palindromes

[mum23]

Just as there is a word for a name that reads the same way forwards and backwards (palindromes), like Hannah, is there a word for someone who has the same initial for first and surnames like Robert redford? I've googled it but found it unhelpful. My character has trouble with his letter "R's" and both his first and surname start with an "R".

[Bmwhtly]

I don't know what it is. But there's sure to be one.

After all, there's a word for words that are the same viewed upside down (y'know, like doop)

[scarletpeaches]

It's alliteration.

[III]

Dang it SP, you beat me to it. So I'll just remark on how ironic it is that the word "palindrome" isn't a palindrome. How hard would that have been?

[mum23]

It's alliteration.

Thanks sp. So how the hell do I use that in a sentence to show his name?

[scarletpeaches]

You don't have to; if you tell the reader his name, they'll know it's alliterative, although they might not know the word 'alliterative'.

[WendyNYC]

I agree with SP. I suppose you could say "he had the alliterative name of ___ ___," but that seems obvious to one who knows what "alliterative" means and clunky to one who doesn't.

[LIVIN]

His name was Leon Lopes and he was a writer, so he obviously was aware of the alliteration of his name. What a cruel joke, considering he had trouble pronouncing words beginning with the letter "L."


Leon Lopes was a writer who fancied alliteration. Perhaps he enjoyed the tortorous reminder that he had trouble pronouncing his own name; or perhaps he was mocking the God that gave him not one, but two names that he had trouble pronouncing - since they both begin with the letter "L."

[Oberon]

PALINILAP

[scarletpeaches]

The first man's introduction to Eve was a palindrome.

"Madam, I'm Adam."

[Monkey]

Weird Al has a song called Bob that is entirely made of palindromes.

It's great.

On topic: I don't think it's necessary to pin a name on the repeated R. Readers can see it for themselves, and the fact that the MC has a hard time with R's will make it all the more obvious.

[rugcat]

"A man, a plan, a canal -- Panama!

[shakeysix]

Able was I ere I saw Elba.

[Shwebb]

Yes! I love that parody of "Subterranean Homesick Blues" that Weird Al did. Genius that it's all in palindromes. (I can't write a palindrome to save my life.)

Here's the Youtube of that video. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nej4xJe4Tdg) Y'all enjoy!

[EdCarroll]

I remember a children's book titled, "Help, Mom and Dad are palindromes!"

[shakeysix]

'hannah is a palindrome'--a story in my daughter hannah's gradeschool reader. she is 35 now but when she was in kindergarten she never knew when to stop writing her name. her papers read HANNAHANNAHANNAH across the top. till she ran out of paper- never thought of it when i named her--s6

[Tiger]

Just as there is a word for a name that reads the same way forwards and backwards (palindromes), like Hannah, is there a word for someone who has the same initial for first and surnames like Robert redford? I've googled it but found it unhelpful. My character has trouble with his letter "R's" and both his first and surname start with an "R".

A comicbook character? Leads Ledson, Peter Parker, Otto Octavius, Betty Brant, J. Jonah Jameson, Gears Grayson, Vicky Vale, Reed Richards...

[mum23]

I'll just have to call him Fwank Fowester.

[HeronW]

alliteration: Use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable in a line*of*verse
assonance: The repetition of similar vowels in the stressed syllables of successive words.
Ambigrams: read the same upside down, and when viewed in the mirror.