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| |    Names and Personality by Robert Needlman, M.D., F.A.A.P. reviewed by Laura Jana, M.D., F.A.A.P. What is the connection between your name and your personality? Apart from the claims of numerology, is there evidence that one's name makes a difference? According to one school of thought, names are nothing more than arbitrary symbols. But the opposite belief, that names express essential truths, runs deep. What answers does science have to offer? First impressions count People tend to make judgments based on first impressions, and names often affect such impressions. In one recent Democratic primary race, for instance, the two candidates with all-American names, Hart and Fairchild, beat two other candidates with ethnic names, Sangmeister and Pucinski. Their victory was quite unexpected because the winners actually were pushing a highly unpopular political agenda, while the two losers had been enthusiastically endorsed by the Democratic Party--e party to which most of the voters belonged! In fact, the Journal of Applied Social Psychology points out that names only seem to hold sway in elections when little or nothing else is known about the candidates. "What I Did Last Sunday" You don't have to be running for office to wonder how your name might affect others' perceptions of you. In one widely quoted study in the Journal of Educational Psychology, experienced elementary school teachers were asked to grade a set of paragraphs written by 10th graders entitled "What I Did Last Sunday." Eight different paragraphs were used, all about average in quality. Attached to these essays were eight different names: Four--Karen, Lisa, David, and Michael--were rated as desirable by students and teachers; the other four--Bertha, Adelle, Hubert, and Elmer--were rated as undesirable. The names were attached to the papers at random so that, for example, one paper that was labeled as written by Adelle one time was attributed to Karen or Lisa at other times. Bottom line? You've probably guessed it by now: Although the teachers were given identical papers, with only the names being different, they gave significantly higher grades to the papers "written" by the students with the desirable names. Interestingly, when the same experiment was repeated with college students as the graders, the name effect did not occur. Whereas the teachers had built up stereotyped expectations about children's names, the college students--who had no teaching experience--did not have these expectations and so their grading was not biased. Expectations of achievement In another study published in the same journal, sixth-graders' self-concept--how effective, attractive, and valued they felt--was related to the desirability of their first names. Moreover, children with desirable first names scored higher on a standardized test of academic achievement. One possible interpretation is that teachers expect children with more popular names to do better and so, over time, those positive expectations translate into actual higher levels of achievement. In considering these studies, it's important not to assume that teachers apply stereotypes any more than anyone else. Teachers merely are easier to study because researchers can look at the grades they handed out. The same forces are probably at work in the average workplace as well as in the classroom. A link to emotional disturbance? This is an intriguing question. One particularly suggestive study, done in 1954, looked at 1,682 case histories of children treated in a mental health clinic in New Jersey. Boys with unusual first names (names that occurred only once or twice among the group of children) were more likely to have moderate or severe emotional disturbance, compared with boys with more common names. (The same effect was not found among the girls in the clinic, however.) What is the possible connection between names and emotional problems? It may be that the parents who give their children truly odd names also tend to act in other ways that might increase psychological risk. Or perhaps growing up with an odd name leads to experiences--being teased, for example--that undermine mental health. Common isn't necessarily better As interesting as this research is, it's important not to overestimate the influence that names have. No one has ever done a study in which names were randomly assigned to a large number of children (thank heaven!), which would be the only really convincing scientific way to assess cause and effect. And there are certainly many successful and well-adjusted people with uncommon names. Among the more famous ones are Keanu, Regis, Sigourney, and Meryl, not to mention Tiger. Plus, many people with quite common names end up with nicknames that are out of the ordinary. Like most other traits, it's likely that names--common or otherwise--have some effect on the children and adults who bear them. But undoubtedly, many other traits also are important. Remember that in the end, it's not so much your name but what you make of it that counts. More information: Talk about:
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