This thread made me recall Major Major, a character in Catch-22
Of course. That’s what makes it funny (to me, anyway).
That’s just his rank and last name. His first name was also Major.
He was a farmer, and a very wealthy one. (Although in modern times, we would probably call him a rancher.)
My neighbor had a testicle removed by a surgeon named Kutznutzoff.
There was a long-time local physician who was Doctor Dockter. And this isn’t the same thing, but a local newspaper had a photographer named Bob Lenz. Even worse was the ophthalmologist named Doctor Gouger. Ouch!
When I was a kid, our family dentist was Dr. Achen (and yes, he did pronounce it with a long “A”).
His office was in the same building as an obstetrician named Dr. Love.
There is that NFL player, Lawyer Milloy. I guess it did not work out the way his mother intended (but still, not bad!).
When we lived in Anchorage, the condo association had a handyman who also pruned the trees in the neighborhood. His name was Les Sapp.
Can’t you see he’s burnin’, burnin’?
I’d seen this picture previously, but it came up on Reddit today: a firefighter named Les McBurney, from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. Some hits on Google for his name indicate that he’s a real person.
Actually, his full name is Major Major Major. With his promotion, he became Major Major Major Major.
My step father had the last name Boozer. He lived up to that name. If there was an occupation called that, he would have been a pro. He died at 52 from acute alcohol poisoning.
I think the absolutely best example is a book on animal behavior called “The Imperial Animal” by Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox.
There was an ornithologist at McGill named David Bird.
English family names often derive from occupations but I guess most of them are sufficiently historical that family name/occupation matches seem odd.
Presumably at one time, it would’ve been completely normal for the miller to be called Miller and a fletcher to be called Fletcher and a baker to be called Baker.
This really stands out with Punjabis who also use occupations as last names but do so with more recent occupations. That’s why it’s not uncommon to come across Punjabis called “Engineer“ or “Doctor” or similar.
I know a Punjabi guy whose last name is “Captain“ who is indeed a ship’s master so he is Captain Captain.
I used to have my hair cut by a Ms Cutter.
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Max Fightmaster and Rad Heroman make me think of Space Mutiny
In high school, one of my English teachers was a Mrs Meanwell.
She was kind and supportive, so indeed she meant well.
The spokesperson for the Ohio Fire Marshal at one point was a woman named Lindsey Burnsworth.
I happened to note it and mention it on Facebook, so that’s how I remember.
There was a clip going around recently of a reporter with a very apt name reporting on, I think, a weather event. But I can’t find it…
My personal favorite example of this has always been White House Spokesman Larry Speakes.
(He was actually the Press Secretary, but he was effectively the spokesman, and that’s how I remember the news always referring to him.)