THE “NAME GAME” WINNERS

“What’s in a name?”, asked Shakespeare’s Juliet. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”, she concluded; in other words that the name of a person is irrelevant. However, research by psychologists suggests that our name can have a direct effect on our personal happiness.

Having a popular name, it seems, can make other people think you are intelligent and attractive even before they have met you. This is because, according to psychologist Dr Philip Erwin, people associate a particular name with a stereotyped image. However, having an unpopular name can have the opposite effect. “It can even affect your employment prospects,” says Dr Erwin. “Employers usually make up their mind within two minutes of a job interview. Part of that process is reading an applicant’s name on the CV, which may immediately create a negative stereotype in the employer’s mind.”

As a result, according to Dr Erwin, people with less attractive names tend to work harder to get on in life. As part of his research, he rated the first names of 68 psychology students for attractiveness, and then compared their exam marks. He found that students with unpopular, old-fashioned names did significantly better (an average of more than 3% higher marks). This suggested that they were aware that they had an unattractive name, and were working harder to overcome negative attitudes towards their name.

Names considered to be “less attractive” were, for example, Norman, Ronald, and Albert for men, and Gillian, Pauline, and Agnes for women. “More attractive” names were Stephen, David, Emma, and Charlotte. Actors and pop stars certainly seem to take this into account and it is quite common for them to change the name they were born with to a more “glamorous” one, for example, Cary Grant (born Archibald Pearce), and Bo Derek (born Mary Collins).

In the last ten years there has been a definite tendency among British parents to choose unusual or famous names. Last year the most popular name for girls was Chloe, probably because of the character in the Australian soap opera Home and Away, and Phoebe entered the top 50 for the first time, almost certainly as a result of the hi US TV series Friends. The top boy’s name, Jack, which had previously been considered an unattractive, old-fashioned name, became dramatically more popular because of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Titanic hero, Jack Dawson.

But the question is, will these names still be considered attractive when their owners grow up? “When I was at school there was no one in my class with the same name as me,” says 24-year-old Farrah Stephens, who was named after the TV actress Farrah Fawcett-Majors. “By the time I was 15 everybody had forgotten about her, and I was left with this really stupid name. In the end I decided to use my middle name, Diane.” Clearly, the choice of a name for a child is a difficult decision to take. Dr Erwin gives some practical advice: “Choose names for your children which they will be happy with in twenty years’ time, and choose a second name in case your child doesn’t like the first one”.

Ex. 1

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