In line with the term ‘nominative determinism’ – which describes the phenomenon where people are more likely to choose careers linked to their surname – Royal College of Nursing (RCN) analysis of Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) data shows people with the surname Nurse are statistically two and a half times more likely to become nurses than doctors. We look at how many people named Nurse are on the NMC register, compared with on the much smaller General Medical Council (GMC) register, as well as the incidence of other healthcare and nursing-related names such as Nightingale.