What is the most famous anagram?

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE and I AM A WEAKISH SPELLER is the one most often quoted, with TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE and I AM LORD VOLDEMORT close behind.

Why did scientists use anagrams?

To record a discovery before it was ready to publish. The scrambled letters proved who had it first without revealing it to rivals.

How can I check a famous anagram?

Count the letters on both sides. If every letter pairs off with nothing left over, it is genuine; otherwise it is a near-miss.

Famous Anagrams, Fact-Checked Letter By Letter

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Fact-checks the anagrams people repeat from memory, including the two that do not survive the check, and lets you test a claim you have heard somewhere else.

16 check out2 do not

William ShakespeareI am a weakish speller
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
The best-known anagram in English, and a joke at the expense of a man who spelled his own name six ways.
Tom Marvolo RiddleI am Lord Voldemort
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
Built into the plot of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which is why the middle name exists at all.
Vladimir NabokovVivian Darkbloom
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
Nabokov hid himself in Lolita under this name, then used it again in Ada.
DormitoryDirty room
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
The example every teacher reaches for, because the rearrangement comments on the original.
AstronomerMoon starer
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
Same trick as dormitory: the anagram describes the thing it came from.
SchoolmasterThe classroom
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
A Victorian favourite, from the era when newspapers ran anagram columns.
The Morse CodeHere come dots
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
Attributed to nobody in particular and repeated everywhere, which is usually a warning sign. This one holds.
PunishmentsNine thumps
Does not check out — S left over on the left.
Repeated in this plural form everywhere. Drop the S and it works perfectly; keep it and you have a spare letter.
A decimal pointI'm a dot in place
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
Apostrophes and spaces are not letters, so they play no part in the check.
Eleven plus twoTwelve plus one
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
Rare in being true as arithmetic and as letters at once.
Slot machinesCash lost in me
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
Widely reprinted on casino signage, which has not made it any less accurate.
Clint EastwoodOld West action
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
One of the few celebrity anagrams that describes an actual career.
DesperationA rope ends it
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
Circulated since at least the 1890s in puzzle magazines.
The countrysideNo city dust here
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
A stock example in British crossword-setting guides.
PresbyterianBest in prayer
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
The denominational anagram, and the reason several others got invented afterwards.
Election resultsLies - let's recount
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
Hyphens and apostrophes discarded, the letters line up exactly.
Snooze alarmsAlas! No more Zs
Checks out — every letter accounted for.
Depends on reading Zs as two letters, which the check does.
The Statue of LibertyBuilt to stay free
Does not check out — E, H, T left over on the left.
Repeated in a hundred listicles. It is a near-anagram, and near is not an anagram.

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Anagrams in science and at court

Before scientific journals, anagrams were a way to claim a discovery without giving it away. In 1610 Galileo announced an observation of Saturn as a scrambled string of Latin letters, so that he could prove later that he had seen it first. Robert Hooke did the same in 1676, publishing the letters CEIIINOSSSTTUV. Two years later he revealed them as "ut tensio, sic vis", "as the extension, so the force", the principle now known as Hooke's law.

Anagrams were also a courtly art. Turning a patron's name into a flattering phrase was a recognised compliment, and King Louis XIII of France is said to have paid a royal anagrammatist to do it.

Hidden names in fiction

Novelists have long used anagrams to hide names in plain sight. VLADIMIR NABOKOV → VIVIAN DARKBLOOM put the author inside Lolita as a minor character. The best-known modern example is TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE → I AM LORD VOLDEMORT, a twist in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets that works only because the middle name was chosen to make the letters fit.

Anagrams have been used as insults too. The surrealist André Breton rearranged the painter's name as SALVADOR DALI → AVIDA DOLLARS, "eager for dollars", to mock what he saw as Dalí's love of money.

The classics that describe themselves

The anagrams people remember best are the ones where the new phrase comments on the old one. DORMITORY → DIRTY ROOM, ASTRONOMER → MOON STARER and SCHOOLMASTER → THE CLASSROOM all describe the thing they came from. ELEVEN PLUS TWO → TWELVE PLUS ONE is remarkable for being true twice, as letters and as arithmetic.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE → I AM A WEAKISH SPELLER is probably the most quoted of all. It is a joke about a writer whose own name was spelled several different ways in surviving records, and it is exactly right: every letter accounted for.

Two famous anagrams that fail

Being repeated often does not make an anagram correct. "Punishments" is regularly said to give "nine thumps". It does not: PUNISHMENTS has an S at the end that NINE THUMPS never uses. Drop it and the singular works perfectly, PUNISHMENT → NINE THUMPS, but the plural is the version everyone quotes.

"The Statue of Liberty" is often said to give "built to stay free". Again the letters are almost right. The words THE are the problem: remove them and STATUE OF LIBERTY → BUILT TO STAY FREE is exact, but with THE in front there are three letters left over.

The checker at the top of this page tests every one of these claims letter by letter, including the two that fail, and lets you test one you have heard elsewhere. If a famous anagram leaves a single letter over, it fails.

Questions

What is the most famous anagram?: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE and I AM A WEAKISH SPELLER is the one most often quoted, with TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE and I AM LORD VOLDEMORT close behind.
Why did scientists use anagrams?: To record a discovery before it was ready to publish. The scrambled letters proved who had it first without revealing it to rivals.
How can I check a famous anagram?: Count the letters on both sides. If every letter pairs off with nothing left over, it is genuine; otherwise it is a near-miss.