Open Dictionary word of the week: aptonym

aptonym (noun)

(also aptronym)

a person’s name that is appropriate to their job

An example of an aptonym is the current UK Lord Chief Justice, whose name and title is Lord Judge.

(Submitted from the United Kingdom)

Doing a quick run-through of our bloggers and guest-bloggers I thought I might come up with at least one or two aptonyms. But I didn’t. So that ruined that idea. Although there are clearly alternate career paths for, for example, Liz Potter, Katherine Barber and Martin Shovel.

I have now looked through my list of Facebook friends because I don’t want to just quote from other people’s posts on antonyms, I want to make my own discovery! But all I can come up with are are lame and obscure attempts. There’s a Mansfield who is a designer but design is not traditionally a male dominated vocation. There’s a Buckland who works at Cirque du Soleil … but he’s not a trapeze artist. Cook’s not a cook. Singh doesn’t. Van Vuuren’s not a fireman.  Oh wait! I have it! I have friends who are weavers and they are H and A … Shuttleworth! Yes.

Now I can quote from other people. Stephen J Dubner who writes for Freakonomics found a Paige Worthy who works at Good magazine: ” There are two people listed under “Research,” which in magazine land usually means fact-checking. One of the names is … Paige Worthy. That is: if a fact doesn’t get past Paige Worthy, then it’s not page-worthy, at least not for Good.”

Apparently New Scientist magazine coined the terms nominative determinism and aptonym, at least that’s what I read in this post whose author asks: “…Have you heard of the sexologist and author whose surname is Heiman?”

BBC Radio 4 covered this topic at the end of last year, I remember. There seemed to be a sense of discovering that people were somehow drawn to jobs that fitted their names. But surely there is heredity in it – dating back to when your name was given because of your vocation and so now the vocation is in your blood … and so, in your name.

Speaking of blood. Redpath (which is my maiden name)? We were either bloody fighters, or laid the carpet for VIPs, or it’s something red-light districty …  I don’t want to overthink it.

What about you, do you have an aptonym to share?

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