Meaningful Name/Real Life: Difference between revisions

* Former US Olympic swimmer Jeff Float.

* Dr. Elizabeth Woodcock, the Public Affairs Director of the U. S. Food and Drug Administration during the 1990's, was the government's point person on Viagra.

* The winner of the 2003 World Series of Poker was an accountant named Chris ''Moneymaker''. His grandfather changed it from the German Nurmacher, which means "only maker".

* ''[[Freakonomics]]'' tells us of a real-life inversion with the case of Winner Lane and Loser Lane: while the latter became a successful police sergeant, the former became a petty criminal.

* Economist [[wikipedia:Richard Thaler|Richard Thaler]]'s last name is the German root word for "Dollar."

** Which also qualifies German poker player Katja Thaler.

* Melinda Loveless, who infamously tortured a young girl to death.

* In London, there's a veterinary surgery in '''''Mayow''''' Road, near '''''Cat'''''ford.

* Inverted by British Airways pilot John Coward, who was quite the hero in the way he landed a stricken Boeing 777 at London Heathrow in January 2008.

* [http://news.aol.com/article/girl-surives-fall-from-seventh-story/632956 Destiny.] She has to go on to do SOMETHING important after this, right?

* Staff Sergeant Max Fightmaster. Seriously!

* The actress ''Charisma'' Carpenter.

* The Dutch public television had two female meteorologists, Monique Somers (Summers) and Diana Woei (Woei being the - somewhat archaic - past tense of 'waaien', or 'blowing' (as in wind)).

* One of the most famous architects of the late 19th/early 20th centuries: Antoni Gaudi.

* Awful but true: Eugène Ney Terre'Blanche, (deceased) leader of the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging white-supremacist group. His surname means "white land" or "white earth" in French.

** Also counts as [[Meaningful Rename]], since this is the name his racist ancestors adopted when they first settled in South Africa. Eugene came from a long line of White Supremacists.

* A man named ''Jessie James'' Warren shot up an [[Atlanta]] office in January 2010.

** A man named Jesse James Hollywood became a notorious fugitive and later had a [[Alpha Dog|Hollywood film]] based on his crime.

* Techno artist Moby (whose real name is Richard Melville Hall) is a direct descendant of [[Moby Dick|Herman Melville]].

* Australian politician Tony Abbott is well known for being an outspoken Catholic, and regularly permitted this to influence his decisions as Minister for Health under the Howard government.

* Then there's Carelton Coon, an American anthropologist who became infamous for his controversial studies of race and support of segregationism.

* Averted hilariously with the former Archbishop of Manila, Jaime L. Sin. Better known as '''''Cardinal Sin'''''.

* Viacom. It just ''sounds'' like a big, vaguely sinister conglomerate, doesn't it? Would you believe it didn't start out as one? It was originally just the TV production arm of CBS, on par with Filmways or Desilu. It sort of grew into its name. As an added bonus, it's even an acronym, for the all-encompassing VIdeo and Audio COMmunications, which is also appropriate for a media giant.

* Donald Trump. If a fictional character in his position and with his reputation had that name, [[Reality Is Unrealistic|you'd call it ridiculous]]. ("Trump" means to crush and/or overwhelm. This usage originates from card games, "Queen trumps Jack" and so forth.)

* Larry Page, co-founder of [[Google]]. [[Don't Explain the Joke|Google searches web pages]]. And the ranking system he invented is called [[Just for Pun|PageRank]].

* A notorious Jamaican drug dealer is named Christopher ''Coke''.

* [[Norio Wakamoto]] has "Norio" which means "Man of Law". Considering he was a police officer becoming a seiyuu, he definitely counts.

* In 1995, a virtual reality researcher developed algorithms to simulate the evolution of living beings and a 3D environment in which virtual creatures evolve. His name: Karl ''Sims''.

* And there's [[The Brothers Grimm (Creator)|The Brothers]] [[Darker and Edgier|Grimm]].

* [[Mark Hamill|M]]'''[[Mark Hamill|ark Ham]]'''[[Mark Hamill|ill]] plays [[The Joker]] in many animated Batman works.

* E. G. Booz, a 19th century American distiller.

* This is the whole point of binomial nomenclature. For example, ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' means, "tyrant lizard king."

* There is a weather presenter on one of the regional new programmes in England by the name of Sara Blizzard

* Dick Hickock who murdered the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas was not only something of a dick/cock, he also largely did as that part of his body dictated, attempting to rape the sixteen year old Nancy Clutter. His partner in crime, [[Gentleman Thief|Perry Smith]] managed to stop him, saying "[[Even Evil Has Standards|If there's anything I can't stand, it's a man who can't control what's in his pants!]]. The murders were dramatised by Truman Capote in his novel, ''In Cold Blood''.

* In an unbelievable case of being both a [[Meaningful Name]] '''AND''' a [[Non-Indicative Name]], Viking chieftain Erik the Red earned his nickname not because of his bloodlust (he was kicked out of both Norway and later Iceland for multiple murders), but because of his long flaming red hair and beard.

* The Catholic priest [[wikipedia:John Furniss|John Furniss]], author of a tract describing a child burning in hell.

* Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is both highly gentrified and overrun with deer.

* [http://www.cbgundaker.com/agentdetail.jsp?publicid=CSHOUSE&referrer=CSHOUSE Sheila House], a real-estate agent near St. Louis, MO, USA.