Day 5: What’s in a name

The first thing that surprised me in freakonomics was that you have a higher chance of being likeable with an easy-to-pronounce name. To me that just seems really shallow and I couldn’t see someone liking someone more just based on a name rather than the content of their character.

Another shocking discovery to me is that if your name is closer to the end of the alphabet you are more likely to be an impulse spender possibly because in registers of any sort in school or work, your name is called late. This could lead to you not being used to being first and could make you jump on chances like sales or limited time offers. Personally, i can’t believe something so minor could subconsciously change the way one handles important money.

Thirdly, a typical black name can cause someone to be 33% less likely to be employed than a white man as the employer will see the name on the resume and potentially judge their character. Again, I find this extremely shallow, and I couldn’t understand why one would give a job to someone just because of a white name.

Lastly, it is said that very common upper class names lose their popularity in the high society and they gain popularity in the working class society. This is because rich parents want to name their child something different and unique and some lower class parents want to put their child in the best position of success. I was surprised about this because it showed how parents genuinely think they can propel their kid to success with a name.

Personally i don’t fully believe many of these stories. The only very believable theories are the third and fourth i have mentioned here. There are many others on the article that seem like the researchers are snatching at straws. One cannot expect every name to have the same likelihood of doing something. Also, some theories need to be repeated many times on a much larger scale to ensure the trends do exist.

Personally, I was named Sebastian just because it was the nicest name my mum had heard. She heard it in her time in university in Sweden and since she heard it she wanted it for a son. It has Greek origin although my mum was not aware of that at all. It certainly wasn’t chosen purely for my benefit in life though.