You Asked:

Does your name influence your personality? — Jessi, Mission Hill, S.D.

Marshall Brain Answers:

According to articles like this one, your name has a big effect on how people perceive you and how you perceive the world.

We have strong perceptions about first names and associate them with success, luck and attractiveness, according to new research. And our perceptions can have very real consequences in everyday life.

People walk around with stereotypes in their heads that can influence all sorts of decisions, yet don’t even realise it, says psychologist Richard Wiseman, who conducted the research.

This is easy to understand by looking at an extreme example. Imagine that a person named Roy Thomspon goes on a spree of kidnapping schoolchildren over a 6 month period. Because it is a mystery and because it involves children in peril, it is a huge national story. Eventually Roy Thompson is captured, and police discover that he killed all the children, baked them in pies and sold the pies through a well-known organic food chain. The predictable media storm lasts for years.

Now, if your name coincidentally happens to be Roy Thompson, how do you suppose people are going to look at you? You didn’t do anything wrong, but the powerful stigma attached to the name “Roy Thompson” is probably going to have a negative effect. Everyone with the first name Roy or the last name Thompson are probably also going to feel an effect. And those effects may influence your personality, in the same way that being short might.

Similarly, people with the name Luke probably saw an uptick when the movie Star Wars came out. The name George was probably doing better before George Castanza came along, and so on.

The article also points out:

A name often represents parents’ aspirations, as much as their social status. This can have a strong influence on a child whatever background they come from.

“The real consequence is not in the actual name itself, but in the intentions behind it,” says Dr Martin Skinner, a social psychologist at Warwick University.

There may be a story behind your name that your parents tell you about and repeat many times. For example, when Charis Wilson recently died, many of the articles about her mentioned that Charis is the Greek word for grace. The aspirations and intent of the parents, because they come from the parents and are discussed with the child, could have an important effect on the child and his/her personality.

Fun fact: Les Paul‘s name was originally Lester Polsfuss.

See also: Baby naming trends