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What would be the name for dissecting a word to create a phrase — the opposite of a portmanteau? Like the rapper Flo Rida made his name out of Florida. Is there a term for that?

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2 Answers

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The only thing I can think of is word play.

Word play or wordplay is a literary technique in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work, ..., and telling character names are common examples of word play.

It looks like an eggcorn, but Flo Rida doesn't mean the same thing as Florida.

It's almost an anagram but the letters haven't been rearranged so much as moved apart a bit.

It is an Aptronym (well, if you think Flo Rida is good at what he does.)

An aptronym is a name aptly suited to its owner.

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+1 for the self-reference on wordplay/word play – JeffSahol Aug 18 '11 at 19:13
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The example cited is a homonym : Florida (a city) and Flo Rida ( a person's name)

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They're not pronounced the same, though. "Flo Rida" is pronounced "Flow Rye-da". – simchona♦ Aug 18 '11 at 19:07
Oh. I didn't know that. In that case, its probably a homograph[link]{en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homograph} – Autoresponder Aug 18 '11 at 19:27
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They're not written the same, either. The space matters... – simchona♦ Aug 18 '11 at 19:31
But the written forms aren't the same. – simchona♦ Aug 18 '11 at 19:47
neologistic toponym? toponymic neologism? – Autoresponder Aug 20 '11 at 14:57

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