I have recently come across the word "aptronym", which was explained in the text as "a symbolic or allusive label name". One example given was a contemporary character named Percy whose actions linked him unmistakeably, though not explicitly, with Knight Percival from the Arthurian legends. About "aptronym", though, does anybody know whether it is directly derived from Greek (as are "synonym" and "antonym"), or whether it has been formed by uniting "apt" (since the name is apt for the character it designates) with the "nym" part of the Greek-origin words? -- something like a coinage by analogy...

aptronym is a coinage of Franklin P. Adams (1881-1960), a member of the Algonquin Round Table. there is also a word which comes directly from Greek which means virtually the same thing: euonym. you're more apt to remember the former.

http://www.m-w.com/lighter/name/aptronym.htm

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/algonquin_round_table.html

Aptually, tsuwm, I think eu are more apt to remember
the former.

But I went to your M-W site and found a neat opposite:
"Henry Calamity, an inaptronym, as this man was named the Santa Fe Railroad's "safety man of the month" for March 1969."

'Nother new word, and thanks for the Round Table info., too.

There's a movie coming out this summer called "The Fast and the Furious" about drag racing on the streets of LA. It stars an actor named Vin Diesel.

Is there such a category as "inaptronym"? The movie also stars an actor named Paul Walker.

Vin Diesel.

I think the Germans and the French should NOT collaborate one wine production! I ain't gonna drink any of this stuff!