# When name and talent align **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 10, 2017, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436 "2017-10-10T04:17:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/1 "2017-10-10T04:17:27Z")
I think it’s safe to say Stephen King is the most well-known writer of his genre, which makes him the king of horror. Usain Bolt, fastest man alive. Weird. What are some other examples of coincidental alignment with someone’s reputation and their name? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/2 "2017-10-10T05:50:39Z")
A urologist named Dr. Wiener. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/3 "2017-10-10T05:53:03Z")
Ringo Starr is a rock star ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/4 "2017-10-10T05:53:08Z")
[Chris Moneymaker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Moneymaker). ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/5 "2017-10-10T06:19:15Z")
Donald Trump. “Trump” means to rank above or to defeat. As President, Donald Trump ranks at the head of the executive branch and he trumped, or defeated, Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/6 "2017-10-10T06:27:08Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Donald Trump. “Trump” means to rank above or to defeat. On this side of the water, it is also one of many slang words for a fart. But be that as it may, the phenomenon the OP is describing is known as [“nominative determinism”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism) ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/7 "2017-10-10T08:15:51Z")
Paul Blair was a Ball Player Prince Fielder was a, umm, first baseman. Ron Piche’ was a Fench-speaking pitcher. No, it’s “lanceur”. Johnny Podres played for the Padres, and Jose Cardenal for the Cardinals. Darryl Boston, Tyler Houston, and Reggie Cleveland never played for those city’s teams ---
**Author:** ![Mavic\_Chen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mavic\_Chen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mavic_Chen)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/8 "2017-10-10T15:06:11Z")
[Bernie Madoff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Madoff) made off with all the money…? Bit of a stretch but it makes me smile! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/9 "2017-10-10T15:14:51Z")
Jim Brown was a Cleveland Brown. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/10 "2017-10-10T16:00:44Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Ringo Starr is a rock star Yeah, but that’s fake. 🙂 > [@PatrickLondon](#): > > But be that as it may, the phenomenon the OP is describing is known as [“nominative determinism”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism) Interesting! Reminds me of Seinfeld’s bit about naming your baby Jeeves, and “pretty much mapping out his life” that way. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/11 "2017-10-10T16:51:39Z")
The latest winner of the Nobel prize in economics is Richard Thaler. The origin of our word “dollar” comes from the German coin “thaler”. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/12 "2017-10-10T17:03:27Z")
> [@DooWahDiddy](#): > > Interesting! Reminds me of Seinfeld’s bit about naming your baby Jeeves, and “pretty much mapping out his life” that way. Reminds me of the old joke. [Carmen Electra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Electra) is an actress. Her real name is Tara Patrick. She changed it because she wanted something more glamorous for her career. [Tera Patrick](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tera_Patrick) is a porn actress. Her real name is Linda Hopkins. She also changed her name because she wanted something more glamorous for her career. And the joke is that somewhere out there is a woman named Carmen Electra. She’s going to law school. And she plans on changing her name to Linda Hopkins before she graduates so people will take her seriously as a lawyer. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/13 "2017-10-10T17:39:05Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Paul Blair was a Ball Player > > Prince Fielder was a, umm, first baseman. > > Ron Piche’ was a Fench-speaking pitcher. No, it’s “lanceur”. > > Johnny Podres played for the Padres, and Jose Cardenal for the Cardinals. Darryl Boston, Tyler Houston, and Reggie Cleveland never played for those city’s teams Arsenal’s coach’s first name is Arsene. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/14 "2017-10-10T17:54:00Z")
Not really what the OP is asking, but I’ve always loved the fact that [Wolfgang Wolf](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Wolf) used to be the trainer of (German soccer club) VfL Wolfsburg. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/15 "2017-10-10T18:03:38Z")
Sort of a tangent. The [Smoot.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot) > [@](#): > > The smoot /ˈsmuːt/ is a nonstandard, humorous unit of length created as part of an MIT fraternity prank. It is named after Oliver R. Smoot, a fraternity pledge to Lambda Chi Alpha, who in October 1958 lay down repeatedly on the Harvard Bridge (between Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts) so that his fraternity brothers could use his height to measure the length of the bridge. Google Earth includes Smoots in the measuring tool. Mr. Smoot’s [later career.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_R._Smoot) > [@](#): > > Oliver Reed Smoot, Jr. (born 1940) was\*\* Chairman of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) from 2001 to 2002 and President of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) from 2003 to 2004.\*\* In 2011 the American Heritage Dictionary admitted his decapitalized surname, “smoot”, as one of the 10,000 new words added to their fifth edition. The term is named for Smoot from his undergraduate days when he was used as a unit of measure during a fraternity pledge activity. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/16 "2017-10-10T19:27:18Z")
Anthony Weiner ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/17 "2017-10-10T23:47:38Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Jim Brown was a Cleveland Brown. He played for the Browns under coach Paul Brown. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2017, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/18 "2017-10-10T23:54:49Z")
There is a race driver named [Scott Speed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Speed). ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/19 "2017-10-11T13:37:37Z")
Theatre director Hal Prince is “the Prince of Broadway.” Ann Rule definitely ruled the true crime genre. Rollie Fingers was a baseball pitcher. While Jeremy Irons doesn’t play golf, I think there is a golfer with the last name of Woods. What are the odds that a herd of cows would be hit by a driver named [Daisy Cowit](https://www.cnet.com/news/police-texting-woman-plows-into-cows-her-name-is-cowit/)? To quote the first line of that CNN story: Some things you cannot make up. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436/20 "2017-10-11T14:20:15Z")
> [@DooWahDiddy](#): > > Yeah, but that’s fake. 🙂 And so is Trump (Drumpf) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-name-and-talent-align/798436.md?page=2)