this post was submitted on 05 May 2026
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Nominative Determinism

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Nominative determinism is the hypothesis that people tend to gravitate towards areas of work that fit their names. The term was first used in the magazine New Scientist in 1994, after the magazine's humorous "Feedback" column noted several studies carried out by researchers with remarkably fitting surnames. These included a book on polar explorations by Daniel Snowman and an article on urology by researchers named Splatt and Weedon. These and other examples led to light-hearted speculation that some sort of psychological effect was at work.

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It lacks the ideal spelling, but it is pronounced "Saw."

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[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Shouldn’t they be an ophthalmologist?

[–] Korval@lemmy.today 1 points 3 months ago

That's a good point! This came up in some reading about orthopedic surgeries (which involve a frightening amount of sawing and hammering), however, and so I didn't initially see the other possible interpretation.