For example, Rene Descartes invented the coordinate plane. The word carte means map in French and has roots hundreds of years before Descartes was born. Similarly, engineer Franz Reuleaux is known for his Reuleaux Triangle, a curved triangle that can be rolled. It so happens that the French word "rouleau" means roll and originates from the 17th century, before Franz Reuleaux. Another example is the Lumiere brothers, who pioneered cinematography (an art form involving capturing of light). Lumiere is the French word for light and has been used as early as the 13th century.
Are these coincidences? Am I going mad?
Aptronyms are a noted phenomenon, dating back to at the early 20th Century, with Ingeborg Stukel writing on the matter in "On the Significance of Names" in the British Journal of Medical Psychology in 1930. New Scientist has recorded instances of them since 1994 (despite their occasional requests that readers stop sending them in).
The paper "Nominative Determinism in Hospital Medicine", by Limb, Limb, Limb, and Limb suggests there is indeed a higher chance for people to have names that fit their field, at least in medicine in England. The results are a median of around 1 in 149 doctors having a name related to medicine: if it seems higher, we may just be more likely to remember ones that are particularly fitting.
From my (scant) research, the matter does not appear to have been studied to any great degree.