When your name fits your job?
A doctor named Payne, a NASCAR driver named Speed and a music teacher named Fiddle – Terence Pillay looks at nominative determinism where your name fits your job.
LISTEN: Terence chats to journalist and publisher Galia Hillhouse on the topic of Nominative Determinism:
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 remarkably fitting surnames.
Growing up I visited a dentist called Dr Molar and a good friend is a horticulturalist called Ian Lief. The idea that people are drawn to professions that fit their name was suggested by psychologist Carl Jung, citing as an example Sigmund Freud who studied pleasure and whose surname means "joy".
Over the years I have had numerous discussions on this very subject with my good friend and fellow journo and publisher, Galia Hillhouse. Galia has made something of a project out of finding the craziest and funniest name-job combinations. And she shares some real gems with me (listen to podcast above).
One explanation for nominative determinism is implicit egotism, which states that humans have an unconscious preference for things they associate with themselves. An alternative explanation is genetic: a person might be named Smith or Taylor because that was originally their occupation, and they would pass on their genes to their descendants, including an aptitude for activities involving strength in the case of Smith, or dexterity in the case of Taylor.
Do you know of a person whose name suits their job? You can email Terence Pillay at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @terencepillay1 and tweet him your thoughts.
Growing up I visited a dentist called Dr Molar and a good friend is a horticulturalist called Ian Lief. The idea that people are drawn to professions that fit their name was suggested by psychologist Carl Jung, citing as an example Sigmund Freud who studied pleasure and whose surname means "joy".
Over the years I have had numerous discussions on this very subject with my good friend and fellow journo and publisher, Galia Hillhouse. Galia has made something of a project out of finding the craziest and funniest name-job combinations. And she shares some real gems with me (listen to podcast above).
One explanation for nominative determinism is implicit egotism, which states that humans have an unconscious preference for things they associate with themselves. An alternative explanation is genetic: a person might be named Smith or Taylor because that was originally their occupation, and they would pass on their genes to their descendants, including an aptitude for activities involving strength in the case of Smith, or dexterity in the case of Taylor.
Do you know of a person whose name suits their job? You can email Terence Pillay at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @terencepillay1 and tweet him your thoughts.