Your name often does more than just identify you — it defines you.
There are plentiful legitimate studies that have extensively evaluated the impact our names have on our lives. From altering the shape of our faces, to increasing the likelihood of reckless spending; our names, and stereotypes associated with them have a surprising influence on how our lives pan out.
How our name influences the way we look
Take a look at the image on the left — what name do you think the person looks like?
Go with your gut feeling, and keep your answer in mind. You’ll find out at the end of this section what their real name is, and there’s a 38% chance you got it right.
A study titled ‘We look like our names: The manifestation of name stereotypes in facial appearance.’ led by Dr. Ruth Mayo and PhD candidate Yonat Zwebner at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem examined whether a person’s appearance can be influenced by their given name.
To do this, they recruited independent observers and showed them color headshot photographs of complete strangers. Then they presented a list of names to the observers and asked them to choose the stranger’s real name based on his or her facial appearance. The observers guessed the correct names almost everytime — significantly above the 25% chance level of a random guess.
“A name is an external social factor, different from other social factors such as gender or ethnicity, therefore representing an ultimate social tag. The demonstration of our name being manifested in our facial appearance illustrates the great power that a social factor can have on our identity, potentially influencing even the way we look,” — Dr. Mayo.
Additionally, the possibility that our name can influence our look, even to a small extent, suggests the important role of social structuring in the complex interaction between the self and society. The research suggests that we are subject to social structuring from the minute we are born, not only by our gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, but also by the simple choice that others make in giving us our name.
The researchers also suggest the ‘Dorian Gray effect’ cited in previous research on how internal factors like personality can influence facial appearance, may apply here as well.
By the way, his name is Dan.
How our name impacts the choices we make
Is it complete coincidence that someone with a last name as ‘Cook’ turned out to be a chef, Usain ‘Bolt’ is the fastest sprinter in the world, and ‘Dr. A Seawright’ happens to be an eye specialist?
Of course it isn’t sheer coincidence, but a theory known as ‘normative determinism’ states that we’re drawn towards jobs that match our names. It’s part of what researchers call ‘implicit egotism’ — the idea that we’re attracted to things that remind us of ourselves. In 2013, Brett Pelham, a psychologist who studied implicit egotism for decades targeted 11 occupational surnames — Baker, Barber, Butcher, Butler, Carpenter, Farmer, Foreman, Mason, Miner, Painter and Porter.
His study ultimately found that men were 15.5% more likely to work in occupations that had their last name than they should have been based on random chance. In every occupation, men with surnames matching their chosen profession were more overrepresented. Women and racial minorities were less likely than white men to follow nominative determinism.
It is possible to escape your name fate, but these studies show us how a name can be an unseen nudge, among many, that helped you choose a path.
“I think [that in] a lot of things that we do and decisions that we make, there’s a strong unconscious element that doesn’t even register in our thinking but influences the decision that we make.” — Dr. David Limb
Implicit egotism applies beyond our career choices — whether it’s marrying a person who shares your birthday, or moving to a place with a name phonetically similar to your own, we’re more likely to be drawn towards something, or someone that relates closely to our identity.
Think about a time where you’ve chosen a particular brand because it resonates with your name.
I recall the first time I’d visited Morocco, and had to make a decision about which SIM card provider to go with. I was presented with the following options:
- Maroc Telecom
- Zain Group
- Inwi
Take a guess at which one I went with.
The position of your name’s initials in the alphabet might be a factor in your reckless spending, or being rejected from your dream college
How can some arbitrary linguistic symbol order established by a bunch of people in the first-century be the reason for your impulsive spending habits?
A 2012 study titled “The Last Name Effect: How Last Name Influences Acquisition Timing.” concluded that people with names at the end of the alphabet are quicker to jump on perceived deals. The reason being that suffering through a childhood (school days) of being the last one to be called out on the register, and sometimes being back of the class, meant getting only the remaining options in the cafeteria or in the classroom — which over time conditions people to quickly snatch up opportunities for fear that they may not last long.
This effect of alphabetically ordering names seems to affect outcomes for economics professors too. A 2006 Standford-CalTech study found that faculty members “with earlier surname initials are significantly more likely to receive tenure at top 10 economics departments.” A potential reason for this may be that in economics and political science, the convention is for co-authors of articles and papers to be listed in alphabetical order.
The same applies in different scenarios too, such as university admissions. A 2010 study in the Economics of Education Review examined the relationship between alphabetical position of a student’s name and the student’s odds of being admitted to a competitive school. The study concluded that the earlier in the alphabet your name is, the more likely you are to be admitted, probably because of applications being sorted alphabetically.
All these studies to an extent may be overzealous data fitting. I’ve personally never been drawn towards joining a boy band, but I did consider dying my hair blonde by the 4th time I’d finished listening to Vibez on repeat — although I’m pretty sure the latter was influenced much more by lockdown than implicit egotism.
However, take some time to observe whether your friends seem to make, or have made normatively determined choices in their lives, or even your own. it’s likely you will notice a correlation.
P.S. I didn’t actually go with the Zain Group sim card; Maroc Telecom were offering more MB per dirham.
