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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.

Apt Names in Track and Field

Usain Bolt- 100m and 200m world record holder and Olympic Gold medalist.
Marina Stepanova - 1986 400 hurdle WR holder
Yordanka Donkova - Bulgarian female hurdler who won an Olympic gold and bronze medal
James Jett - 1992 Olympic 4 X 100 relay runner
Nathan Leeper - an American high jumper - finished eleventh at the 2000 Olympic Games.
Jesus someone, a little known Spanish steeple chaser, who must have not mastered the walking on water bit.

Apt Baseball Players

Thomas Diamond - Major League Baseball player (a baseball field is sometimes called a "diamond").
Homer Bush - baseball player
Cecil Fielder - baseball player, and his son Prince Fielder also played baseball.
Roland Fingers - former Major League Baseball relief pitcher for the Oakland Athletics (1968–76), San Diego Padres (1977–80) and Milwaukee Brewers (1981–85).

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 - footballer, currently a free agent.
Willie Thrower - former NFL quarterback.
Scott Player - professional football player (punter).

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

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.

Apt Names in other Sports

Margaret Court - champion tennis player.
Anna Smashnova - a former professional tennis player from Russia.
Jim Playfair - former professional ice hockey player and a former head coach of the Calgary Flames.
Jeffrey Float - a former deaf American swimmer, world record holder, world champion and Olympic champion.
David Hookes – a cricketer who had success hooking the ball.
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.
Gilbert Arenas - basketball player (basketball is played in an arena)
Tim Duncan - San Antonio Spurs
Lloy Ball - American volleyball player.
Layne Beachley - Australian world champion surfer.
Albert Champion - French road cycling Champion in the past
Chris Moneymaker - World Series of Poker Champion 2003.

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 - cricketer who was primarily a batsman.
Lance Armstrong - should it be leg strong?
Steve Slowly - Jamaican sprinter

Children's Names

Amateur boxer Joe Flanagan apparently named his two sons Bob and Weave.

top 10 apt sporting names
funny names in sport
Unusual Sports Names - some of these are pretty funny.

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Old Comments

London 2012 Women's 400m hurdles - not rum 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)