In the olden days, in many cultures, a person’s name could tell you a lot about them. Often it referenced someone’s trade or the family business. Or maybe it indicated where, exactly, they lived.
These days, it’s typically a delightful coincidence if something central about a person’s life, like their career, complements their name.
The late, legendary San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen enjoyed discovering and documenting these aptronyms. He dubbed their owners “namephreaks” and shouted them out in his columns…