Day 5 — Freak Economics

How your name will affect your success…

13 ways your name may affect your success. Of course some of these do not look right for example: “If your last name is closer to the end of the alphabet, you are more likely to be an impulse spender” — You may be asking yourself, how can this be possible however research shows a trend that favours this idea and argues that spending your childhood at the end of the roll call may make you want to jump on offers before you miss the chance.

• if it is easy to pronounce, one is more favourable
• if your name is common you are more likely to be hired
• uncommon names are associated with juvenile delinquency — (strong relationship between the popularity of one’s first name and juvenile criminal behaviour)
• If you have a white sounding name you are more likely to get hired-( In a study in The Atlantic, white-sounding names like Emily Walsh and Greg Baker got nearly 50% more callbacks than candidates with black-sounding names like Lakisha Washington and Jamal Jones. Researchers determined that having a white-sounding name is worth as much as eight years of work experience)
• If your name is closer to the beginning of the alphabet, you could get into a better school
• If your last name is closer to the end of the alphabet, you are more likely to be an impulse spender — (The authors speculate that spending your childhood at the end of the roll call may make you want to jump on offers before you miss the chance.)
• Using your middle initial will make people think you are smarter and more competent (In one study, students were asked to rate an essay with one of four styles of author names. Not only did the authors with a middle initial receive top marks, but the one with the most initials, David F.P.R. Clark, received the best reviews)
• You are more likely to work in a company that matches your initials
• If your name sounds Nobel, you are more likely to work in a better position — (researchers studied German names and ranks within companies. Those with last names such as Kaiser (“emperor”) or König (“king”) were in more managerial positions than those with last names that referred to common occupations, such as Koch (“cook”) or Bauer (“farmer”))
• If you are a boy with a girls name, you may be more likely to get suspended in school
• If you are a woman with a gender neutral name, you are more likely to succeed in a certain field
• Men with shorter names are overrepresented in the C- position — (more than 100 million user profiles on linkedIn were analyzed to find out which names are most associated with the CEO position. The most common names for men were short, often one-syllable names like Bob, Jack, and Bruce. A name specialist speculates that men in power may use nicknames to offer a sense of friendliness and openness.

Overall, I believe that a prejudgement of someone does take place by ones name before they are met, and hence agree with some of these, however one name cannot be a deciding factor for the success of a particular person. It is as Stephen Richards says: “The true measure of success is how many times you can bounce back from failure.” It’s not about never experiencing a setback or a stormy day, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.” Therefore something so minor as a name could never be a factor for success.

However it is shown by research that opportunities are more likely given to those and the decision may be based on the name of the person and so therefore, it could be said that one may benefit from a wise name choice.