I came across something the other day which struck me as ironic.
There was a lady from Norfolk who died just before the first world war whose initials were M.A.P. (I won't give her full name for reasons that will become obvious). She wrote in her will "my sole wish is that my name shall be utterly forgotten" and "my name is not to appear on any memorial tablet in any church … and no leaves or flowers shall be placed in or on my grave. My tombstone shall not cost more than £3 [she died a wealthy woman] and shall bear the inscription M.A.P.".
However, this was such an unusual statement in a will that a report about it got into the national press, and was published for example in the Daily Mirror. Thousands of people got to know her name through that report who would otherwise never have heard of her.
It gets worse. As luck would have it, the newspaper report was published on Tuesday April 16th 1912. The main headline on that day was the Titanic disaster (although these first reports stated that the ship had hit an iceberg but not sunk and nobody had been hurt, it was still big news). This newspaper has been endlessly reproduced in facsimile (which is how I got to read it) as the first report of one of the biggest news stories of the century.
So, M.A.P. of Norfolk wishes to be forgotten after her death. But she states her case so vigorously that the story makes the national papers, bringing her name to the attention of a wide readership. And this happens on the day that one of the most famous stories of all time is also published, meaning that day's newspaper is frequently republished for historical reasons, and her name is brought to a whole new readership down the decades that follow.
What is really ironic of course is that if she had just made no particular fuss at all her name would surely have been quietly forgotten within a few years.