Apt Sporting Names
Here is my list of apt sporting names - people's names that are appropriate to their talent or sport. The correct term for it is an aptronym. They may seem like they are made up, but I have checked most of these and they are true. See my list of top 10 apt sporting names. Do you know of more? Let me know.
Apt Football/Soccer Names
- George Best — Manchester United and Northern Ireland footballer, considered to be one of the best ever players.
- Zhu Ting — a chinese soccer striker, pronounced shoo-ting.
- Alan Ball — English footballer, played in the 1966 World Cup winning team.
- Mark De Man — Belgian football defender
- Toby Savin — English football goalkepeer
Apt Names in Track and Field
- Usain Bolt — 100m and 200m world record holder and Olympic Gold medalist.
- Marina Stepanova — 1986 400m hurdle WR holder
- Yordanka Donkova — Bulgarian female hurdler who won an Olympic gold and bronze medal.
- Tripp Hurt — US steeplechaser
- James Jett — 1992 Olympic 4 X 100 relay runner
- Nathan Leeper — an American high jumper, finished eleventh at the 2000 Olympic Games.
- Holly Rush — an ex international road marathon runner turned ultra trail runner from the UK.
- Vania Stambolova — Bulgarian athletes who competed in the 400m hurdles at London 2012 Olympics.
- Martin Rush — Competed in the 1992 Olympic Games 20km Race Walk
- Ernst Fast — finished third in the 1900 Paris Olympic marathon
- Lisa Lightfoot — Australian 800m runner at the 1996 Olympic Games
- Eugene Swift — 110m hurdles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics
Apt Baseball Players
- Thomas Diamond — (a baseball field is sometimes called a "diamond"). He played four MLB games for the Chicago Cubs in 2010.
- Homer Bush — a former MLB second baseman who played for the New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and Florida Marlins from 1997 - 2004.
- Homer Bailey — played for the Cincinnati Reds from 2007 - 2018 and the Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics in 2019.
- Cecil Fielder — baseball player, and his son Prince Fielder also played baseball.
- Zack Short — shortstop for Major League Baseball team the Colorado Rockies.
- Jake Striker — pitched 3 games in 1959 and 1960.
- Bob Walk — Pirates 1980 - 1993
- Roy Hitt — Reds 1907
- Fielder Jones — player-manager of the World Series champion 1906 Chicago White Sox.
- Roland Fingers — former Major League Baseball relief pitcher for the Oakland Athletics (1968–76), San Diego Padres (1977–80) and Milwaukee Brewers (1981–85).
- Grant Balfour — an ironic name (Ball-Four), considering he was a pitcher. Balfour was an Australian former professional baseball relief pitcher. He played in MLB for the Minnesota Twins, Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Devil Rays / Rays, and Oakland Athletics from 2001 till 2015.
Apt Golfers
- Tiger Woods — obviously a good driver with his wood.
- Gary Player — professional golfer.
- Chip Beck — professional golfer.
- There are also a number of golfers named 'Green' but not as successful.
Apt NFL Players
- Chuck Long — former NFL quarterback for the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams.
- Takeo Spikes — NFL linebacker
- Mac Speedie — former Cleveland Browns wide receiver.
- Ryan Longwell — NFL placekicker who holds the record for longest field goal in Green Bay Packers history.
- Michael Ball — played safety for six seasons for the Indianapolis Colts
- Willie Thrower — former NFL quarterback.
- Scott Player — former NFL, CFL, and UFL punter.
- Kenneth Gainwell — an NFL running back for the Philadelphia Eagles
Apt Names in Motor Sports
- Will Power — an Australian motorsport driver.
- Lake Speed — former Nascar driver.
- Scott Speed — Nascar racing driver, formerly in Formula One, GP2 and A1GP
- Ken Miles — English race car driver
Apt Names in Ice Hockey
- Miroslav Satan — a Slovak professional ice hockey right winger whose last club was the KHL's UHC Dynamo Moscow.
- Paul Lawless — Canadian professional ice hockey left winger, played 7 seasons in the NHL for the Hartford Whalers, Philadelphia Flyers, Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
- Jim Playfair — former professional ice hockey player and a former head coach of the Calgary Flames.
Apt Names in Basketball
- Tim Duncan — played for the San Antonio Spurs
- Gilbert Arenas — NBA player (basketball is played in an arena)
- Paul Pierce — Boston Celtics player who was stabbed
Apt Names in Tennis
- Tennys Sandgren — professional American tennis player
- Margaret Court — champion Australian tennis player.
- George Ball-Greene — Wimbledon singles tennis player from 1894 to 1908.
- Anna Smashnova — a former professional tennis player from Russia.
- Katie Volynets — American tennis player.
Apt Names in Swimming
- Lewis Moist — 1,500m freestyle swimmer at the 1908 Olympic Games.
- Jeffrey Float — a former deaf American swimmer, world record holder, world champion and Olympic champion.
- Walter Bathe — Swimmer won two gold medals in the 200 and 400 breaststroke at the 1912 Olympics.
Apt Names in other Sports
- David Hookes — a cricketer who had success hooking the ball.
- Rope Myers — Rodeo athlete
- Derek Kickett — former Australian rules footballer. Played 152 games with the North Melbourne, Essendon and the Sydney Swans from 1989 to 1996 and kicked 179 goals.
- Lloy Ball — American volleyball player.
- Gareth Potts — four-time professional world champion in pool and 3-time Chinese 8-ball champ
- Samson N'Dicka-Matam — a weightlifter from Cameroon who competed in weightlifting at the Olympics from 1996-2004. His brother Alphonse Hercule Matam competed in 1992.
- Layne Beachley — Australian world champion surfer.
- Albert Champion — French road cycling Champion in the past
- Chris Moneymaker — World Series of Poker Champion 2003.
- Jeff Spear — competed in the 2012 Olympic fencing competition for the USA
Apt when Translated
- Marco Velo — professional cyclist (vélo means bike in French).
- Žydrūnas Ilgauskas — currently second tallest NBA player ("ilgas" means "tall" in slang in Lithuanian - literally "long").
- Derek Jeter — New York Yankees shortstop (jeter is French for "to throw").
- Eric Gagné — French-Canadian baseball pitcher ("gagné" is French for "win").
- Simon Gagné — hockey player ("gagné" is French for "win").
Inappropriate names
- Peter Bowler — English-born Australian cricketer who was primarily a batsman.
- Lance Armstrong — former professinal cyclists, so should it be leg strong?
- Steve Slowly — Jamaican sprinter
Children's Names
- Amateur boxer Joe Flanagan apparently named his two sons Bob and Weave.
Related Pages
- Top-10 apt sporting names
- Apt Olympians — Olympic athletes with names that suit their sport.
- Funny names in sport
- Unusual Sports Names — some of these are pretty funny.
Any comments, suggestions, or corrections? Please let us know.
Old Comments
Commenting is closed on this page, though you can read some previous comments below which may answer some of your questions.
- London 2012 Women's 400m hurdles - not run very well by Vania Stambollova (from Steve Ballantyne, UK, Aug 2012)
- Appropriate names for athletes: There's a triple jumper called Leevan Sands. There's a French rugby union player called Damien Traille (the surname sounds rather like "try"). (from Timothy Barton, Sept 2011)
Current Events