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.

Examples

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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

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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

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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

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

See also

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• Nominative determinism, which has a similar meaning
• -onym

External links

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

Names | Semantics | Aptonyme