Welcome to the website woven for wordaholics, logolepts, and verbivores. Carnivores eat meat; herbivores eat plants and vegetables; verbivores devour words. If you are heels over head (as well as head over heels) in love with words, tarry here a while to graze or, perhaps, feast on the English language. Ours is the only language in which you drive in a parkway and park in a driveway and your nose can run and your feet can smell.

 

Next week, we mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the man who, along with Richard Wagner, is considered the pre-eminent composer of 19th century opera. His name is Giuseppe Verdi, and he entered the earthly stage in Le Roncole, Parma, on Oct. 10, 1813. Among the 25 operas Giuseppe Verdi composed ring out the immensely popular and enduring “Rigoletto,” “Il Trovatore,” “La Traviata” and “Aida.”

Why, you may be asking by now, is a language columnist writing about a great composer? Stay with me, gentle reader, and you’ll soon find out.

Have you ever noticed that certain celebrities, historical personages and other famous men and women occasionally share identical, or very similar, first and last names? Singer-songwriter Paul Simon and Illinois Sen. Paul Simon. “Garfield” creator Jim Davis and North Carolina Sen. Jim Davis. Oscar winner Anne Hathaway and Renaissance woman Anne Hathaway, the wife of William Shakespeare. Actress Jane Seymour and Jane Seymour, a wife of Henry VIII. Get the idea?

I actually got the idea from my friend, New York City language maven Don Hauptman, who has contributed many of the same names you’ll find in today’s column.

Once you home (not “hone”) in on this concept, same-name twins — and a few triplets — pop up everywhere: television anchor Robin Roberts and pitching great Robin Roberts. Explorer Richard Burton and actor Richard Burton. Former New York Mayor Robert Wagner and actor Robert Wagner. Outlaw Jesse James and reality-show star Jesse James. Golfer John Daly and “What’s My Line” host John Daly.

Also stepping forward: Comedian Dave Thomas and the founder of Wendy’s, Dave Thomas. Actor Matthew Perry and explorer Matthew Perry. Inventor James Watt and Secretary of the Interior James Watt. Alabama Gov. George Wallace and stand-up comedian George Wallace.

Next appear names that vary only by spelling, nickname or an added initial: Novelist Thomas Wolfe and novelist Tom Wolfe. Actor James Dean and country singer and sausage maker Jimmy Dean. Tycoon J.P. Morgan and singer Jaye P. Morgan. Secretary of State James Baker and evangelist Jim Bakker. Playwright and poet Ben Jonson and sprinter Ben Johnson. Congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis and union leader John L. Lewis. Newscaster Bernard Shaw and playwright George Bernard Shaw. Pop superstar Ricky Martin and “Laugh-In” comedian Dick Martin. Comedian Jerry Lewis and singer Jerry Lee Lewis.

If you really strain your brain, you’ll uncover a clutch of same-name triplets, especially the Jones boys: Actor James Earl Jones, novelist James Jones and cult leader Jim Jones. Golfer Bobby Jones, golf course architect Robert Trent Jones and evangelist Bob Jones. In addition: Henry Fielding hero Tom Jones, singer Tom Jones and actor Tommy Lee Jones. Add to those triads soul singer James Brown, sports commentator James Brown and football great/actor Jim Brown. Actor Robert Shaw, chorale leader Robert Shaw and abolitionist/Civil War Col. Robert Gould Shaw.

Now the language limelight falls upon a category that will appeal especially to wordplay lovers. These groupings embrace fictional characters, pseudonyms, homophonic names and foreign-language equivalents.

Here we are entertained by heroic Dickensian orphan David Copperfield and magician David Copperfield. Dickensian urchin Tiny Tim and weird singer Tiny Tim. Art Carney character Ed Norton and actor Ed Norton. “Gunsmoke” marshal Matt Dillon and actor Matt Dillon. German composer Englebert Humperdinck and crooner Englebert Humperdinck. Comedian Billy Crystal and conservative publisher William Kristol. Hollywood composer Alfred Newman and “Mad” magazine mascot Alfred E. Neuman. Edward Jones, investment company owner, and NFL lineman Ed “Too Tall” Jones. “Laugh-In” comedian Henry Gibson and Danish playwright Henrik Ibsen.

But the most pyrotechnic same-name pairing of all — and the reason why I opened this column as I did — is opera giant Giuseppe Verdi and the translation of his name from Italian into English: Pittsburgh Steelers lineman (Mean) Joe Green.

If you think of any additional same-name pairs, please wing them to me at richard.lederer@utsandiego.com.