When glancing over the list of Jewish Nobel laureates (something we often do for this website), one name always stands out: Alexei Abrikosov, which translates to something rather... delicious: Alexei Apricot. Jews are not exactly known for flavorful names (we'll ignore the Schmaltzes), so how did he get saddled with that moniker?

As it turns out, Abrikosov comes from a scientific family. His father, also Alexei Abrikosov, was a renowned pathologist. But we need to go farther up the tree to discover the family's true calling. The Abrikosovs used to run one of Russia's largest confectionery businesses; they even supplied the czars. The original Abrikosov changed his name to the flavorful fruit to match his profession. (Imagine Milton Hershey becoming Milton Chocolate? Perhaps a tad too on-the-nose. Milton Nougat?)

After the Russian Revolution, the business was privatized, and the Abrikosovs turned to science. Eventually, the younger Alexei won the Nobel in Physics in 2003, for theories about matter behavior at very low temperatures. So that settles that...

Oh, right, the Jewish part. He gets it from his mother, Fanny Wulf. We won't get into the meaning of her name.