Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?

It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.

Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.

There is a strange kind of magic bias which good or bad names irresistibly impress upon our characters and conduct.

How many Caesars and Pompeys, by mere inspiration of their names, have been rendered worthy of them?

And how many are there who might have done exceedingly well in the world, had not their characters and spirits been totally depressed and nicodemist into nothing?

Walter Shandy, the gentle oddball from Lawrence Stern's 1760 novel Tristram Shandy, is a man of many quirks. His most memorable is his superstition

about the power of names to control the lives and destinies of their holders.

Walter is so passionately invested in his pep theory that he lets it ruin his relationship with his son.

You see, the one name to which Walter has the most violent aversion is Tristram.

Have you ever read or even heard tell of a man called Tristram,

performing anything great or worth recording?

No, he would say.

Tristram, the thing is impossible.

But due to a series of unfortunate events, a scatty maid servant, a vain parson, and Walter's

own inability to get his trousers on, his own son is christened by that very name.

So throughout the novel, Walter believes the tragically named Tristram is doomed to a life of

misfortune and misery, when really the misery is all his own.

Stern's Enlightenment masterpiece challenges all forms of superstition, and Walter's bugbear about names is supposed to be as comical as his struggles with his britches.

But in the 21st century, we continue to agonise about the best names for our children, and to pour over annual lists of the most popular choices for clues about who we are as a society.

250 years later, there are still a lot of Walters about.

Recent research, though, suggests that we're right to take this responsibility seriously.

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