What they tell us about our past

According to Ancestry.com, there are seven types of English surname, each of which reveals different aspects of our family history—who our ancestors were, the place or kind of place they were born, what they did for a living and even what they were like. Nor is England unique in this; a similar pattern can be found among other western nations including, for the purpose of this blog, the US and Germany.

What impact they have on us today

Two of those seven categories—occupational surnames and characteristic or descriptive surnames—have long been a source of humour where the name fails to do justice to its present-day owner. Spare a thought for the vegan whose surname is Butcher, the billionaire born Butler and that really tall bloke called Little.

And then, by contrast, there are those who perfectly embody their name. The Australian urologists Splatt and Weedon are two fantastic examples; the American lawyer Sue Yoo and former English Lord Chief Justice I. Judge are two others. (All genuine, by the way 😊.)

But did these people’s names cause them to gravitate to an area of work that matches them (known as nominative determinism)? Or is it just coincidence that their names and their work/ interests match up (mere aptronyms)?

Is Trump simply a victim of his surname?

The question arose for me recently when I came across the word trumpery. It was in a letter to the Guardian on stupidity in politics. Unlike eponyms (people after whom something is said to be named) such as Walt Disney for his brainchild Disney World or dietary reformer Sylvester Graham for his Graham Crackers, Trump can take no credit for the term. In fact, trumpery has been around since the mid-fifteenth century.

But when I tell you that the word means, variously —

• ‘something intended to deceive by false show’ and ‘deceit, trickery, fraud’ (Online Etymology Dictionary);
• ‘worthless nonsense’ and ‘tawdry finery’ (Merriam-Webster); and
• (with up) ‘to concoct and put forward unscrupulously’ (Chambers Dictionary, 12th Edition)

— you’ll understand where I’m coming from.

Wait a minute, you might say, isn’t the Donald’s ancestral name Drumpf rather than Trump? Okay, and guess what? The Middle High German name Drumpf means ‘bent or crooked’. (However, lest I be accused of some form of trumpery myself, I shall have to confess that it means bent or crooked only in the physical sense.)

As Walt and Sylvester’s creations combined might imply, the world may indeed be crackers 😅. But on balance, I prefer to believe that it’s Donald Trump, and not his name, that is responsible for his particular brand of trumpery.

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If you know of any other people whose name encapsulates what they do, drop me a line.

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash