What’s
in a Name? — Maybe Your Profession
by
Howard Richler
Synchronicity
is a concept, first
introduced by analytical psychologist Carl Jung, which holds that events are “meaningful
coincidences” if they occur with no causal relationship yet seem to be
meaningfully related. And in his work Synchronicity published in 1952
he alluded to the possibility that there may be a suggestive effect to
names.Apparently, Jung was impressed that Sigmund Freud’ s surname meant “joy”
as his psychoanalytical colleague
studied pleasure.
In
1994, the British magazine New Scientist
went somewhat further. It posited the
argument that people actually gravitate towards jobs that reflect their
surnames. They called this process “nominative determinism” and suggested that
there is a subconscious imperative that impels one to find a job that fits
one's surname. Readers were asked to supply examples of this process and as a
result New Scientist was inundated by
hundreds of “proofs.” In 1998, New Scientist resurrected the
controversy when they quoted the following underwhelming statement in Lawrence
Casler’s article Put the Blame on Name that
appeared in the journal Psychological
Reports in 1975: “There is a determinant whose effect may not be phenomenal
but is probably more than nominal, namely the name.”
As
examples of this process, New Scientist
listed John Barnacle’s decision to become a marine-timber expert, and Daniel
Snowman who wrote the book, Pole
Positions-The Polar Regions and the Future of the Planet. Also cited were Britain’s Meteorological Office which
features staff with the surnames Flood, Frost, Thundercliffe and Weatherall,
and the U.S. National Weather Service employee Dave Storm. As a proud
Montrealer, I was saddened that my hometown received short shrift in the New Scientist list of aptronyms. It
didn’t reference McGill ornithology professor David Bird who wrote a column
about birds in The Gazette for
twenty-eight years. Also ignored were
ill-fated Will Drop, a local window
cleaner who died in a fall, and one-time Director of Pediatric Urology at the Montreal Children’s
Hospital, Joao Luiz Pippi-Salle who is currently Professor with Department of
Surgery, University of Toronto.
One
finds many apt surnames of lawyers and doctors. To wit, the Florida Bar
Directory lists eight lawyers named law and we also have famed British
barrister James Counsell. Counsell, whose father was also a lawyer, said “I
remember as a child people saying ‘of course you are going to be a barrister
because of your name.’ How much is down to the subconscious is difficult to say
but the fact that your name is similar may be a reason for showing more
interest in a profession than you might otherwise.” Aside from famed neurologist Russell Brain,
I found many doctors with vary apt names. For example a quick Google search
found urologists Dr. Robert Ball, Dr. Justin Cox and Dr. Matthew Whang.
It
would appear that academics in particular follow this onomastic imperative. For
example, biology professor David M. Hoppe is an expert on deformed frogs,
meteorologist Christopher Landsea has written several research papers on
hurricanes and cyclones, Jules Angst has published works about anxiety and
Peter Skidmore wrote a journal article on cow dung. As karma would have it,
astronomy buffs are guided not by the stars but by their names. To wit, we have
Professor of Theoretical Physics Alan Heavens, astronomy professor Charles Telesco,
astronomer Sumner Starrfield, not to mention astronaut Sally Ride.
Probably
due to some quantum dynamic process I'm not bright enough to fathom, nominative
determinism sometimes works in reverse. While Wikipedia lists an American rabbi
named Alexander D. Goode, this is countered by Cardinal Jaime Sin, Archbishop
of Manila who passed away in 2005. There are also these “inaptonyms”: Aside from the countless lawyers named Lynch,
we have David Soberman, who years ago worked in marketing for Dow Breweries;
dentists Emily Payne and Keith Au;
the British building company,
R.Crumbleholme & Son; psychiatry professor William C. Dement; white
supremacist Donald Black and Henry Calamity who in March 1969 was voted the
Santa Fe Railroad’s “safety man of the
month.”
Hmm.
Maybe there is something to this nominative determinism process. After all,
Thomas Crapper the inventor in the 19th century of the modern flush
toilet, was a sanitary engineer, Toronto mayor John Tory was the former leader
of the Tories in Ontario, Martin Short is short, the world's fastest man Usain
Bolt did bolt out of the blocks, former US Congressman Tom DeLay was prone to
filibuster and American Jacques P. Moron sold drugs to narcs. Let us not
forget, that stockbroker Bernie Madoff “made off” with billions of investors’
money, former US Congressman Anthony Weiner was convicted of texting pictures
of his whozitjigger and Charles Diggs Sr., Detroit’s first black Congressman
was the owner of the House of Diggs Funeral Parlor. Just in case you're not convinced by this
overwhelming evidence take note that on October 6, 1941, the unfortunate duo of
Wilburn and Frizzel were given the electric chair at Florida State Prison.
The
mind boggles as the body smoulders.
Richler’s
latest book is Wordplay:Arranged and
Deranged Wit
