Anadrome

An anadrome is a word or phrase whose letters can be reversed to spell a different word or phrase. For example, desserts is an anadrome of stressed. An anadrome is therefore a special type of anagram. The English language is replete with such words.
The word anadrome comes from Greek anádromos, "running backward", and can be compared to palíndromos, "running back again". An anadrome is also called a semordnilap.
There is a long history of alternate and invented names being created out of anadromes of real names; a proper noun conceived in this way is sometimes called an ananym, especially if it is used as personal pseudonym. Unlike typical anadromes, these anadromic formations often do not conform to any real names or words. Similarly cacographic anadromes are also characteristic of Victorian back slang, where for example yob stands for boy.

Examples

The English language has a very large number of single-word anadromes, by some counts more than 900. Examples include:

two letters: am ↔ ma; eh ↔ he; ew ↔ we; no ↔ on
three letters: bro ↔ orb; dog ↔ god; gum ↔ mug; was ↔ saw; nip ↔ pin
four letters: edit ↔ tide; evil ↔ live; liar ↔ rail; part ↔ trap
five letters: denim ↔ mined; knits ↔ stink; lever ↔ revel; peels ↔ sleep
six letters: denier ↔ reined; diaper ↔ repaid; drawer ↔ reward; pupils ↔ slip-up
seven letters: amaroid ↔ diorama; deliver ↔ reviled; gateman ↔ nametag
eight letters: desserts ↔ stressed

An anadrome can also be a phrase, as in no tops ↔ spot on. The word redrum is used this way for murder in the Stephen King novel The Shining and its film adaptation.
Anadromes exist in other written languages as well, as can be seen, for example, in Spanish orar ↔ raro or French l'ami naturel ↔ le rut animal.

Invented anadromes

Ananyms and anadromic names

ananym	derivation	description	type	references
Adanac	Canada	a tourist cottage in Ontario	proper name
Coquitlam Adanacs\|Adanac	Canada	a Canadian lacrosse team	team name
Adaven	Nevada	ghost town	proper name
Airegin	Nigeria	composer Sonny Rollins is African American	song name
Aksarben	Nebraska	Various groups and locations in Nebraska	proper name
Allerednic	Cinderella	A "riches to rags" tale as opposed to Cinderella's rags to riches. Used by Jonathan Gershuny of high-achieving women whose careers stall after marriage.	proper name
Alucard	Dracula	borne by various characters inspired by Bram Stoker's novel Dracula	proper name
Ani Lorak	Karolina	stage name of Karolina Kuiek	pseudonym
Azed	Deza	pen name of Jonathan Crowther, after Spanish inquisitor Diego Deza	pseudonym
C. W. Ceram\| Ceram	Marec	pen name of German journalist K. W. Marek	pseudonym
Dioretsa	asteroid	asteroid with retrograde orbit	proper name
Dnoces	"second"	Apollo program joke by Grissom, after Edward H. White II	proper name
Ebbot Lundberg\|Ebbot	Tobbe	Tobbe is the usual hypocoristic of his given name Torbjörn	pseudonym
Eivets Rednow	Stevie Wonder		album name
elgooG	Google	reverse-spelling search engine	company name
Navi	Ivan	Apollo program joke by Virgil Ivan Grissom	proper name
Erewhon	"nowhere"	A utopia and the title of an 1872 novel by Samuel Butler. The digraph <wh> is not reversed. Many names within the book are also ananyms.	proper name
Erised	"desire "	The Mirror of Erised in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone bears the inscription in reverse: "I show not your face but your heart's desire."	proper name
Esio Trot	"tortoise"	children's book by Roald Dahl	book name
Essiac	Rene Caisse	tea formula invented by Rene Caisse	product name
Etnaviv	Vivante	open-source driver for Vivante GPU	product name
Regor	Roger	Apollo program joke by Grissom, after Roger B. Chaffee	proper name
Гярб вечнълс	Слънчев бряг	Bulgarian Cyrillic ananym	proper name
Harpo Productions\|Harpo	Oprah	Oprah Winfrey's media company	company name
Kebert Xela	"Alex Trebek"	In "Family Guy", an answer given by Adam West to "send him back to the fifth dimension where he belongs", in reference to Mister Mxyzptlk	proper name
Klim	"milk"	a brand of powdered milk sold by Nestlé, early ads featuring the slogan "Spell it backwards"	product name
Kroz	Zork	homage to older computer game	product name
Livic	"civil engineering\|civil "	trade newspaper, "a reflection of Civil Engineering"	company name
Llamedos	"sod 'em all"	in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels	proper name
Llareggub	"bugger all"	in Under Milk Wood	proper name
MAPS	"spam"	reverse backronym	organization name
Nagirroc	Corrigan	historic home in Florida, after the owner's last name	proper name
Namor	"Roman"	comic book character named by Bill Everett	proper name
Nevaeh	"heaven"	feminine given name	proper name
Nevar	"raven"	In the 2002 TV series Raven, Nevar is the nemesis of the main character. It is also a minor character in an episode of Teen Titans Go!.	proper name
Niloak Pottery	"kaolin"	material used in products	company name
Nitsuga	Agustín	stage name of Agustín Barrios-Mangoré	pseudonym
Nogard	"dragon"	character in Alan F. Beck art series The Adventures of Nogard & Jackpot	proper name
Nomad	Damon	named for founding member Damon Rochefort	band name
Nomar Garciaparra\|Nomar	Ramon	for his father, Ramon Garciaparra	proper name
Nujabes	Seba Jun	stage name of Jun Seba	pseudonym
OAT	TAO	OAT stands for "Organizing Autonomous Telecomms", a reverse backronym of its former name TAO, "The Anarchy Organization"	organization name
Posdnuos	"sound sop"	stage name of Kelvin Mercer	pseudonym
Rae Sremmurd	"Ear" "Drummers"	first act signed to hip-hop label EarDrummers Records	band name
Rednaxela Terrace, Hong Kong	Alexander	believed to have been originally named after a Mr. Alexander, who partially owned the street, but reversed due to a clerical error	proper name
Rekkof Aircraft	Fokker	Rekkof aircraft are based on Fokker designs. Also Rekkof Restart. Now Fokker Next Gen.	company name
Rellim	Miller	a farm in West Virginia, named for founder Paul Miller	proper name
Revilo	Oliver	pen name of cartoonist Oliver Christianson	pseudonym
Revilo P. Oliver\|Revilo	Revilo P. Oliver\| Oliver	Revilo was philologist Revilo P. Oliver's name at birth	proper name
Ridan	Nadir	named after another horse	proper name
로꾸거	거꾸로	backwards for Korean for "backwards"	song name
Rotanev	Venator	after Niccolò Cacciatore	proper name
Seltaeb	Beatles	the Beatles' merchandising company	company name
Senim Silla	"All is mines."	stage name of hip hop artist Ross Rowe; "mines" is African-American Vernacular for "mine"	pseudonym
Senrab	Barnes	a street in Stepney, near Barnes Street	proper name
Sevas Tra	"Art saves."	debut album of Otep	album name
Soma Records \|Soma	Amos	after owner Amos Heilicher	company name
Strebor	Roberts	altered from the company's original name, the Roberts Company	company name
Sualocin	Nicolaus	after Niccolò Cacciatore	proper name
Tesremos	Somerset	pen name of Derrick Somerset Macnutt	pseudonym
Trebloc	Colbert	place in Mississippi, named for a local family, whose name is found in many places, and thus altered "to avoid further repetition"	proper name
Trebor	Robert	14th-century composer whose real name may have been Robert	pseudonym
Trebor	Robert	Trebor is a confectionary founded by Robert Robertson	company name
Trebor	Robert	Robert Trebor is the stage name of actor Robert Schenkman.	pseudonym
Trebor and Werdna	Robert and Andrew	characters in Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord computer game named after its programmers	proper name
David Jude Jolicoeur\|Trugoy	"yogurt"	stage name of David Jude Jolicoeur, due to his fondness for yogurt	pseudonym
Xvid	DivX	a competitor	company name
Yarg	Gray	Allan and Jenny Gray revived the recipe	product name
Yellek	Kelley	named for R. J. Kelley, trainmaster at the passing point	proper name
Yelnats	Stanley	the main character in Louis Sachar's novel Holes	proper name
Yen Sid	Disney	the powerful sorcerer in Fantasia, whose apprentice Mickey Mouse causes mayhem after borrowing his master's hat	proper name

Many jazz titles were written by reversing names or nouns: Ecaroh inverts the spelling of its composer Horace Silver's Christian name. Sonny Rollins dedicated to Nigeria a tune called "Airegin".
A number of Pokémon species, such as the snake Pokémon Ekans and Arbok, have anadromic names.