<p>"In a new study to be published in the March issue of Social Science Quarterly, David Kalist and Daniel Lee, economists at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, find that adolescent boys with unpopular names are likelier than other boys to be referred to the juvenile-justice system for alleged offenses. The researchers conclude that the Ernests, Prestons and Tyrells of America are significantly more delinquent than the Michaels and Davids. Why? (See the top 10 crime stories of 2008.)</p>
<p>The short answer is that our names play an important role in shaping the way we see ourselves — and, more important, how others see us. Abundant academic literature proves these points. A 1993 paper found that most people perceive those with unconventionally spelled names (Patric, Geoffrey) as less likely to be moral, warm and successful. A 2001 paper found that we have a tendency to judge boys’ trustworthiness and masculinity from their names. (As a guy whose middle name is Ashley, I can attest to the second part.) In a 2007 paper (here’s a PDF), University of Florida economist David Figlio found that boys with names commonly given to girls are likelier to be suspended from school. And an influential 1998 paper co-authored by psychologist Melvin (a challenging first name if there ever was one) Manis of the University of Michigan reported that “having an unusual name leads to unfavorable reactions in others, which then leads to unfavorable evaluations of the self.”</p>
<p>Our first names also say a great deal about the extent of privilege enjoyed by the people who picked those names for us, our parents. In the new paper, Kalist and Lee point out that previous research has shown that the name Allison is rarely given to girls whose mothers didn’t finish high school but is frequently given to girls whose mothers have 17 years or more of schooling. On average, parents with less schooling are likelier to pick unpopular names for their kids…</p>
<p>Rather, boys with unpopular names are likelier to live in single-parent households and have less money. Those with unpopular names may also find it harder to get jobs because of the negative stigma toward certain names — particularly names likely to be given to African Americans, like Kareem. And the unemployed are likelier to commit crimes than those who work."
[Can</a> Your Name Make You a Criminal? - TIME](<a href=“http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1874955,00.html?cnn=yes]Can”>http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1874955,00.html?cnn=yes)</p>
<p>I would have to scold myself into being reasonable if my doctor or intellectual property lawyer was named after a beverage, store, a state, or a Scottish clan.</p>
<p>I was about to put the names in, but knew I would be walking into a lion’s den of offended mothers!</p>
<p>(Keeping my head down now and wearing my flameproof suit.)</p>
<p>Your name can make a difference. A good friend of mine always insisted on keeping her maiden name which is difficult to pronounce and unusual. She has a first name that is similar. In her business, she found that she would lose contacts that way, as people just could not remember her name to ask for her. She started using her short nick name and her husband’s easy to remember last name which helped a lot. </p>
<p>There are still folks out there who make prejudgments based on ethnicity and race. Yes, we have a President with the name Barack Obama, but that does not mean that everyone does not have name prejudices. In fact, his name was an issue that worried his campaign managers and supporters. I have friends who have a lot of trouble at airports with the last name “Hussein”. My MIL who is in her 80’s always remarks on the ethnicity of names. Her mouth literally fell open when a blonde woman introduced herself as Sally Chang. (She was married to someone Chinese). Her eyebrows went up when my son brought a friend hope with a very Jewish name and he was clearly Asian. Like it or not, there are people out there that have preconceptions about names and ethnicity. </p>
<p>I also think boys with strange names have a easy handle for bullies and smart alecks to grab which can lead to teasing and fights. I know some boys with the names Corey, Jordan, Cameron who are teased regularly about the femininity of their names. Girls with androgynous names don’t seem to have that problem. Names like Chris or Pat, however, seem to escape that category for boys because there are so many of them, I guess.</p>
<p>We’ve all read about what happened to those parents who gave their kids third reich names.</p>
<p>There is a funny classic name story in my family, but I don’t really want to post my names on the internet. I could disguise things a bit… but that would require too much thought. </p>
<p>So back to the study… Is it the name that causes the boy to become a delinquent or is it that the parent is a jerk who raises the son to become a delinquent and the funny/unpopular name is merely a symptom of the parent’s jerkiness?</p>
<p>I’m a “name snob,” too. I like traditional names, and dislike trendy or “made up”
names. </p>
<p>Anyone know the children’s book, Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes? (It’s about a little girl named Chrysanthemum, who loves her name, until she starts school and kids tease her about it. . .) “I’m named after my grandmother,” one little girl in the story says. “And you’re named after a FLOWER. . .” I can’t help thinking of that line when I hear the names of some of the kids in my D’s first grade class–one is named after a vacuum cleaner, one is named after a disease, another is named after a weapon. . .</p>
<p>I think the IQ of the parents has a lot to do with it.</p>
<p>twomules-- let me guess: the state: Dakota? the clan: MacKenzie? the store: Macy? the beverage: uh, Tequilla? Johnny Walker?</p>
<p>Atomom: You are half right. I was thinking Tiffany and Brandy. </p>
<p>Anyone know any hippie names? My sister has a friend from high school that gave her kids kind of Rainbow People names but I can’t remember them.</p>
<p>I thought Stone Gossard ( guitarist in Pearl Jam)- was perhaps a nickname because of his " rock like abs" or his propensity for throwing( or perhaps a hard head? )- however- I then heard he has sibs named something like " flower & tree", so I concluded that his parents were probably " hippies" ;)</p>
<p>I like the name Apple…for a child but not sure how much I would think of a doctor or lawyer with that name…so I guess I am a name snob too. I have a foreign name because I am from a foreign country but growing up in an English speaking country saddled me with lots of requests to repeat my name, requests to spell my name and general mispronounciations including being named something completely different by one eventual friend who couldn’t pronounce my real name. You can be sure my children have very normal gender specific names which I think would work whichever country they lived in.</p>
<p>I thought long and hard about my kids…Our last name is hard to spell, and I didn’t want them to have to spell both their names. I also think of the classic “(insert name.) Damn glad to meet you.” As a good name to business with.</p>
<p>18 year old son just commented to me yesterday that some names of friends of his will be hard to transfer into the professional world. I agree…So many names are cute when they are babies, but I have a hard time imagining an adult man with a low voice having to say his cutesy name at a business meeting, or a woman trying to prove herself as a lawyer (I too am thinking of a couple in particular but do not want to offend.)</p>
<p>And I LOVE the book Chrysanthemum!!! (always makes me tear up.)</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s the name that causes anti-social behavior. May this have an effect? Possibly. A name could cause negative reactions in peers, especially in school and then in the competitive working world. In the working world, an unfamiliar name is easy to forgot and the social awkwardness and just plain forgetting of one’s name could have significant ramifications. For some ethnic groups (look we all know who I’m talking about), a unique or 100% fabricated name is seen as normal and, growing up in that particular community, the name would have no real consequences.</p>
<p>But I think that’s a secondary explanation. The primary explanation is that, in general, individuals who give their children odd or made-up names tend to be uneducated and low class. The name of a child simply mirrors who their parents are. Thus, are we shocked that the children of these individuals grow up and exhibit similar characteristics of their parents? Further, and this isn’t germane to criminality, children with ethnic names (Hebrew, Asian languages, Afrocentric) tend to grow up in ethnocentric environments. Thus, these individuals who have matured in a homogeneous environment, been encouraged by their parents to pursue adolescent relationships with similar individuals, then have trouble blending into more diverse societal institutions such as those in university, workplace, etc.</p>
<p>I am also a bit of a name snob…I can’t say that about ethnic names so much, but names that are cutesie, trendy and sound more like inanimate objects than people. I did consider the future for my children when choosing their names.</p>
<p>I think there are certain names , for girls in particular that will doom them to become career cashiers for WalMart…again not going to say them for fear of offending…
When looking through yearbooks or other class pictures, so many mothers chose the same names for their children…trendy names mostly…but a few that the parents probably thought they had an original, unique name. Until 10 others pop up in the same area.
Sometimes, I to guess the names of the families I see walking by ( young families )</p>
<p>We call my daughter by a short name which was the given name of her grandmother. But her legal name is the long version so that she can be that when she needs a prof. name but if she wishes to continue going by the sobriquet, she can. I would never make a nickname a legal name.</p>
<p>My own first name is very frequently shortened, but I myself always use the long form. It bugs me no end when people I have just met, to whom I have introduced myself or been introduced by the long form, immediately shorten it. If I wanted to be called ‘Dot’ or ‘Sue’ or ‘Nan’, that is how I would have introduced myself. I think I am worth an extra syllable or two.</p>
<p>What’s popular in one generation may not be in the next.</p>
<p>My grandmothers’ names were Anna and Emily. I was delighted that my parents didn’t see fit to name me after either grandmother – who would want such an old-fashioned name? But now those names are popular again. Who would have guessed?</p>
<p>^^Same with names such as Hannah, Madeleine, Zachary, Jacob, Caleb, etc. Those were hopelessly old-fashioned grandparent or even great-grandparent names back when I was young, but now they have made a comeback.</p>
<p>I think of the women of my age, and I can come up with a long list of names that have gone out of style: Linda, Barbara, Shirley, Karen, Kathy, Cheryl, Susan, etc. There were dozens of girls with those names in my high school. Today they are all turning into grandma names. Maybe in another hundred years they’ll make a comeback.</p>
<p>Coureur, I’m also a child of the 50’s and have such a short name that my nickname–only used when I was a child–is longer than my legal name. Both DH and I are always known by our full names–so of course our kids are known by their nicknames. However, both have good solid non-trendy names that they can use in their professional lives when and if they choose.</p>