The name game - the weird science of nominative determinism

Rich Ricci
Roger Highfield10 April 2012

There was a certain scientific inevitability about the news that Rich Ricci of Barclays pocketed a pay and perks bonus package worth around £44 million for last year. This is an example of what is known as nominative determinism, the idea that a person's name reflects key attributes of his job, profession or life.

We all dream of coming up with a phrase or word that spreads like a virus, first attaining the status of pop culture catchphrase and then entering dictionaries and becoming part of the language. That's precisely what happened back in 1994 when New Scientist magazine's Feedback column recounted what happened after we received a new book, Pole Positions: The Polar Regions and the Future of the Planet, by a certain Daniel Snowman.

Two weeks later we were sent a copy of London Under London: A Subterranean Guide. It did not escape our attention that one of the authors was none other than Richard Trench. Then came an article in The Psychologist, in which Jen Hunt of the University of Manchester stated: 'Authors gravitate to the area of research which fits their surname.' Hunt cited an article on incontinence in the British Journal of Urology by J W Splatt and D Weedon. Following the first law of magazine journalism (three mentions make a trend), Feedback devised the term 'nominative determinism'.

We invited readers to give more examples and they poured in. We were told that Ted Fountaine had warned about a water leak at the Open University and that a paper entitled 'Assessing the Recreational Value of Fresh Waters' was written by C J Spray. The finance department of the Environment Agency included a Spendlove, Buck and Price among its staff. The speaker at a City Hall public forum in Brisbane on erectile dysfunction was Ralph Smallhorn. Another reader, Dan Seymour, confessed that he has never quite been able to get over the fact that his father, Hugh Seymour, was an optometrist.

With the rise of the internet, it became easier than ever to mine examples. One respondent trawled through the American Directory of Physicians to reveal a dermatologist called Rash, a rheumatologist named Knee, an orthopaedic surgeon named Bone and a psychiatrist named Couch. There were 18 doctors with the surname of Doctor, 10 named Blood, 19 named Fix, Cure or Heal, and 65 named Flesh, Gore, Ache or Looney.

In 2002, nominative determinism became a serious study in its own right, with the publication of a paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology entitled 'Why Susie Sells Seashells by the Seashore: Implicit Egotism and Major Life Decisions'. On the assumption that 'people prefer things that are connected to the self (for example, the letters in one's name)', authors Brett Pelham, Matthew Mirenberg and John Jones concluded that people are disproportionately likely to 'choose careers whose labels resemble their names (for example, people named Dennis or Denise are over-represented among dentists).'

Then came a twist. What about those people who, contrary to the dictates of nominative determinism, adopt a career that seems at odds with their surname? Take, for example, a consultant urologist at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, Somerset, named Nicholas Burns-Cox. One thing is for sure. There's much more in a name than many of us realise.
Roger Highfield is the editor of New Scientist and, with Martin Nowak, has written Supercooperators: The Mathematics of Evolution, Altruism and Human Behaviour (Canongate, £20)

Business
Bob Diamond President and CEO of Barclays, who received a bonus of £6.5 million this year
Rich Ricci CEO of Barclays Capital who was paid £44 million last year
Sir Fred Goodwin Former CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland, who negotiated a £16 million pension before leaving the sinking ship
Rick Wagoner Former head of General Motors
Patty Turner Late wife of McDonald's CEO Fred Turner

Tabloid Favourites
Abi Titmuss Former nurse turned glamour model
Amy Winehouse Singer-songwriter known for her substance abuse
Chris Moneymaker The first amateur winner of the $2.5m prize World Series of Poker in 2003
Lorena Bobbit Cut off her husband's penis
Christopher 'Dudus' Coke Jamaican drug lord

Politics
Bill Cash MP who claimed more than £15,000 in expenses to pay his daughter's rent.
Sir Richard Makepeace Former British Consul-General in Jerusalem
Larry Speakes Former White House spokesman, under Ronald Reagan
John Doolittle & Tom DeLay Republicans who argued against any action on the ozone hole

Academia/Science
Sir Michael Scholar President of St John's College, Oxford
Alan Heavens Professor of Astrophysics at Edinburgh University
Dr. Richard Chopp Leading urologist specialising in vasectomies
Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox Authors of The Imperial Animal

Law
Lord Igor Judge Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
Sir John Grant McKenzie Laws One of the Lords Justices of Appeal
Wright Hassall Solicitors' firm in Leamington Spa
Sue Yoo Associate at Sullivan & Cromwell legal firm, New York

Religion
Cardinal Jaime Sin was a Catholic Archbishop in the Philippines

Entertainment
Ray Bates Former director of the Irish National Lottery
Samantha Bond Played Miss Moneypenny in four Bond films: GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day
Sara Blizzard Weather presenter for East Midlands Today.
Mr T(heodore) Hee Responsible for most of the early comic storylines for Walt Disney films

Sport
Robbie Fowler Footballer, formerly of Liverpool FC, now with Perth Glory
Peter Bowler English-born Australian cricketer
Arsene Wenger Manager of Arsenal football club
Benjamin Millepied Principal dancer with the New York City Ballet and choreographer (also Natalie Portman's fiancé)
Marina Stepanova Former Soviet athlete, she was the first woman
to run under 53 seconds in the
400m hurdles
Mike Spinner BMX rider famous for his spins
Scott Speed Former Formula One racing driver
Usain Bolt Holder of the 100m and 200m world records
Layne Beachley Seven times women's surfing world champion

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