aptronyms

Also referred to as "aptronyms", New Scientist journalist John Hoyland coined the term "nominative determinism" for these strange cases of people who seem inexorably drawn to their profession by virtue of their name.

BBC News - Home 2011

“Collecting aptronyms is generally good fun,” Dickson writes, “but gets a bit unnerving when you run into the horrifyingly apt Will Drop, a Montreal window cleaner who died in a fall; and Wilburn and Frizzel, who on the grim morning of October 6, 1941, went to the electric chair at the Florida State prison.”

No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

“Collecting aptronyms is generally good fun,” Dickson writes, “but gets a bit unnerving when you run into the horrifyingly apt Will Drop, a Montreal window cleaner who died in a fall; and Wilburn and Frizzel, who on the grim morning of October 6, 1941, went to the electric chair at the Florida State prison.”

No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

American Dream among/between anatomy of a column and, pronunciation of and the horse you rode in on anguish ankle biters anonymous antecedents apology apple-pie issues aptronyms as American as apple pie as far as the eye can see atop au jus au pairs avuncular

No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

American Dream among/between anatomy of a column and, pronunciation of and the horse you rode in on anguish ankle biters anonymous antecedents apology apple-pie issues aptronyms as American as apple pie as far as the eye can see atop au jus au pairs avuncular

No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

“Collecting aptronyms is generally good fun,” Dickson writes, “but gets a bit unnerving when you run into the horrifyingly apt Will Drop, a Montreal window cleaner who died in a fall; and Wilburn and Frizzel, who on the grim morning of October 6, 1941, went to the electric chair at the Florida State prison.”

No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

American Dream among/between anatomy of a column and, pronunciation of and the horse you rode in on anguish ankle biters anonymous antecedents apology apple-pie issues aptronyms as American as apple pie as far as the eye can see atop au jus au pairs avuncular

No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

American Dream among/between anatomy of a column and, pronunciation of and the horse you rode in on anguish ankle biters anonymous antecedents apology apple-pie issues aptronyms as American as apple pie as far as the eye can see atop au jus au pairs avuncular

No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

“Collecting aptronyms is generally good fun,” Dickson writes, “but gets a bit unnerving when you run into the horrifyingly apt Will Drop, a Montreal window cleaner who died in a fall; and Wilburn and Frizzel, who on the grim morning of October 6, 1941, went to the electric chair at the Florida State prison.”

No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

Of late, aptronyms seem to have cropped up at a steady clip.

NYT > Home Page By CLYDE HABERMAN 2011