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What is the most on-the-nose or strangely objective name that you have heard? (lemmy.world)

submitted 4 months ago by favrion@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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For example, I was doing research for a blog article and found a paper by a guy named Christian Messenger. That man was definitely destined for missionary work, but the paper was about football.

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[-] myfavouritename@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

These are called "aptroynms" and Wikipedia has a great list of them and also inaptroyms. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aptronym

[-] ABasilPlant@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

See also: Nominative Determinism. If I remember correctly, there was a subreddit about this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism

Nominative determinism is the hypothesis that people tend to gravitate towards areas of work that fit their names. The term was first used in the magazine New Scientist in 1994, after the magazine's humorous "Feedback" column noted several studies carried out by researchers with remarkably fitting surnames. These included a book on polar explorations by Daniel Snowman and an article on urology by researchers named Splatt and Weedon. These and other examples led to light-hearted speculation that some sort of psychological effect was at work.

[-] smeg@feddit.uk 2 points 2 months ago

There's now a Lemmy community too: !nominativedeterminism@feddit.uk

Yes, I'm searching through this thread for stuff to post there

this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2024

126 points (97.0% liked)

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