Spikes
    Takeo Spikes
    Takeo Gerard Spikes is an American football linebacker for the San Diego Chargers of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals 13th overall in the 1998 NFL Draft...

    , NFL linebacker
  • Marina Stepanova
    Marina Stepanova
    Marina Stepanova is a former Soviet track and field athlete who was the first woman to run under 53 seconds in the 400 metres hurdles.-Career:...

    , former Soviet hurdler, first woman to run under 53 seconds in the 400m hurdles.
  • Dana Strum
    Dana Strum
    Dana Strum is the bassist of heavy metal band Slaughter. Before that, he was in Vinnie Vincent Invasion together with fellow bandmate, Mark Slaughter...

    , bass guitarist of the rock band Slaughter
  • Eugène Terre'Blanche
    Eugène Terre'Blanche
    Eugène Ney Terre'Blanche was a former member of South Africa's Herstigte Nasionale Party who founded the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging during the apartheid era...

    , South African white nationalist, 'Terre'Blanche' is French for "white land" and Eugene means "born well"
  • Willie Thrower
    Willie Thrower
    Willie Lawrence Thrower was a American football quarterback. Born near Pittsburgh in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, Thrower was known as "Mitts" for his large hands and arm strength compared to his 5'11 frame. He was known to toss a football 60 yards...

    , former NFL quarterback; first African-American quarterback in NFL during modern era (post WWII)
  • John Tory
    John Tory
    John Howard Tory is a Canadian businessman, political activist, former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, former Member of Provincial Parliament and broadcaster...

    , former leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party (Tories)
  • Louise Story is a business reporter for The New York Times.
  • Marco Velo
    Marco Velo
    Marco Velo is a retired Italian professional road bicycle racer.- Professional career :Velo, who started his career with Brescialat, is a talented time-trialist, winning the Italian National Time Trial Championship on three occasions—1998, 1999 and 2000. Since 2002, Velo has ridden as a...

    , professional cyclist (vélo meaning bike
    Bicycle
    A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....

     in French)
  • Marilyn vos Savant
    Marilyn vos Savant
    Marilyn vos Savant is an American magazine columnist, author, lecturer, and playwright who rose to fame through her listing in the Guinness Book of World Records under "Highest IQ"...

    , a columnist famous for her extremely high IQ and penchant for puzzle solving
  • Rick Wagoner
    Rick Wagoner
    George Richard "Rick" Wagoner, Jr. is an American businessman and former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. Wagoner resigned as Chairman and CEO at General Motors on March 29, 2009, at the request of the White House...

    , former CEO
    Chief executive officer
    A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...

     of General Motors
  • Anthony Weiner, U.S. Congressman embarrassed in a 2011 sex-scandal
    Anthony Weiner sexting scandal
    The Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, also dubbed Weinergate, began when Democratic U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner used the social media website Twitter to send a link to a sexually suggestive picture to a 21-year-old Washington State woman...

     by a self-taken snapshot of a closeup of his underpants. ('Wiener' can be a slang term for a man's penis.)
  • Arsène Wenger
    Arsène Wenger
    Arsène Wenger, OBE is a French association football manager and former player, who has managed English Premier League side Arsenal since 1996...

    , manager of Arsenal FC in the Premier League
  • Tiger Woods
    Tiger Woods
    Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No...

    , golf
    Golf
    Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

    er (Wood
    Golf club (equipment)
    A golf club is used to hit a golf ball in a game of golf. Each club is composed of a shaft with a grip and a clubhead. Woods are mainly used for long-distance fairway or tee shots; irons, the most versatile class, are used for a variety of shots; Hybrids that combine design elements of woods and...

     is a type of golf club)
  • William Wordsworth
    William Wordsworth
    William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....

    , poet
    Poet
    A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

  • Early Wynn
    Early Wynn
    Early Wynn Jr. , nicknamed "Gus", was a Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. During a 25-year baseball career, he pitched for the Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox...

    , 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


Other examples

In the book What's in a Name? (1996), author Paul Dickson
Paul Dickson
For the football player of the same name see Paul Dickson .Paul Dickson is a freelance writer of more than 50 non-fiction books, mostly on American English language and popular culture. He has written many articles on a wide variety of subjects...

 cites a long list of aptronyms originally compiled by Professor Lewis P. Lipsitt, of Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

. A sampling from the list:
  • James Bugg, exterminator
    Pest control
    Pest control refers to the regulation or management of a species defined as a pest, usually because it is perceived to be detrimental to a person's health, the ecology or the economy.-History:...

  • Dan Druff, barber
    Barber
    A barber is someone whose occupation is to cut any type of hair, and to shave or trim the beards of men. The place of work of a barber is generally called a barbershop....

  • Rev. James R. God, minister
    Minister of religion
    In Christian churches, a minister is someone who is authorized by a church or religious organization to perform functions such as teaching of beliefs; leading services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidance to the community...

     of the Congaree Baptist Church in Gadsden, South Carolina
    Gadsden, South Carolina
    Gadsden is an unincorporated community in Richland County, South Carolina serving SC 48 and SC 769. The population of the town is 799 and it is part of the Columbia, South Carolina metropolitan area.-External links:...

     and current minister of Bible Baptist Church in New Bloomfield, Pennsylvania
  • Priscilla Flattery, Environmental Protection Agency
    United States Environmental Protection Agency
    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...

     publicist
    Publicist
    A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a public figure, especially a celebrity, a business, or for a work such as a book, film or album...

  • William Headline
    William Headline
    William Headline served as Washington bureau chief for 12 years during the formative years of CNN and headed the Voter News Service during the United States 2000 presidential election...

    , Washington, D.C.
    Washington, D.C.
    Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

     bureau chief for CNN
    CNN
    Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...

  • C. Sharpe Minor, an organist
  • Buck Naked, the name the Seinfeld
    Seinfeld
    Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...

    character George Costanza
    George Costanza
    George Louis Costanza is a character in the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Jason Alexander. He has variously been described as a "short, stocky, slow-witted, bald man" , "Lord of the Idiots" , and as "the greatest sitcom character of all time"...

     said he would assume if he were ever in a porno film
  • Quentin Jammer
    Quentin Jammer
    Quentin Tremaine Jammer is an American football player who currently plays cornerback for the San Diego Chargers of the NFL.- Early years :...

    , NFL
    National Football League
    The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

     cornerback
    Cornerback
    A cornerback is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in American and Canadian football. Cornerbacks cover receivers, to defend against pass offenses and make tackles. Other members of the defensive backfield include the safeties and occasionally linebackers. The cornerback position...

  • Ima Assman proctologist
    Proctology
    Colorectal surgery is a field in medicine, dealing with disorders of the rectum, anus, and colon. The field is also known as proctology, but the term is outdated in the more traditional areas of medicine...

  • Robert Killingback, chiropractor
  • Marge Innovera, statistician (and other fictional staff members) on NPR's Car Talk

Some aptronyms are ironic
Irony
Irony is a rhetorical device, literary technique, or situation in which there is a sharp incongruity or discordance that goes beyond the simple and evident intention of words or actions...

 rather than descriptive. The former Archbishop
Archbishop
An archbishop is a bishop of higher rank, but not of higher sacramental order above that of the three orders of deacon, priest , and bishop...

 of Manila
Manila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...

, Jaime L. Sin known as "Cardinal Sin," is a notable example. Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong
Lance Edward Armstrong is an American former professional road racing cyclist who won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times, after having survived testicular cancer. He is also the founder and chairman of the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer research and support...

 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
Fargo, North Dakota
Fargo is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County. In 2010, its population was 105,549, and it had an estimated metropolitan population of 208,777...

. There was a Roman Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool called Derek Worlock. The British barrister Christmas Humphreys
Christmas Humphreys
Travers Christmas Humphreys, QC was a British barrister who prosecuted several controversial cases in the 1940s and 1950s, and later became a judge at the Old Bailey. He was an enthusiastic Shakespeare scholar and proponent of the Oxfordian theory...

 was not only born on 15 February rather than 25 December, but was known as a theosophist and later Buddhist. Actress Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld is an American actress.Weld began her acting career as a child, and progressed to more mature roles during the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 1960...

 was born on a Friday. Gene Weingarten
Gene Weingarten
Gene Weingarten is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist known for both his serious and humorous work...

 of the Washington Post has called these "inaptonyms"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/07/11/DI2006071100616.html
Place names can also be aptronyms, perhaps unintentionally, such as the former Liberty Jail
Liberty Jail
Liberty Jail is a former jail in Liberty, Missouri, USA where Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of Latter Day Saint movement, and other associates were imprisoned from December 1, 1838 to April 6, 1839 during the 1838 Mormon War...

, so called because of its location in Liberty, Missouri
Liberty, Missouri
Liberty is a city in Clay County, Missouri and is a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri. At the 2007 population estimate, the city population was 29,993...

, 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.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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