Some doctors I know have done this almost deliberately. My favourite is probably Dr Wombwell... who decided to become a gynaecologist.
Nominative determinism in hospital medicine (2015)
21–30 of 69 posts
Re: Nominative determinism in hospital medicine (2015)
#22I was once treated by a Dr. Crummy.
And when I was helping run a pharmacology practical class for medical students, one of the names on the register was "A. Butcher". I am not sure if he went on to become a surgeon.
Re: Nominative determinism in hospital medicine (2015)
#23Bad bad cookie dialog on that page.
Re: Nominative determinism in hospital medicine (2015)
#24A common topic on "No Such Thing As A Fish" podcast, and hilarious every time.
Re: Nominative determinism in hospital medicine (2015)
#25Allow me to highlight one of the funniest parts:
> Specialties that had the largest proportion of names specifically relevant to that specialty were those in which the English language has provided a wide range of alternative terms for the same anatomical parts (or functions thereof).
> Specifically, these were genitourinary medicine (eg Hardwick, Kinghorn, Woodcock, Bell) and urology (eg Burns, Cox, Dick, Koch, Cox, Balluch, Ball, Waterfall). Some terms for bodily functions have been included in the frequency counts but are not mentioned because they are colloquial terms that may lower the tone of this publication.
Re: Nominative determinism in hospital medicine (2015)
#26Only slightly related, it recently occurred to me while journaling that the dictates of English grammar do a fair bit of work in forming opinions. You might think you believe one thing, but when you set about describing it, the linguistic choices have a subtle influence over the content of your statements. Over the entirety of an exposition, that influence can amount to a significant shift in meaning. I guess that's…
Referencing the Bouba/Kiki effect[1] "a non-arbitrary mapping between speech sounds and the visual shape of objects", is it strange how some people or place names seem cool, exotic, foreign, and others seem dorky, boring, local or weird? Why should that be a thing?
Re: Nominative determinism in hospital medicine (2015)
#27This guy is known for doing vasectomies: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-chopp-3aa14436
Re: Nominative determinism in hospital medicine (2015)
#28When my wife and I lived in Brooklyn, her optometrist's name was Dr. Vivien Vu and her dentist's name was Dr. Samantha Ifill (I kid you not -- look them up). I haven't read the paper yet, but my theory is simply that when a name matches the person's job we notice it; all the other times when it doesn't match we don't notice.
Re: Nominative determinism in hospital medicine (2015)
#29I once had my car towed by a person with the last name "Pullum". If the Universe really is some kind of Simulation, I suspect the QA's are getting lazy with the NPC names. Because that's EXACTLY how I name fake persons in unit tests. A police officer named Buddy Kopp, a traffic engineer named John Lane, a bbq pitmaster named Tray Burnham, etc.
My personal favourite was Sidney Lake -- the head of the Sydney Water Board Workers Union.
Re: Nominative determinism in hospital medicine (2015)
#30Well, now we know! Four-armed is forewarned.
I guess this is better than going out on a limb.