91av

IT HAS been done to death in 91av since the 1990s, which is why we often insist we will publish no new examples. Then more appear that are almost too good to be true, and we are back in the realms of nominative determinism, a term coined for us by the visual scientist C.R. Cavonius.

But who was the first nominative determinee to appear in 91av? On 5 November 1994, our Feedback column unearthed the book Pole Positions: The polar regions and the future of the planet, by Daniel Snowman, as well as London Under London: A subterranean guide, co-authored by Richard Trench. Feedback quoted Jen Hunt, writing in The Psychologist: “Authors gravitate to the area of research which fits their surname.” Hunt cited an article on incontinence in the British Journal of Urology by J.W. Splatt and D. Weedon. “This really does exist,” we insisted. And then we invited readers to send examples. What had we unleashed?

From Cardinal Sin, former archbishop of Manila, to Warren Breeding, whose ranch was overrun by rabbits, and from cow-dung expert Peter Skidmore to astronomer Stella Law, the world was awash with nominative determinees. There were more authors, too, including Richard Lazarus and his book The Case Against Death.

It works in reverse – geneticist E. Tatum’s name backwards is “mutate” – and not just in English: a Mr Qvist (Swedish for “twig”) was once governor of Epping Forest. Then there was Dennis Christian, who called on God to support him when he stepped off his 13th-floor balcony, not that he lived to tell the tale. And what to make of Will Drown, who worked for a company making life jackets? “It just won’t go away,” we howled back then. Too right. Some recent examples appeared in our 31 March issue and included groundskeeper Heather Cutmore.

But, this being 91av, our all-time favourite has to be the Romanian author of a paper in the Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, named Ion Ion. Keep ’em coming.