BOULDER — There once was a man named Dr. Fish who started an oceanographic institute. He hired a man named Dr. Saila, who brought aboard another employee with the last name Seamann.
This isn’t the opening line to a children’s storybook about marine life. Rather, it’s the curious series of events in Rhode Island that led psychologist Lewis Lipsitt to begin investigating whether there’s something beyond coincidence to explain why some people’s names so aptly fit their careers.
That was four decades ago, before the term “aptronym” earned an entry on Wikipedia to explain names like Usain Bolt, a Jamaican sprinter, and Lord Brain, a neurologist.
In Boulder County’s phone book, there are plenty of living aptronyms — the people who patiently nod when they field questions such as “Is that really your name?” for the umpteenth time. Among the locals with last names seemingly tailor-made for their professions are an ecologist, hamburger-chain owner, librarian, theater director, climbing coach and atmospheric scientist.
“When people have names that suggest their occupations, or preoccupations, I really think there is something to it,” Lipsitt said.
Surnames came about 1,000 years ago, and many reflected the occupation of the original bearer, according to genealogists. A “Miller” worked grinding flour from grain. A “Taylor” made clothes. And a “Wainright” built wagons.
Today, though, having a name that reflects an occupation seems to be more of a self-fulfilled prophecy.
Lipsitt — an emeritus professor of psychology, medical science and human development at Brown University in Providence, R.I. — has collected thousands of examples of well-suited names. They include Mr. Hawkes from the Audubon Society, Mr. Rolles from the American Automobile Association and Professor Fidler in a university music department.
Lipsitt said children grow up frequently hearing their names, which then become familiar vocabulary staples.
“It’s on your mind so much,” Lipsitt said. “You’re attracted to develop the idea of the word. It’s quite explainable that you could go into an occupation that is related to the nature of the name.”
The locals whose business cards carry aptronyms have varied opinions on whether their names were magnets for their careers. But, they agree, it makes them stick out in their fields.
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Oak Thorne: Ecologist
It seems like Mother Nature herself named Oak Thorne, a noted Boulder ecologist who embodies the spirit of his eco-friendly name.
Thorne said he grew up on Long Island’s south shore before it was developed — and the 80 acres of woods, streams and a lake made for a pleasant playground. He learned to fish, collected birds’ eggs and raised ducks.
“I was aware of nature long before I was aware of the significance of my name,” said Thorne, a down-to-earth 80-year-old.
The Yale-educated ecologist came to Boulder, where he earned his Ph.D. in zoology in 1958. He is the founder of Thorne Ecological Institute, through which he continues to teach children and teenagers about ecology. Over the years, he’s educated more than 100,000 youth, taking children bird-watching at Boulder’s marshes and teaching high-schoolers how to photograph nature.
Thorne has won awards from Boulder groups honoring him for his environmental activism and education.
As for the origin of his name? He’s actually Oakleigh Thorne II.
“I was named after an old man, who was a distant cousin, who didn’t have a namesake,” he said.
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Brett Berger: Burger-chain owner
Hamburger stops were noticeably absent from the Boulder restaurant scene according to the keen perceptions of a Californian who arrived at the University of Colorado as a student in the early 1990s.
The student’s last name — Berger — could only beef up the credibility of his opinion.
In 1998, Brett Berger opened up the first Thunderbird Burgers on University Hill — a small location that seated 14 people and brought diversity to the sandwich, pizza and Mexican restaurants that he said seemed to saturate the restaurant market.
Berger, the son of a Newport Beach steak and seafood restaurant owner, started in the service industry as a 14-year-old bus boy.
“Coming from California, there were tons of burger joints,” he said. “So I thought, let’s throw in some variety in Boulder.”
He decided on calling his joint Thunderbird Burgers, because Berger’s Burgers was already an established name elsewhere.
Thunderbird Burgers and Barbecue has grown, with two more locations — one at 28th Street in Boulder and the other on Blake Street in Denver.
“People joke around, and sometimes they don’t believe it’s my name,” Berger said. “Vendors will ask ‘Is that your real name?’ I tell them I am for real. A lot of people get a kick out of it.”
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Susan Booker: Librarian
Bookworm Susan Booker’s library career started by happenstance when she was in her late 20s.
She’d watch the desk of a tiny mountain town library in Grand County while the librarian took children to the nearby county courthouse, where they could sprawl out for story time. Booker would also fill in when the town librarian was on vacation.
Booker opened up the next chapter in her librarian career after Lafayette voters in 1995 overwhelming approved a $5.2 million bond project to build, staff and maintain the city’s library.
“It has been fun for me to have a name that matches my career,” said Booker. “It helps people remember my name.”
The assistant director of Lafayette Public Library has spent more than a quarter of a century in the business of books.
“If I had a dime for every time somebody told me that Booker is a good name for a librarian, I’d be rich.”
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Tony Tallent: Theater and arts director
As an undergraduate at West Carolina University, Tony Tallent entered his photographic collage into a student art show — a coveted contest where the winning pieces earned display space in the school.
Art students lobbied for changes to the stringent one-entry-per-contestant rule, and some found ways to circumvent it. Tallent earned second place with his piece, titled “A Preview of the Exciting Things to Come,” which included a dozen infants crawling, hanging or climbing around a wall set against a stark black and white landscape.
His photography instructor later told him he didn’t earn “best in show” because the judges were suspicious he made up a cheeky entry name to sneak in an extra entry.
Otherwise, the last name has served Tallent well, and he laughs about the college contest. Tallent started this summer as Boulder Public Library’s new theater and arts director. He also toured for 3 1/2 year with a folklore musical he wrote called “Ramble Mountain.”
Tallent said he doesn’t know much about his last name since there weren’t orderly records kept in the Appalachian Mountains where he grew up, and his grandparents don’t have birth certificates.
“I’ve always wanted to know more about my name,” he said.
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Chris Wall: Rock-climbing coach
Climber Chris Wall frequented the Boulder Rock Club while he was an exercise physiology student at CU, and he relentlessly bugged the gym for a job. He closely watched what was happening behind the desk to give credence to his application.
Never once, though, did he mention that having Wall for a last name was proof that he worked well with walls.
“I very seldom bring that up,” he said.
In 1992, he landed a job with the club and has climbed his way up, becoming a training and coaching director. He works mostly with intermediate to elite athletes. Wall is also the chairman of USA Climbing’s coaches committee.
He typically meets his first client at 6 a.m., goes skateboarding while his dog runs alongside during the lunch hour, and returns to the gym for late afternoon and evening group classes and team practices.
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Betsy Weatherhead: Atmospheric scientist
Betsy Weatherhead never imagined going into a weather-related career given the constant teasing she took during her elementary years.
“Kids would say ‘What’s the weather, Weatherhead,'” she said.
Her career forecast changed in the 1980s when she lost her high-energy physics job amid budget cuts. Weatherhead was among a dozen people, equally qualified, who applied for a programming job that dealt with environmental data.
After she was hired, she learned that her resume stuck out — and the scientist who hired her had said aloud, “Weatherhead. Weatherhead. We’ve got to hire her.”
She fell in love with the job.
Weatherhead now is a scientist with Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and a leader in the field of analyzing environmental trends, including the ozone, temperature and precipitation.
There are some downsides to her name, said Weatherhead. A reporter working on an article about ozone science interviewed Weatherhead and was highly skeptical of the name. When Weatherhead directed one of the reporter’s questions to a colleague at NASA named Paul Newman, the reporter apparently thought she was duped and the article never was published.
Weatherhead, in actuality, is an old Scottish name that has nothing to do with weather, she said.
“It actually means goat herder,” Weatherhead said. “But the spelling is perfect. It has served me well. And it is the reason I am an atmospheric scientist.
