On our Facebook group, listeners are discussing anadromes, words that form another word when spelled in reverse. Some people choose anadromes for names as well, such as Ande (a name adopted by someone originally called Edna), Noel (a girl named for her father Leon), and Nevaeh (a name popular a few years ago because it’s Heaven spelled backwards). The protagonist in the Enola Holmes mystery series (Bookshop|Amazon) has a name that’s an anadrome: Enola spelled backwards is Alone. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Anadromes, Words That Are Also Words Backwards”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette. On our Facebook group, Teresa Abney posted about her new baby granddaughter
Who was named after Teresa’s late mother. She writes, my mother’s first name was Edna,
Which she hated, and her middle name was Marie. In later years, my mother cleverly decided to go
By Andy, which was her name spelled backwards. And Teresa says, I have five sons, two of whom
Had daughters after my mom’s passing and both wanted to name their daughter after her. Do
Reversals of name spellings happen regularly? Has it happened to you? And Grant, there’s a word for
This kind of thing. It’s an anadrome. It’s a word that forms a different word when spelled backwards.
It’s like the word palindrome, but it goes one way rather than both ways. Right. So when you talk
About names spelled backward, Edna becomes Andy, A-N-D-E, and I think of Nevaeh, which was popular
For a while, maybe still is. That’s Heaven spelled backward. Oh, yeah. We used to joke as a kid
Spelling our names backward, and Grant is Tanarg, but nobody would use that. What else is out there?
What else have people done? A lot of people chimed in and said that they do know somebody whose name
Is a word spelled backwards. D.D. Lloyd said, my niece Noel was born in the spring, not at Christmas.
She was named after her dad, Leon.
Oh, that’s perfect.
Yeah, that’s a nice one.
And David Wright said, I have a second cousin who was named Terragram after her grandmother, Margaret.
Okay.
And Kyla Thompson said, I had a family member named Delora.
That’s a D apostrophe L-O-R-A-H.
They were planning on naming her Harold, so they went for the name backwards.
Oh, wow.
That’s clever.
Delora.
I like that.
Although I bet that apostrophe causes all kind of chaos with computer systems.
Yeah, it probably does.
She has a twin sister who’s named Lenora, so Lenora and Delora.
I like those.
Oh, nice.
Yeah, I’ve always kind of been fond of matching names for siblings, as long as it’s not too cutesy.
Right.
But backwards names.
Do you know the books in the movie about Enola Holmes?
You know, I’ve seen that advertised on Netflix, but I haven’t gotten into it.
Tell me about that.
Well, she makes something of her name, Enola, being the word alone when you reverse it.
And I don’t know if she was named because of that.
But she, of course, is raised more or less alone as an only child, even though she has older siblings, because they’re much older.
And it’s just a little note about her character and personality that Enola is alone when reversed.
Good movie, by the way, and interesting books.
Okay.
I’ll check it out.
Well, if you know of an anadrome, somebody in your life who has a name that’s a word spelled backwards, we’d love to hear about it.
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