this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2025
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Nominative Determinism

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Nominative determinism is the hypothesis that people tend to gravitate towards areas of work that fit their names. The term was first used in the magazine New Scientist in 1994, after the magazine's humorous "Feedback" column noted several studies carried out by researchers with remarkably fitting surnames. These included a book on polar explorations by Daniel Snowman and an article on urology by researchers named Splatt and Weedon. These and other examples led to light-hearted speculation that some sort of psychological effect was at work.

This is a community for posting real-world examples of names that by coincidence are funny in context. A link to the article or site is preferable, as well as a screenshot of the funny name if it's not in the headline. Try not to repost, and keep it fun!

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Richard Speed (feddit.org)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 
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[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago

The UK is so far from getting a replacement bus to be anywhere near this speed.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago

Austrian rail wanted a higher speed line through most of the country. Iirc the plan was to extend it to Zürich-Budapest eventually. Only problem was a few dozen km of the line goes through Germany and they didn't want the higher speed tracks installed. Like, Austrian rail was going to pay for them. They just didn't want noise. It's unfortunately a big enough portion of the line that it made it not worthwhile.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago

What a dumb article.

First off, maglev is totally different from traditional trains and in most cases not economically feasible.

Second, the Chinese maglev technology is probably based on the Transrapid... which was developed in Germany and then sold to China because of the first point.

The 600km/h maglev which this article talks about

is [...] under development in China, using German Transrapid technology under license from ThyssenKrupp

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Fuck me, it took me way too long to find the nominative determinism in this. Completely missed the author's name in its tiny print (Richard Speed for anyone else still trying to find it)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago

Yeah, @[email protected] could you put the name in the title please?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

650 km/h in 7s, that's 2340 m/s so assuming it's from stationary then an acceleration of 334m/s² or 34g. Really hoping there wasn't a person on that train, because there isn't anymore!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Your maths is weird:
650 km/h is about 180 m/s.
Linear acceleration from 0 to 180 m/s in 7 s means 25.8 m/s^2 or about 2.6 g.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Haha whoops, I did the conversion upside down, don't get on any trains I've built!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Doesn't matter, as long as you're not a railway engineer :-p

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago

Not anymore!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)
  • China: 650kmph
  • German testing: 400kmph
  • German normal: 300kmph
  • North America: <laughter, then tears>
[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

I am SO CURIOUS as to what it feels like riding a fucking 650kmph train. I WANT

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The Amtrak Acela hits 120mph for some stretches. I think that's the fastest train in the US.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

I assume that's moving backwards so that the freight train can pass by them.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Maglevs created: 66 km

I mean I hope they'll be good one day but today maglevs are just an expensive dream/test.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

The ICE train is a traditional design, not Maglev. And yeah, they're just not cost effective for most applications.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago