nPosted on July 16, 2017
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nIf you wanted to be a tennis player, wouldn’t Smashnova be a really great last name?
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nBorn on this date in 1976, Anna Smashnova was born in the Soviet Union and moved to Israel in her teens. She had a good – but not super-fantastic-amazing – career in professional tennis, reaching #15 as her top ranking.
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nShe won 12 finals, and as a junior she won a Grand Slam championship.
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nAnd she may have won the Best Name for a Tennis Player competition, if there had ever been one!
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n(Margaret Court, the Australian tennis great, could be runner up.)
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nWhat’s in a name…?
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nSome people do not have the perfect name for their chosen profession.
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nLike dentist Ken Hurt…don’t you think he should’ve changed his name?
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nDr. Richard Chopp does some surgical procedures that involve careful cutting, not chopping.
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nBob Walk became a pitcher. Hopefully, he didn’t throw a lot of walks!
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nAnd come on! A lawyer named Sue Yoo? Is that a joke? (It’s apparently not.)
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nOthers do have perfect names, like Smashnova. Here are a few more:
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nBrad Slaughter became a meat manager at a store. Perfect!
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nPresident Ronald Reagan had a spokesman named Larry Speakes. (Honest!)
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nSara Blizzard and Larry Sprinkle both report the weather. And Amy Freeze is a meteorologist (someone who studies the weather) as well as an onscreen weather reporter.
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nScott Speed became a race car driver.
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nMichael Vickers became a vicar (a pastor).
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nMarion Moon birthed and raised the second human ever to step on the Moon, Buzz Aldrin.
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nI don’t know if these last two examples are oh-no’s or very-cool’s. I guess they’re moderately ha-ha?:
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nMr. White, who is a Republican politician, has the first name Rich. So, on the ballot, this is what you see:
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RICH WHITE
RICH WHITE n
n(Republican)
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nAnd Mr. Guy sometimes appears on TV to discuss current events. His first name is Christian, so the name bar underneath his face, when he’s on TV, reads, “Christian Guy.”
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nThese fellows should probably go with Richard White and Chris Guy, but maybe they appreciate the grins. I mean, in a world where there’s a gardener named Bob Flowerdew, why shouldn’t we interview some Christian Guy on TV, or elect some Rich White (Republican)?
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nHere’s the great thing about all this – there are names for these sorts of names:
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nA name that is especially well suited to its owner is called an aptronym. (The word apt means appropriate, suitable.)
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nAnd a name that is ironic or seems like the exact opposite of a well-suited name is called an inaptronym. (Yep, you guessed it; the word inapt means inappropriate, unsuitable.)
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nAlso on this date:
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nFiesta Virgen del Carmen in Peru
NAACP founder Ida B. Wells’s birthday
NAACP founder Ida B. Wells’s birthday
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nLa Paz Local Holiday
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nGlobal Hug Your Kids Day
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nWorld Snake Day
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nMedical researcher Joseph Goldberger’s birthday
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nUnaine (Elderly Woman Day) on Kiribati
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nSinger / actor Rain Pryor’s birthday
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nPlan ahead:
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nCheck out my Pinterest boards for:
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- July holidays
- July birthdays
- Historical anniversaries in July
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nAnd here are my Pinterest boards for:
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nAugust holidays
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nAugust birthdays
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nHistorical anniversaries in August
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