I’ve often wondered; is there any relationship between people that have names easily identified with a certain skill and their propensity to take up that skill, or at least to have a greater than usual interest in that skill?

You see why I’ve wondered; my last name is Gibson, just like many a highly-regarded (albeit overpriced, some would say) guitar, mandolin and banjo. (By the way, I play a Stelling Red Fox, but wouldn’t mind switching to a Gibson Granada someday.) And no, I’m not related to anyone at Gibson; not to my knowledge, at least.

At least one well-known person, the pianist Alicia Keys, changed her last name just for this association.

What about some other name – skill associations? Some are pretty obvious, like last names Carpenter, Justice, Farmer, Mason, etc.

Here are some other interesting ones I can think of off the top of my head:

Fender – guitars
Ludwig – drums
Kennedy – politics
Rockefeller – finance
Carnegie – finance, philanthropy
Ford – automotive

I googled this Name-Skill Association topic, but didn’t find anything of relevance.