I read an article about Nominative Determinism earlier, and it sent me to several articles and eventually Wikipedia to learn more. If you’re the type to go on tangents, this is a fun one to explore.
Nominative Determinism is the tendency to choose a field of work that is similar to your name. Think something like a urologist who regularly performs vasectomies named Dick Chopp (which is a real one I found in a list of examples). For a more well-known example, there’s Usain Bolt, the “fastest man in the world” with a name to match.
The history of this notion is fascinating, since it’s a relatively recent thing. We all are vaguely aware that, in ye olde days, you had a name that reflected your profession. Think something like a man with the name Smith who was a blacksmith.
Well, by the 20th century, a lot of common surnames (Smith, Taylor, Wright) belonged to professions that weren’t particularly common anymore thanks to the industrial revolution and mass production. As such, there arose a notion that people gravitated to jobs that matched their names rather than the other way around.
A simple Google search of the term will yield a ton of results that are amusing and fascinating. This includes a woman mentioned in the Wikipedia article named Sue Yoo, who became a lawyer in part because people told her she’d make a good lawyer with that name. Honestly, though, I don’t care if it’s just a coincidence most of the time — I just think it’s neat.
There is also the opposite notion — that people choose jobs or wind up in life trajectories that run counter to their name, as though they are rejecting the notion that destiny should dictate their lives. As with many things, Terry Pratchett has a hilarious example of this in the Carter children:
“The Carter parents were a quiet and respectable Lancre family who got into a bit of a mix-up when it came to naming their children. First, they had four daughters, who were christened Hope, Chastity, Prudence, and Charity, because naming girls after virtues is an ancient and unremarkable tradition. Then their first son was born and out of some misplaced idea about how this naming business was done he was called Anger Carter, followed later by Jealousy Carter, Bestiality Carter and Covetousness Carter. Life being what it is, Hope turned out to be a depressive, Chastity was enjoying life as a lady of negotiable affection in Ankh-Morpork, Prudence had thirteen children, and Charity expected to get a dollar’s change out of seventy-five pence–whereas the boys had grown into amiable, well-tempered men, and Bestiality Carter was, for example, very kind to animals.” — Terry Pratchett
GNU Sir Terry, which is completely unrelated to this article but I still feel the need to say.
The world is full of funny, punny names that are either coincidentally or intentionally hilarious. Still, the notion that one can make one’s name into a joke simply by gravitating toward a job that turns it into a pun is just endlessly amusing to me. It’s like if I, a grant writer by trade, had the name Grant Wright.
I know that my name is not an example of this vis a vis my chosen profession, but there are other weird coincidences with it. My given name, Matthew, roughly means “gift from god” and is fairly common due to the Apostle by that name. That said, I’m agnostic and have a generally antagonistic relationship with Christianity, so my name’s association with god and the Bible is kind of amusing in that context.
My last name, Maniaci, apparently refers to my family’s city of origin, Maniace, which was another popular style of surname for quite a while. That said, my last name contains the words “mania” and “maniac,” which has always been a fun quirk of my surname.
That said, my surname is a bit on the nose, though, as I live with bipolar disorder and am prone to long bouts of mania when unmedicated. It’s not anything even remotely intentional, of course — it’s not like my parents had kids with the explicit notion of raising a child with bipolar disorder because it would be fitting based on our family name.
My middle name is boring and has no amusing coincidence attached to it, aside from the fact that it starts with the letter R, making my initials MRM, or Mr. M as the case may be. I guess I can never become a reverend, a doctor, or any other career or field of study that has a prefix, since that would betray my initials.
Alternatively, I could always accumulate titles and be Rev. Dr. Mr. Maniaci, which kinda feels like being a Sergeant Major named Major Sergeant (tip of the hat to Major Major Major Major, of course). It also feels a bit disingenuous considering my aforementioned dislike of Christianity in particular, although I guess I could be a non-denominational reverend.
Anyway, if you have a particular name that corresponds to your career of choice (or know someone who does), whether in the affirmative or in the negative, sound off I guess. I’ll actually make a point to read the comments on this article if I remember to so I can see all the weird, random name coincidences you have.
And, if you don’t have a name that corresponds to your job or some other aspect of your life, no worries, most of us don’t. It’s a fun thing to observe, but it’s still fairly rare all things considered.
Finally, if you are in a position to legally change your name, I encourage you to come up with something that is somehow fitting to your life. It doesn’t have to be a pun on your job or life, but I hope that whatever your new name is, it’s meaningful to you.
(Maybe don’t change your name to something crude like Dick Fitz-Goode, though. Or you can ignore me and do whatever you want, I’m not the boss of you.)
Be well out there.