Question: where did the last name bias come from

title: Nominative determinism
text: Because of the potentially humorous nature of aptronyms a number of newspapers have collected them . San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen reported irregularly on reader - submitted gems , including substitute teacher Mr. Fillin , piano teacher Patience Scales , and the Vatican 's spokesman on the evils of rock ' n roll , Cardinal Rapsong . Similarly , the journalist Bob Levey on occasion listed examples sent in by readers of his column in The Washington Post : a food industry consultant named Faith Popcorn , a lieutenant called Sergeant , and a tax accountant called Shelby Goldgrab . Dutch newspaper Het Parool had an irregularly featured column called `` Nomen est omen '' with Dutch examples . Individual name collectors have also published books of aptronyms . Onomastic scholar R.M. Rennick called for more verification of aptronyms appearing in newspaper columns and books . Lists of aptronyms in science , medicine , and law are more reliable as they tend to be drawn from easily verifiable sources .