Aptronym

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Aptronym, a word allegedly coined by United States newspaper columnist Franklin P. Adams, refers to a name that is aptly suited to its owner. Fictional examples of aptronyms include Mr. Talkative and Mr. Worldly Wiseman in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress.

Contents

1 Examples
2 Examples from specific book
3 Other issues
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

Examples

Real-life people can also have aptronyms. Some notable examples:

Tony Snow, Press Secretary for the George W. Bush White House
Sally Ride, astronaut
William Wordsworth, poet
Margaret Court and Anna Smashnova, tennis players
John Tory, leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party
Learned Hand, judge
E. Spencer Parsons, clergyman (dean of Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago)
Larry Speakes, presidential spokesman under President Ronald Reagan
Toshiba Scoodle, baseball player
Thomas Crapper, maker of Victorian flush toilets
Jason Blogger, on-line journalist
Chuck Long, former NFL quarterback for the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams
Willie Thrower, former NFL quarterback

Examples from specific book

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 Baptist Church in Congress, South Carolina
Priscilla Flattery, Environmental Protection Agency publicist
Bill Headline, Washington, D.C. bureau chief for CNN
C. Sharpe Minor, an organist
U.S. Navey, member of the United States Marine Corps

Some aptronyms are ironic rather than descriptive. The former Archbishop of Manila, Jaime L. Sin known as "Cardinal Sin," is a notable example. Dickson's book also lists a Rev. Richard Sinner of Fargo, North Dakota.

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.

References

"aptronym." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2005. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. 30 Mar. 2005. [link]
Dickson, Paul. What's in a Name? Reflections of an Irrepressible Name Collector. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996. ISBN 0877796130

External links

[List of 125+ Aptonyms]
[Aptronyms in the Wizard of Id]
"[Charol Shakeshaft, Topped!]", a list of reader-submitted aptronyms by Slate's Timothy Noah.