this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2025
28 points (91.2% liked)

Nominative Determinism

569 readers
1 users here now

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.

This is a community for posting real-world examples of names that by coincidence are funny in context. A link to the article or site is preferable, as well as a screenshot of the funny name if it's not in the headline. Try not to repost, and keep it fun!

founded 10 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

But if you translate the name and someone tries to look up the person, they won't be able to find them. Names are usually not translated no matter if they are coincidentally combined of two translatable words.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Given that this is an English-language community for amusingly coincidental names I don't think we'd have been able to appreciate the joke without the translation!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Wooosh, that went totally over my head. I just saw this post in all and forgot to check the comunity name. Thanks for your patience while clarifying :D

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago