What Names Tell Us

Over the course of 20 years as a journalist and author, I've conducted thousands of interviews with people I've never met before, much less seen. From the beginning, I often found myself anticipating what the interview would be like based on the names of my interviewees and on my past experiences with people who had the same names. I expected anyone named Beth to be attractive, friendly, and smart; Carols to be quick and outgoing with mile-a-minute mouths. If your name was Bill, I figured you would be fun to talk to and pretty intelligent. Same thing for guys named Tom. I'd groan at the thought of interviewing anyone named Skip, Eliot, or Sandy, expecting them to be goofballs or airheads; Candi, spelled in any of its various forms, would evoke a similar response.

Names do conjure up certain images and stereotypes, there's no doubt about it. One of my best friends in junior high and high school was a perky blond named Randi who was also one of the sweetest people on earth. I still think of her when I hear the name. Interestingly, most of the women named Randi that I've met since then have been a lot like her. Beth was another childhood friend, and the aforementioned attributes were just some of the reasons why she was the most popular girl in school. Her name remains at the top of my all-time favorites list to this day. Other names and images came from books I've read or movies and television shows that I've watched.

A Good First Impression…Or Not?

More often than not, the first impressions we have of people are strongly influenced by what their names are. I don't think I'll ever meet someone named Beth without thinking positive thoughts. But what if I met someone with all the traits of a Beth who had a different name, one with which I didn't have a positive association? Would I write her off or think negatively of her before she even had a chance to prove me wrong? If Beth were Bertha or even Bessie, would she have been homecoming queen?

Over the years, a number of studies have been done on the correlation between names and images. One of the more recent was conducted by Bruce Lansky, one of North America's leading authors of baby-name books. He commissioned a survey that polled more than 75,000 parents to determine what they believed the most common images were of 1,400 popular names. In The Baby Name Personality Survey, published in 1990, Lansky presented the results of his study, and while he says it's dangerous to jump to conclusions on any name, he also found an amazing level of agreement about what people say they think of when they hear certain names.

As an example, here are some common first names and the images that survey respondents associated with them. See if the traits you assign to these names are the same or different:

From: The Baby Name Personality Survey by Bruce Lansky and Barry Sinrod (Meadowbrook Press, 1990).

The Oprah Phenomenon

Did you notice something else as you went through these names and the traits assigned to them? Many of the images we have of certain names are shaped by influences from mass culture –the books, magazines, and newspapers we read, the movies and television shows we love to watch. Elizabeth Taylor and Raquel Welch are two legendary beauties. Dixie Carter sure seemed like fun as one of the Sugarbaker sisters on Designing Women. Was there ever a dowdier character than Edith Bunker on All in the Family?

The image for Oprah, one of the more uncommon female names, is almost entirely based on our impressions of one person – Oprah Winfrey – who was characterized by respondents to Lansky's survey as aggressive, opinionated, flamboyant, bright, and sensitive. If there wasn't a media star named Oprah, the images this name conjures up would probably be vastly different, if we had them at all.

Bjorn Borg, Brett Favre, and George Brett either are or were top athletes. Steve Allen, Woody Allen, Johnny Carson, and Dudley Moore are all talented comedians. But then there's Edsel. I've never met a funny Edsel, but maybe the name itself is funny enough to have that trait associated with it. And there's Arnie in the nerd category. The only Arnies I can think of are golfer Arnold Palmer and Arnold Becker, the character that actor Corbin Bernsen played on L.A. Law. Neither seem terribly nerdy to me. Maybe the survey respondents had other Arnies in mind, or they thought that golf was a nerdy game.

Clearly, the images associated with certain names can have a significant impact on the one you choose for your baby, which is the main reason why such names as Adolf and Cain are almost never given anymore, and why you probably won't see a great numbers of Monicas, Kenneths, or Lindas entering pre-school in the next few years (William is one of those perennially popular names that always ranks in the top 100, but it could take a dip).

Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Baby Names © 1999 by Sonia Weiss. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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