h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I never knew the etymology of fuchsia, thanks, guys.

Leonhard Fuchs makes me think of the anthropologists Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox.

Lionel Tiger is a great name.

Isn't it, though? The fact that the two of them wrote 'The Imperial Animal' together makes it perfect.

Effingham?

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SO loads of people have named their kids that?

They are both great examples of nominative determinism. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism.

The theory was invented and popularised by New Scientist Magazine, but you have to have an account to read their webpage. (boo)

Mr. C. Lion, marine biologist.

and . I didn't know about this.

Read that Wiki list carefully, however: a lot of those allegedly 'apt' names are the sort of naughty puns Brits love...

Is there a word for the opposite of nominative determinism? For instance, I know of a missionary doctor who was named Butcher. (He was a good doctor.)

Most people would say Johnny Depp was a bit brighter than his surname suggests...

The world of sport has the best examples: Usain Bolt, of course

In football, Peter Hartley and James Poole are both current members of the Hartlepool FC squad

But it doesn't always work. Arsene Wenger is Arsenal's manager and we have Mancini at Man City, but Villas-Boas wasn't appointed Villa's boss.

Hmmmm, 'nominative determinism' ... It sounds very colourful and creative, does it mean anything to folks who didn't have colleges and universities feasibly available? I ask for informational purposes, of course.

I don't know if they are *just* naughty puns though. Hundreds of these have been published in New Scientist's 'Feedback' column, and it is a very respected factual publication that would shy away from falsehood even on its 'funny' page. Indeed I get the feeling they check them out carefully.

Mr. Richard Haddock, Fisheries Inspector
(Genuine but not very funny I example. I went to school with him.)

Nick, people who didn't have colleges and universities freely available like me you mean?

Hip, drt, and me and most of my Canuck generation. I'm a bit busy elsewhere and wondered if the term had a more recognizeable name, like a 'pun based on a name' or what-ever it is ...

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According to Wonkypedia 'perfect fit last names' if that's any help. The idea is not to be a pun, although they often are, it is that the surname of the person is so ideal for their profession that it is tempting to believe they could not have chosen another. For example the Chief Justice of the UK is Lord Judge.

I.P. Freely. Urologist.

I mean they were naughty puns because some of those names aren't straightforward examples. Like Lord Ramsbotham. (You have to think about it. Then you wish you hadn't.)

The Germans always said, 'Nomen est omen', which is Latin for 'the name is the omen', when somebody had an appropriate name. But I don't know a common term for it - at least, hillbillies don't have one. They just say, 'If I had that name, I would change it.'

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Drat, my links were hidden - presumably because someone thought I was advertising

Box Brothers - Funeral Directors in Blackpool and

Doolittle and Dalley - Estate Agents in the West Midlands

Oh, and a paper from Pubmed called

HIV causes AIDS: Koch's postulates fulfilled

Good examples, there.

Do you think Wiki learnt from us? That is quite a funny article there, not dry at all.