Aptronym


An aptronym, aptonym, or euonym is a personal name aptly or peculiarly suited to its owner.

History

The Encyclopædia Britannica attributes the term to Franklin P. Adams, a writer who coined it as an anagram of patronym, to emphasize "apt".
According to Frank Nuessel, in The Study of Names, an aptonym is the term used for "people whose names and occupations or situations have a close correspondence."
In the book What's in a Name?, author Paul Dickson cites a long list of aptronyms originally compiled by Professor Lewis P. Lipsitt, of Brown University. Psychologist Carl Jung wrote in his book Synchronicity that there was a "sometimes quite grotesque coincidence between a man's name and his peculiarities".
Nominative determinism is a hypothesis which suggests a causal relationship based on the idea that people tend to be attracted to areas of work that fit their name.

Notable examples

Some aptronyms are ironic rather than descriptive, being called inaptronyms by Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post.