An anadrome (also emordnilap,[1] semordnilap[2] and levidrome) is a word that has its spelling derived by reversing the spelling of another word. It is therefore a special type of anagram. There is a long history of names being coined as ananyms of existing words or names for entities related to the thing named by this subset of anadromes. Note that a levidrome usually spells another, existing word backwards, e.g. pots vs. stop,[3] while an anadrome results in novel letter sequences, such as Canada yielding Adanac (quite common street name in Canadian cities).
| Anadrome | Derived from | Explanation | Type | References | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| asteroid | asteroid with retrograde orbit | astronomy | [4] | ||
| Livic | civil (engineering) | trade newspaper, "a reflection of Civil Engineering" | work | [5] | |
| Fokker | Rekkof aircraft are based on Fokker designs. Also Rekkof Restart. Now Fokker Next Gen. | business | [6] | ||
| Murder | Word used in the Stephen King novel The Shining (1977) and its movie adaptation (1980) | Entertainment | [7] | ||
| henry | A unit of measurement for reciprocal electrical inductance. | electricity | |||
| farad | a unit of elastance equal to the reciprocal farad. | electricity | |||
| ohm | A unit of electrical conductance which is the reciprocal of an ohm. Now known by its official SI name "siemens" although mho is still sometimes used. | electricity | |||
| Robert | Source of the names of Trebor confectionery, Robert Trebor, and probably Trebor the composer | name (alias) and product | |||
| Trebor and Werdna | Robert and Andrew | Characters in computer game named after its programmers. | work | ||
| Beatles | Beatles' merchandising company | business | |||
| "bugger all" | In Under Milk Wood | work | |||
| Harpo Productions | Oprah (Winfrey) | Oprah's media company | business | ||
| Senim Silla | "all is mines" | "mines" is AAVE for "mine". | name (alias) | [8] | |
| Navi | (Virgil) Ivan (Grissom) | Apollo program joke by Grissom | astronomy | [9] | |
| Dnoces | (Edward H. White the) Second | Apollo program joke by Grissom | astronomy | ||
| Regor | Roger (Chaffee) | Apollo program joke by Grissom | astronomy | ||
| Erewhon | "nowhere" | A utopia and the title of an 1872 novel by Samuel Butler. The digraph <wh> is not reversed. Many names within the book are also ananyms. | work | [10] | |
| elgooG | reverse-spelling search engine | business | |||
| Xallarap | parallax | Converse microlensing effect | term | ||
| Ebbot (Lundberg) | Tobbe | Tobbe is the usual hypocoristic of Torbjörn, his real given name. | name (alias) | ||
| 로꾸거 (Rokuko) | 거꾸로 (gokkuro) | Backwards for Korean for "backwards" | work | ||
| Xvid | DivX | A competitor | product | ||
| Trugoy (The Dove) | yogurt | He likes yogurt | name (alias) | [11] | |
| Posdnuos | "Sound-Sop" | Both were used as stage names for Kelvin Mercer | name (alias) | [12] | |
| MAPS (Mail Abuse Prevention System) | spam | reverse backronym | product | ||
| Alucard | Dracula | Borne by various characters derived from Dracula | work | ||
| Nimda | admin | The computer worm assumed admin-like powers. | product | ||
| Nogard | Dragon | Character in Alan F. Beck art series The Adventures of Nogard & Jackpot | name | [13] | |
| Emirp | Prime | An emirp is a prime number that results in a different prime when its digits are reversed. | term | ||
| (Coquitlam) Adanac(s) | Canada | Team is Canadian | organization | ||
| Nujabes | Jun Seba | His real name | name (alias) | ||
| Essiac | Rene Caisse | Its inventor | product | ||
| Revilo | Oliver | multiple authors and artists use this as an alias | name (alias) | ||
| Adanac (Nipissing District, Ontario) | Canada | Location | placename | ||
| Airegin | Nigeria | Composer Sonny Rollins is African American | work | ||
| (Allan and Jenny) Gray | Couple who provided the recipe | product | |||
| Soma Records | Amos Heilicher | Owner | business | ||
| Nomad (British band) | Damon (Rochefort) | Founder member | organization | ||
| Gnip Gnop | ping pong | Reminiscent of the other tabletop game | product | ||
| Trebloc, Mississippi | Colbert | Local family, whose name is found in many places; the reversal was "to avoid further repetition". | placename | [14] | |
| Nagirroc | Corrigan | Owner's surname | placename | ||
| Strebor | Roberts | Founder/owner? | business | ||
| Ridan (horse) | Nadir | Named after another horse | name (animal) | ||
| Niloak Pottery | kaolin | Material used in products | business | ||
| Rellim Farm | (Paul) Miller | Founder | business | ||
| Yellek, Ontario | (R. J.) Kelley | Trainmaster at the passing point | placename | ||
| Nomar (Garciaparra) | Ramon | His father's name | name | ||
| OAT (organizing autonomous telecomms) | TAO (The Anarchy Organization) | reverse backronym of its former name | organization | ||
| Kroz | Zork | Homage to older computer game | product | ||
| Ani Lorak | Karolina | Her real forename | name (alias) | ||
| Sevas Tra | "art saves" | work | |||
| Azed | (Diego) Deza | Crossword compiler named after Spanish inquisitor | name (alias) | [15] | |
| Tesremos | (Derrick) Somerset (Macnutt) | His middle name | name (alias) | [16] | |
| Sualocin | Nicolaus (Venator) | Niccolò Cacciatore's name (~Nicholas Hunter) Latinized and reversed | astronomy | [17] | |
| Rotanev | (Nicolaus) Venator | Niccolò Cacciatore's name (~Nicholas Hunter) Latinized and reversed | astronomy | ||
| Senrab (F.C.) | Barnes | After Senrab Street, after Barnes Street | organization | ||
| (Neuchâtel) Xamax | Max (Abegglen) | Founder, backwards and forwards | organization | ||
| C. W. Ceram | K. W. Marek | Surname Latinised and reversed | name (alias) | [18] | |
| Allerednic | Cinderella | A "riches to rags" tale as opposed to Cinderella's rags to riches. Used by Jonathan Gershuny of high-achieving women whose careers stall after marriage. | term | [19] | |
| Llamedos | sod 'em all | in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels (modelled on Llaregub) | placename | [20] | |
| Esio Trot | tortoise | work | |||
| Nevaeh | Heaven | feminine name | name | ||
| Гярб вечнълс (Giarb vechnals) | Слънчев бряг (Slanchev briag, "Sunny Beach") | Bulgarian alphabet ananym | placename | ||
| Namyats | [Sam] Stayman | Bridge convention invented by Stayman, who also invented the Stayman convention. | term | [21] | |
| Adaven | Nevada | ghost town | placename | ||
| Etnaviv | Vivante | open-source driver for Vivante GPU | product | ||
| Namor | Roman | Comic book character whose creator wrote down noble-sounding names backwards and thought Roman/Namor looked the best | name | ||
| Eivets Rednow | Stevie Wonder | Music album named from its artist | work | ||
| Yen Sid | Disney | The powerful sorcerer in Fantasia (1940), whose apprentice Mickey Mouse causes mayhem after borrowing his master's hat. | name | [22] | |
| Klim | milk | A brand of powdered milk sold by Nestlé, early ads featuring the slogan "Spell it backwards." | product | [23] | |
| Nevar | Raven | The nemesis of the main character, the sorcerer Raven. | work | ||
| Rednaxela Terrace, Hong Kong | Alexander | Believed to have been originally named after a Mr. Alexander, who partially owned the street, but reversed due to a clerical error | placename | [24] [25] | |
| desire | Its full inscription (mirrored and correctly spaced) reads "I show not your face but your heart’s desire." | name | |||
| Nitsuga | name |
Many jazz titles were written by reversing names or nouns: Ecaroh inverts the spelling of its composer Horace Silver's Christian name. Sonny Rollins dedicated to Nigeria a tune called "Airegin".