<p>What’s In a Name? Turns Out, Your Entire Future
<a href=“http://m.policymic.com/articles/91061/what-s-in-a-name-turns-out-your-entire-future”>http://m.policymic.com/articles/91061/what-s-in-a-name-turns-out-your-entire-future</a>
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<p>Do you have a common or unconventional first name? How have you fared with your name?</p>
<p>correlation versus causation</p>
<p>My kids all have ethnically appropriate spellings of their names, but not as common to the American eye. They are doing quite fine.</p>
<p>More likely to find causation showing better educated parents tend to name their children in a more conventional fashion. Also, there are many examples of highly successful people with unusual names. Mitt Romney? Who is named after a baseball implement? </p>
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<p>There is a separate set of rules that apply to trust fund babies</p>
<p>Um…some of those names only became popular for kiddos in the last decade or so. My be is you will see more Shane, Paige, and Shannon kids in all colleges as those names have become MUCH more popular.</p>
<p>Mitt’s first name is Willard. </p>
<p>While having a name that some may think sounds lower class (Bambi), I don’t think Shannon, Shane, and Paige fall into that category.</p>
<p>Now that I live in the South, I am often surprised to meet so many girls with last names (often mom’s maiden or some family last name) for their first names.</p>
<p>I have met girls named:</p>
<p>Battle (thank goodness she is very cute!)
Bonner
Collins
Harper
Trainer
Stone
Harrison
McKenna
Carter
Jeffrey
Payne
Berry
and many more.</p>
<p>Maybe having male-sounding names will help?</p>
<p><<<</p>
<p>Mitt Romney? Who is named after a baseball implement?
<<<,</p>
<p>that isnt his first name. and he didnt get his middle name from a baseball mitt. Mitt is the nickname of a relative that he was named after (it is Mitt’s middle name)</p>
<p>Remember this article?? <a href=“Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination on JSTOR”>Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination on JSTOR;
<p>" Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field
Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination
Marianne Bertrand; Sendhil Mullainathan
The American Economic Review, Vol. 94, No. 4. (Sep., 2004), pp. 991-1013.
"</p>
<p>Now, as for nicknames, perhaps Larry Wayne Jones, Jr or Lawrence Peter Berra would not have made it into MLB if their nicknames weren’t Chipper or Yogi.</p>
<p>In Britain, “Shannon” is the quintessential uneducated, low class name. I’m assuming an article which talked about Eleanor and Simon was using British data. These names are signals as to parents’ educational class, etc. It’s not the funny spelling but the class baggage associated with them that would be triggering discrimination in hiring, etc. I’m not sure if this can necessarily be transferred to an American setting.</p>
<p>Yes, the article clearly says those were names from Oxford University.</p>
<p>A girl on my freshman dorm hall was named Kevin. I never figured that one out.</p>
<p>It could, yes. My friend was very proud of her full name and kept the surnameit after marrying. Then in a few years, found out she lost out on a number of sales in her job because people simply could not remember her name when her married name with her Americanized nick name was quite simple. There were several sales reps with names also a bit difficult and some of them got inquiries that were for her. Also there are people out there who do have their biases, are bigots, and by giving them a lot of advance notice, it can hurt you. It can also help you in that an unusual name can be memorable and some people might have a positive bias, as well. But studies have shown the other way around.</p>
<p>I am just stating my own opinion in what I am saying next: It’s a whole other issue to have a name that’s slightly unusual than one that is completely “weird”. I think there is latitude in this area, but when you are way out there, it can be a problem at times. </p>
<p>Momzie, I’ve heard the same about names in Britain, particularly Irish names, many of which are very popular in the US. </p>
<p>Strictly anecdotal observation, nothing scientific in the following. But I noticed growing up and through grad school that a lot of corporate CEO’s and other successful people seemed to have what we then considered really odd first names, when that was much less common. I just thought, and it is total armchair psychology, that they probably derived something extra from being named that way. Either got toughened up from being teased, or a sense of uniqueness and superiority which translated to confidence, or who knows. Another kid with the same name might have become defensive and not stand out, so I am sure there are many factors. But it did seem like a lot of these people did have unusual names. Of course back then they were all white males, no doubt quite a few from money so my thinking could be total hogwash.</p>
<p>Growing up I hated the fact my name was not the common way to spell it. My mom wanted my name to be unique. Ugh. However at the time I didn’t understand her reasoning because our last name is very uncommon. I believe that when I was growing up there were less than 100 of us with that last name in the US. However once I started working I think my unique first and last name actually helped me because people remembered it. My married name is very common Jewish name. We aren’t Jews although DH’s dad was. There have been times including recently that DH has been discriminated against or people have made nasty comments to him because of his last name. I sometimes wish we had hyphenated our last names so our sons won’t ever have to deal with that. So yes I think
some people can be treated differently based on their name. </p>
<p>The only people with my last name in the US are my mother and myself. 
There are a handful in Canada, and in the familial country of origin. It is uncommon even there.</p>
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<p>Maybe the study needs to adjust for income and race. Or students should begin using pseudonyms when sitting for tests. </p>
<p>Ah, yes. That failure of Zbigniew Brzezinski. Condoleeza Rice. or Barack Obama. So hampered by their weird names. </p>
<p>Some parents give their kids first names with an apostrophe in it. That has to be extremely annoying when speaking with vendors over the telephone and giving your contact information.</p>
<p>Kids with weird names probably get beat up more often unless you are D’brickashaw ferguson</p>
<p>Why is that any different from having a last name with an apostrophe? </p>
<p>Not that I’m not saying apostrophes aren’t a PITA. They are. I just don’t see why it’s any different than when it’s in a last name. </p>
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<p>You are born with your last name and people usually don’t change their last names because of heritage. You are not born with a first name so a parent has to choose to give her kid a difficult first name. </p>
<p>I remember when Frank Zappa named his daughter Moon Unit. I think she has been in and out of therapy most of her life. I suspect having a weird name didn’t help her mental health.</p>