Aptonyms+A–B

Aptonyms A–B
Contributors' initials are included below, with their full names on the Contributors page.

Aikenheads Pharmacy
BR reports that there is an **Aikenheads** Pharmacy in her home town.

 Akers, Geoff
Frequent contributor GJO writes "Geoff **Akers** (pronounced "acres"), is a dairy farmer at Tallygaroopna, Northern Victoria, who was interviewed on Australia's ABC Radio National program about how one industry (the dairy sector ) might be changed forever by the drought which is currently ravaging Australia.

 Albright, Scarlet
Contributor BC reports "In Toronto, and now apparently retired (or worse), there was an optometrist with shingle (hung proudly over the east side of Keele St. and just south of Dundas St. W.) by the name Scarlet **Albright**. Unfortunately the sign and business are now gone."

Allcock, Susan
We have just discovered that the reporter on BBC Radio 5 who covered the news about the possible cost of the anti-impotence drug Viagra to Britain's National Health service is called Susan **Allcock**. And that's not all. The spokeswoman for the US Food and Drug Administration for inquiries about the drug is called Janet **Woodcock**. (reprinted, with permission, from New Scientist Magazine. 25 July, 1998.) (AB )

Au, Dr.
<span class="wiki_link_ext">SB had a dentist named Dr. **Au** (pronounced Ow).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Babey, Joseph C.
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Joseph C. **Babey** is a pediatrician. (Frank Nuessel, The Studyof Names, Greenwood Press, 1992, p. 42) (<span class="wiki_link_ext">AB )

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Bagwell, John
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">My name is John **Bagwell** and I am an anesthesiologist. (JB)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Bagwell, Sheryle
<span class="messageBody" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Here's a good one folks. Business editor for ABC Radio is Sheryle ****Bagwell****. A great name for someone who's reporting on businesses as they try to bag a few dollars! :-) (GJO)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Ball, Harvey
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Published in The Gazette, Montréal, Saturday, April 14, 2001: "Smiley Face designer dies" (Worcester, MA) Harvey R. **Ball**, inventor of the Smiley Face, died Thursday after a short illness. He was 79. Ball, who co-owned and advertising and public-relation firm in Worcester, designed the Smiley Face in 1963 to boost the morale of workers in two recently merged insurance companies. Ball was paid $45 for his artwork by State Mutual Life Assurance Co. of America —now Allamerica—in 1963. He never applied for a trademark or copyright. At his peak of popularity in 1971, more than 50 million Smiley Faces buttons where sold. In 1999, the U.S. Postal Services issued a smiley Face stamp. See [] (<span class="wiki_link_ext">AB )

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Banks, Robin
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">"I currently work at DataCash, a company specialising in online credit cards transactions. You'd think an attempted fraud would cross our desks now and again, wouldn't you? Well, we've been lucky, and none have—until this morning, which is why I only just heard about the man in British Telecom's futures team who specializes in handling internet fraud: Robin **Banks**. (reprinted, with permission, from New Scientist Magazine. 25 August, 1998.) (<span class="wiki_link_ext">AB )

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Barfield, Joe
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Joe **Barfield**, from San Antonio, Texas, used to be a brewer in a local brew pub. (Joe is one of a select group of contributors whose name also appears in the aptonyms list.) He suggests his name is a contraction of "Barley Field". The surname does not appear in Cottle's The Penguin Dictionary of Surnames, but there are entries for Barden, Barford, Barney, Barnes, and Barnfield that indicate links to barley (a principal ingedient of beer). (<span class="wiki_link_ext">JB2 )

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Barksey, Dr.
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Contributor <span class="wiki_link_ext">BC2 writes "Just discovered your site! We had a vet called Dr. **Barkesy** (in Surrey, B.C) My father was a PhD: Dr. **Illman** (I see you have another one). I once heard a person being paged: Mr. **Bill Board**.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Beach, Reggie
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"><span class="wiki_link_ext">AC, in her oceanography travels, has worked with Dr. Reginald A. **Beach**, who specializes in coastal dynamics and sediment transport in the surf zone.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Beach, Jason
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Jason K. Beach runs the [|Kannon Beach Surf Shop] in Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia (<span class="wiki_link_ext">JB3 ) Jeff goes on to say: "I’ve loved your site for years, and one of my very best friends is the Sonia **Shears** you speak of on your splash page." Thanks Jeff!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Beachley, Layne
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"><span class="wiki_link_ext">GJO says Layne **Beachley** is a professional surfer from Manly in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. She is regarded as the best female professional surfer in history, having won the World Championship for six consecutive years.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Berthalot, Erica
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Erica is a nurse at Southwest Mississippi Regional Hospital in McComb, Mississippi. She works in Labor & Delivery.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Bilios, George
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"><span class="wiki_link_ext">CF reports that she "went to med school in Sydney Australia with a guy called George **Bilios** back in the early 80s. I had always thought his name amusing for a doctor. Dr Bilios is now practising medicine on the Gold Coast. "

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Bird, David
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">At present, [|Dr. David Bird], of McGill University in Montréal, is one of the best known Canadian ornithologists. He is also the editor of a column on birds which appears on Saturdays in The Gazette. (The Gazette, Montréal, June 11, 1998) (<span class="wiki_link_ext">AB ) [link from <span class="wiki_link_ext">LN ]

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Blacktop, Kevin
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"><span class="wiki_link_ext">AP tells of a Project Manager Kevin Blacktop who installs car parks in UK rail stations.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Blades, Mr.
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Avid CBC Radio listener (<span class="wiki_link_ext">DP ) reports hearing a Mrs. **Blades** on a phone-in show, talking about her husband, Mr. **Blades**, who had taken up knife-making. They live in Hatchet Lake, N.S. This prompted an aptonymic conversation among the radio hosts, one of whom recalled seeing an eye specialist named Dr. **Eagle**.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> Blizzard, Sarah
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"><span class="wiki_link_ext">ME writes, "Most famous one here in the East Midlands, UK: Sara **Blizzard**, the [|TV weather presenter].

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Block, Angel D.
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">First time contributor [|Shari Elf] wrote to me about the colonic irrigation specialist Angel D. **Block**, who lives in Kansas City, Kansas. (This arrived a week before Xmas!)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Blood and Gore
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">"When we were growing up in Ballarat, Victoria (Australia), two local GPs shared a surgery. They were Dr. **Blood** and Dr. **Gore**. Hard to authenticate this one, but take my word for it! Dunno if they're stillabout." (<span class="wiki_link_ext">MT)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Bloom, Alan
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"><span class="wiki_link_ext">LN came across a renowned family of gardeners in Bressington, Norfolk, England: [|Alan Bloom] and his sons Robert and Adrian.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Bold, Coby
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Our Australian spotter <span class="wiki_link_ext">TB reports the harrowing tale of a yound lady being assaulted in a train station, ignored by everyone in the rush-hour crowd, only to be rescued by another young lady, Coby **Bold**.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Book, Cathy
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Cathy Book is a bookstore clerk. (Frank Nuessel, //The Study of Names//, Greenwood Press, 1992, p. 42) (<span class="wiki_link_ext">AB )

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> Boring, Mr
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"><span class="wiki_link_ext">NF writes, "When I used to teach at Garden City (NY) High School, a fellow English teacher was named Mr. **Boring**. He used to tell his students it was pronounced 'Booring', but you know how high school kids are."

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Brain, Russel
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"><span class="wiki_link_ext">LS reports two British neurologists: Dr. Russell **Brain**, author of //Brain's Diseases of the Nervous System// (Oxford University Press, 1933), and Dr. Henry **Head**, past editor of //Brain//, a medical journal.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Brown, Bob
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">GJO submits this anti-aptonym. Bob **Brown** is the leader of the Australian Greens political party!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Brown, Matt
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Spotted by eagle-eyed <span class="wiki_link_ext">TB in Sydney, Australia: a greengrocer's called **Brown**'s Greens; also Fry's Meats in Adelaide.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Bullock, John
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">John **Bullock** was the spokesman for the Meat and Livestock Commission in Australia, according to a newspaper article by Duncan Bone and reported to us by <span class="wiki_link_ext">TB.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Burns, Peter
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Peter **Burns** is former CEO of ARPANSA (Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency): http://www.arpansa.gov.au/search/search.cfm?collection=agencies&profile=arpansa&query=Peter+Burns&p=1&x=0&y=0

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Doctor Bush
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">In Geneva, Illinois, there is a gynecologist named Doctor **Bush.** (<span class="wiki_link_ext">LM )

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> Butts, Dr. Charles
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">At one time, Dr. Charles **Butts** was the spokesman for //Smoke-Free// //Nova Scotia//, a clean air and anti-smoking lobby. (<span class="wiki_link_ext">DC )