The Name Game
Written by Rachel Hale, Culture Editorial Assistant
When we had a crush on someone in grade school, we’d spend hours doodling their name with our feather-tipped pens during class, usually in a variant of sloppy cursive and hearts. Today, most people would agree that a name only says so much about someone―surely what we’re studying, where we’re from, or even our favorite food tells more about who we are than a string of consonants and vowels. Yet, when meeting new people, the first thing we tell someone is our name, not our major or hometown. When we look at the science behind these syllables, we see that names greatly influence our perception of each other, changing the way we view factors like age, personality and intelligence.
Every year, more than 130 million babies are named, each with a story of their own. This year, “Olivia” and “Liam” top the popularity charts, closely followed by “Emma” and “Noah.” In the last 100 years, the top slot has only been filled by ten different names, showing that Americans tend to choose tradition over individualistic expression (Social Security, 2020). However, in recent years, pop culture figures like the Kardashians have normalized more unorthodox names, choosing selections like Chicago, Stormi, North, Reign, Saint, Psalm and Dream. Additional pop culture references from recent years have changed the connotation of traditional names like Rebecca and Bradley, among others. Beyoncé’s 2016 single “Sorry” debuted the infamous “Becky with the good hair” lyric, changing the name’s connotation overnight, while the name Karen became synonymous with middle-aged white women, its connotation evoking images of a highlighter-blonde pixie haircut and a loud voice asking to speak to the manager. Other stereotypes, like the Brad and Chad frat-boy trend, behave in the same way. While these stereotypes are only humorous, they indicate that we are willing to make large assumptions about people’s character and intelligence based on one piece of information about them.
These ideas of perceived bias are supported by science. One analysis found that teachers tended to show favoritism toward students with popular names when grading an essay, giving students with names like Lisa higher marks than students with less popular names like Bertha (Harari, et al, 1973). There is also a strong intersection between music and our perception and selection of names. The same year the Beatles released their hit song “Michelle” in 1965, the name rose to the 20th most popular name for American girls, and cinched the number two spot in 1968 (Napierski-Prancl, 2016). Other songs that have influenced name popularity and connotation include “Hey Jude,” “Hey there Delilah,” “Brandy,” “Rosanna,” “Jolene,” and “Valerie,” to name a few. These scientific findings are contrasted by people’s individual experiences with names―if someone had a bad experience with a Jake they may perceive every person with the name to be similar.
At their core, names are a form of expression, shiftable to different nicknames or even changeable entirely. It’s why we know Alecia Moore as P!nk, Aubrey Graham as Drake and Demi Guynes as Demi Moore. While changing names started as a strategy of Americanization for immigrants who hoped to assimilate into society, it is now commonplace, shown by figures like Barack Obama, Elton John and Whoopi Goldberg. In this way, the ability to change our name is also the ability to change how we’re perceived. When we are born, our name is the first thing on our birth certificate, when we graduate, it’s our names that are called when we walk across the stage, and when we die, it’s our names that are emboldened at the top of the obituary. While they may hold different meanings across cultural and lingual barriers, names are more than something to doodle about― they’re an important representation of who we are and how we perceive each other.
Sources:
Harari, H., & McDavid, J. W. (1973). Name stereotypes and teachers’ expectations. Journal of Educational Psychology, 65(2), 222–225. https://doi.org/10.1037/h003497
Napierski-Prancl, Michelle. “Brandy, You’re a Fine Name: Popular Music and the Naming of Infant Girls from 1965-1985.” Studies in Popular Culture 38, no. 2 (2016): 41-53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4425959
Social Security, (2020). Top 5 Names in Each of the Last 100 Years. https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/top5names.html.