Background Before people could gravitate towards areas of work that matched their names, many people were given names that matched their area of work. The way people are named has changed over time. In pre-urban times people were only known by a single name – for example, the Anglo-Saxon name Beornheard. Single names were chosen for their meaning or given as nicknames. In England it was only after the Norman conquest that surnames were added, although there were a few earlier bynames that were not hereditary, such as Edmund Ironside. Surnames were created to fit the person, mostly from patronyms (e.g., John son of William becomes John Williamson), occupational descriptions (e.g., John Carpenter), character or traits (e.g., John Long), or location (e.g., John from Acton became John Acton). Names were not initially hereditary; only by the mid-14th century did they gradually become so. Surnames relating to trades or craft were the first to become hereditary, as the craft often persisted within the family for generations. The appropriateness of occupational names has decreased over time, because tradesmen did not always follow their fathers: an early example from the 14th century is "Roger Carpenter the pepperer". By the beginning of the 20th century, Smith and Taylor were two of the three most frequently occurring English surnames; both were occupational, though few smiths and tailors remained. When a correspondence between a name and an occupation did occur, it became worthy of note. In an 1888 issue of the Kentish Note Book magazine a list appeared with "several carriers by the name of Carter; a hosier named Hosegood; an auctioneer named Sales; and a draper named Cuff". Since then, a variety of terms for the concept of a close relationship between name and occupation have emerged. The term aptronym is thought to have been coined in the early 20th century by the American newspaper columnist Franklin P. Adams. Linguist Frank Nuessel coined aptonym , without an "r" , in 1992. Other synonyms include euonym, Perfect Fit Last Name  (PFLN), and namephreak . In literary science a name that particularly suits a character is called a charactonym . Notable authors who frequently used charactonyms as a stylistic technique include Charles Dickens (e.g., Mr. Gradgrind, the tyrannical schoolmaster) and William Shakespeare (e.g., the lost baby Perdita in The Winter's Tale). Sometimes this is played for laughs, as with the character Major Major Major Major in Joseph Heller's Catch-22, who was named Major Major Major by his father as a joke and then was later in life promoted to major by "an IBM machine with a sense of humor almost as keen as his father's." Unlike nominative determinism, the concept of aptronym and its synonyms do not say anything about causality, i.e. why the name has come to fit. 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. A 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.
Background In history, before people could gravitate towards areas of work that matched their names, many people were given names that matched their area of work. The way people are named has changed over time. In pre-urban times people were only known by a single name – for example, the Anglo-Saxon name Beornheard. Single names were chosen for their meaning or given as nicknames. In England it was only after the Norman conquest that surnames were added, although there were a few earlier bynames that were not hereditary, such as Edmund Ironside. Surnames were created to fit the person, mostly from patronyms (e.g., John son of William becomes John Williamson), occupational descriptions (e.g., John Carpenter), character or traits (e.g., John Long), or location (e.g., John from Acton became John Acton). Names were not initially hereditary; only by the mid-14th century did they gradually become so. Surnames relating to trades or craft were the first to become hereditary, as the craft often persisted within the family for generations. The appropriateness of occupational names has decreased over time, because tradesmen did not always follow their fathers: an early example from the 14th century is "Roger Carpenter the pepperer". By the beginning of the 20th century, Smith and Taylor were two of the three most frequently occurring English surnames; both were occupational, though few smiths and tailors remained. When a correspondence between a name and an occupation did occur, it became worthy of note. In an 1888 issue of the Kentish Note Book magazine a list appeared with "several carriers by the name of Carter; a hosier named Hosegood; an auctioneer named Sales; and a draper named Cuff". Since then, a variety of terms for the concept of a close relationship between name and occupation have emerged. The term aptronym is thought to have been coined in the early 20th century by the American newspaper columnist Franklin P. Adams. Linguist Frank Nuessel coined "aptonym" , without an 'r' , in 1992. Other synonyms include 'euonym', ' Perfect Fit Last Name ' (PFLN), and 'namephreak' . In literary science a name that particularly suits a character is called a 'charactonym' . Notable authors who frequently used charactonyms as a stylistic technique include Charles Dickens (e.g., Mr. Gradgrind, the tyrannical schoolmaster) and William Shakespeare (e.g., the lost baby Perdita in The Winter's Tale). Sometimes this is played for laughs, as with the character Major Major Major Major in Joseph Heller's Catch-22, who was named Major Major Major by his father as a joke and then was later in life promoted to major by "an IBM machine with a sense of humor almost as keen as his father's." Unlike nominative determinism, the concept of aptronym and its synonyms do not say anything about causality, such as why the name has come to fit. 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. A 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.
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