John Hoyland devised the phrase Nominative Determinism in 1994 to describe how authors gravitate to the area of research which fits their surname.
He came across the book, Pole Positions – The Polar Regions and the Future of the Planet, by Daniel Snowman. Then, a couple of weeks later, he received a copy of London Under London – A Subterranean Guide, one of the authors of which is Richard Trench. His own (much-loved) example is an article on incontinence in the British Journal of Urology (vol 49, pp 173-176, 1977) by J. W. Splatt and D. Weedon.
Other notable examples include famous sprinter Usain Bolt, poet William Wordsworth, and any bakers you know named Baker!
John Hoyland is, sadly, dead but normative determinism lives on in three new candidates.
These three doctors benefit or suffer from nominative determinism:
Kevin Blinder, ophthalmologist.
