Aptonyms, Part One

Hello readers!

The triumphant return of Title Reader includes a triumphant return to the blog, coming at you whenever I find something interesting to say that's book- or language-related.  This week we're going to talk about aptonyms.  Someone with an aptonym is someone who has a very appropriate name for their life.  There are a surprising number of people with these sorts of names, so this is just part one, athletes.

The royal family of aptonymics is of course, the Ball family.  Most famous are brothers Lonzo, LiAngelo, and LaMelo, who are all professional basketball players.  But that's not all - mom Tina played college basketball and dad LaVar played both college basketball and professional football.  The whole family balls out hard.

They have some competition in the pro sports world.  Prince Fielder is a retired professional baseball player, a six-time All-Star who holds the home run record for the Milwaukee Brewers.  His father, Cecil Fielder, was also a pro baseball player, and the two are the only father-son duo to each hit 50 home runs in a single season.

More obscure but closer to my heart as a fencer, we have Nicaraguan fencer Fatima Largaespada, whose last name translates to "Big Sword".  Which is about as good as it gets for a fencer - except for Laurence Epee the French epeeist (epee is one of the three fencing weapons).

So those are aptonyms. People whose names make you say "You're joking, right?"  Can you think of others?  Let me know @titlereader! Liked this? Tell your friends. Want more? Join the mailing list below. Otherwise, we'll be back next edition with the non-sports aptonymics. Until then, happy reading!

- Scott Dubinsky