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.
  • Mark De Man — Belgian football defender
  • Toby Savin — English football goalkepeer

Apt Names in Track and Field

  • Usain Bolt — 100m and 200m world record holder and Olympic Gold medalist.
  • Marina Stepanova — 1986 400m hurdle WR holder
  • Yordanka Donkova — Bulgarian female hurdler who won an Olympic gold and bronze medal.
  • Tripp Hurt — US steeplechaser
  • James Jett — 1992 Olympic 4 X 100 relay runner
  • Nathan Leeper — an American high jumper, finished eleventh at the 2000 Olympic Games.
  • Holly Rush — an ex international road marathon runner turned ultra trail runner from the UK.
  • Vania Stambolova — Bulgarian athletes who competed in the 400m hurdles at London 2012 Olympics.
  • Martin Rush — Competed in the 1992 Olympic Games 20km Race Walk
  • Ernst Fast — finished third in the 1900 Paris Olympic marathon
  • Lisa Lightfoot — Australian 800m runner at the 1996 Olympic Games
  • Eugene Swift — 110m hurdles at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics

Apt Baseball Players

  • Thomas Diamond — (a baseball field is sometimes called a "diamond"). He played four MLB games for the Chicago Cubs in 2010.
  • Homer Bush — a former MLB second baseman who played for the New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and Florida Marlins from 1997 - 2004.
  • Homer Bailey — played for the Cincinnati Reds from 2007 - 2018 and the Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics in 2019.
  • Cecil Fielder — baseball player, and his son Prince Fielder also played baseball.
  • Zack Short — shortstop for Major League Baseball team the Colorado Rockies.
  • Jake Striker — pitched 3 games in 1959 and 1960.
  • Bob Walk — Pirates 1980 - 1993
  • Roy Hitt — Reds 1907
  • Fielder Jones — player-manager of the World Series champion 1906 Chicago White Sox.
  • Roland Fingers — former Major League Baseball relief pitcher for the Oakland Athletics (1968–76), San Diego Padres (1977–80) and Milwaukee Brewers (1981–85).
  • Grant Balfour  — an ironic name (Ball-Four), considering he was a pitcher. Balfour was an Australian former professional baseball relief pitcher. He played in MLB for the Minnesota Twins, Milwaukee Brewers, Tampa Bay Devil Rays / Rays, and Oakland Athletics from 2001 till 2015.

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 — played safety for six seasons for the Indianapolis Colts
  • Willie Thrower — former NFL quarterback.
  • Scott Player — former NFL, CFL, and UFL punter.
  • Kenneth Gainwell — an NFL running back for the Philadelphia Eagles

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
  • Ken Miles — English race car driver

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.
  • Jim Playfair — former professional ice hockey player and a former head coach of the Calgary Flames.

Apt Names in Basketball

  • Tim Duncan —  played for the San Antonio Spurs
  • Gilbert Arenas — NBA player (basketball is played in an arena)
  • Paul Pierce — Boston Celtics player who was stabbed

Apt Names in Tennis

  • Tennys Sandgren — professional American tennis player
  • Margaret Court — champion Australian tennis player.
  • George Ball-Greene — Wimbledon singles tennis player from 1894 to 1908.
  • Anna Smashnova — a former professional tennis player from Russia.
  • Katie Volynets — American tennis player.

Apt Names in Swimming

  • Lewis Moist — 1,500m freestyle swimmer at the 1908 Olympic Games.
  • Jeffrey Float — a former deaf American swimmer, world record holder, world champion and Olympic champion.
  • Walter Bathe — Swimmer won two gold medals in the 200 and 400 breaststroke at the 1912 Olympics.

Apt Names in other Sports

  • David Hookes — a cricketer who had success hooking the ball.
  • Rope Myers — Rodeo athlete
  • 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.
  • Lloy Ball — American volleyball player.
  • Gareth Potts — four-time professional world champion in pool and 3-time Chinese 8-ball champ
  • Samson N'Dicka-Matam — a weightlifter from Cameroon who competed in weightlifting at the Olympics from 1996-2004. His brother Alphonse Hercule Matam competed in 1992.
  • Layne Beachley — Australian world champion surfer.
  • Albert Champion — French road cycling Champion in the past
  • Chris Moneymaker — World Series of Poker Champion 2003.
  • Jeff Spear — competed in the 2012 Olympic fencing competition for the USA

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 — English-born Australian cricketer who was primarily a batsman.
  • Lance Armstrong — former professinal cyclists, so should it be leg strong?
  • Steve Slowly — Jamaican sprinter

Children's Names

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