Aptronym

An aptronym, aptonym, or euonym is a personal name aptly or peculiarly suited to its owner.

History

The Encyclopædia Britannica attributes the term to Franklin P. Adams, a writer who coined it as an anagram of patronym, to emphasize "apt".

According to Frank Nuessel, in The Study of Names (1992), an aptonym is the term used for "people whose names and occupations or situations (e.g., workplace) have a close correspondence."

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. Psychologist Carl Jung wrote in his book Synchronicity that there was a "sometimes quite grotesque coincidence between a man's name and his peculiarities".

Nominative determinism is a hypothesis which suggests a causal relationship based on the idea that people tend to be attracted to areas of work that fit their name.

Notable examples

• Jules Angst, German professor of psychiatry, who has published works about anxiety (angst)
• Michael Ball, English footballer
• Colin Bass, British bassist in the rock band Camel
• Lance Bass, bass singer for the American pop boy band NSYNC
• Mickey Bass, American bassist and musician
• Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone
• Bert "Tito" Beveridge, founder of Tito's Vodka
• Sara Blizzard, meteorologist and television weather presenter for the BBC
• John Blow, English pipe organist at Westminster Abbey
• Usain Bolt, Jamaican sprinter
• Doug Bowser, president of Nintendo of America (Bowser is a character from a flagship Nintendo franchise, Super Mario)
• Russell Brain, 1st Baron Brain, neurologist
• Rosalind Brewer, executive at Starbucks and a former director at Molson Coors Brewing Company
• Jake Butt, American college and professional football tight end
• Christopher Coke, drug lord and cocaine trafficker
• Margaret Court, Australian tennis player
• Thomas Crapper, British sanitary engineer
• Kutter Crawford, baseball pitcher (cutter)
• Mark De Man, Belgian football defender
• Karina DePiano, pianist currently touring with Taylor Swift
• Carla Dove, ornithologist who specializes in bird strikes.
• Josh Earnest, the third press secretary for the Obama administration
• Rich Fairbank, billionaire and CEO of the Capital One bank, which holds the Fairbanking Mark for offering fair banking products
• Cecil Fielder and Prince Fielder, father-and-son baseball players (fielder)
• Bob Flowerdew, gardener and TV/radio presenter
• Amy Freeze, American meteorologist
• William Headline, former Washington bureau chief for CNN
• Fielder Jones, baseball player
• Igor Judge, English judge and Lord Chief Justice
• John Laws, English judge and Lord Justice of Appeal
• Richard and Mildred Loving, plaintiffs in Loving v. Virginia, which legalized interracial marriage throughout the United States
• Auguste and Louis Lumière, pioneering 19th century filmmakers (lumière means "light" in French)
• Chris Moneymaker, American poker player and 2003 World Series of Poker champion
• Eugenius Outerbridge, inaugural chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; namesake of the Outerbridge Crossing, the outermost bridge between New York and New Jersey.
• Eugene Profit, former American football player and current CEO of Profit Investment Management.
• Francine Prose, American novelist
• Jonathan Quick, American professional ice hockey goaltender
• Corona Rintawan, Indonesian physician who led Muhammadiyah's command center for the COVID-19 pandemic
• Bob Rock, Canadian music producer best known for his works with rock acts such as Metallica and Aerosmith
• Philander Rodman, father of Dennis Rodman, who fathered 26 children by 16 mothers
• Tennys Sandgren, American tennis player
• Marilyn vos Savant, American columnist who has been cited for having the world's highest-recorded IQ (savant)
• Kayla Sims, American YouTuber and Twitch streamer, best known for playing The Sims 4.
• Anna Smashnova, Soviet-born Israeli tennis player.
• Larry Speakes, acting White House Press Secretary for the White House under President Ronald Reagan
• Scott Speed, American racecar driver who has raced in a variety of motorsport, including Formula One and Formula E
• Marina Stepanova, Russian hurdler.
• Bernard Herbert Suits, scholar and authority in the field of games and gaming
• George Francis Train, entrepreneur who was heavily involved in the construction of the eastern portion of the transcontinental railroad across the United States
• Marijuana Pepsi Vandyck, American education professional with a dissertation on uncommon African-American names in the classroom
• Anthony Weiner, American politician involved in sexting scandals
• John Minor Wisdom, American judge
• William Wordsworth, English poet and advocate for the extension of British copyright law
• Early Wynn, baseball pitcher, member of the 300 win club
• Tiger Woods, American professional golfer; a wood is a type of golf club
• Sue Yoo, attorney

Inaptronyms

Some names are very inappropriate for what the person does, being called inaptronyms by Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post.

• Rob Banks, British police officer
• Grant Balfour, baseball pitcher ("ball four")
• Frank Beard, an American musician who, until c. 2013, was the only member of rock band ZZ Top without a beard
• Don Black, white supremacist
• Peter Bowler, cricketer (in fact, primarily a batsman)
• Samuel Foote, a British actor who lost a leg in a horseriding accident in 1766, and made jokes on stage about "Foote and leg, and leg and foot"
• Colleen Lawless, an American lawyer and judge
• Robin Mahfood, president and CEO of Food for the Poor
• I.C. Notting, ophthalmologist, Leiden University
• Danielle Outlaw, Philadelphia Police Commissioner
• Jaime Sin, Catholic prelate. Upon being made a cardinal in 1976, he gained the further inaptronymic title of "Cardinal Sin"
• Bob Walk, baseball pitcher

See also

• -onym
• Nominative determinism, the hypothesis that a person's name can have a significant role in determining key aspects of their job, profession or even character

External links

• Aptonyms-wiki (based on the extinct Canadian Aptonym Centre)