While the word aptronym has been around since the 1950's, I had never come across it until this week. What the heck does it mean?
It turns out that an aptronym is a name that suits its owner in an apt way. For
instance, when I was about 5 years old my Grandfather had a carpenter on his payroll whose name was actually Mr. Carpenter.
Once upon a time, names seem to have been given that way - The Shoemakers, the Fishers, the Painters, the Masons.
In literature, characters are sometimes given aptronyms. For instance, Mr. Talkative and Mr. Worldy Wiseman in The Pilgrim's Progress.
We humans, sometimes unkindly, do apply aptronyms to people we know, or people we see on the news.
For instance: Miss Know-it-all, Mrs. Gullible, or Mr. Phony.
If your name is your career, it's an aptronym.
Sometimes people's names just happen to reflect their careers. There is a New York television meteorologist named Amy Freeze, and we can't forget the poet, William Wordsworth, but the funniest one I've come across is a lawyer named Sue Yoo.
More:
- Chris Moneymaker was the 2003 World Series of Poker Champion.
- Sarah Blizzard is a BBC Meterologist
- Lake Speed was a Nascar driver
- Rosaline Brewer, former director at Molson Coors Brewing Company.
- Rosalind Canter, British Olympic equestrienne
- Christoper Coke and his father, Lester Coke - Jamaican drug lords and cocaine traffickers.
- Helen DeWitt, comic novelist
- David Dollar, economist
Do you know anyone whose name is an aptronym??
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