To a certain extent, we all have our destiny encoded into us – medically at least – as Crick and Watson discovered when they revealed the structure of our DNA.  Some people also believe that our future is written in the stars, or at least those in the sky at our moment of birth, which is why Astrology is so popular.   But what of our name – is something coded into that as well?

Those of you who do Pub Quizzes will have encountered the round where the quizmaster produces a list of anagrams of celebrity names and asks us to identify them.  We are amused by some, for example: ‘occasional nude income’ reveals Madonna’s full name (Madonna Louise Ciccone), ‘go gets beer’ becomes George Best and ‘O Dear, I’m a gonad’ is Diego Maradona.  Some others may be a little more profound, such as ‘old west action’ (Clint Eastwood), ‘got St Leger tip’ (Lester Piggott)  or ‘genuine class’ (Alec Guinness).   But it’s the ones that are a little too close for comfort that cause us to raise an eyebrow.  Who would have thought that the anagram for Osama Bin-Laden would be ‘a bad man – no lies’? Continue Reading