Baby Name Stereotypes

Stereotypes of Baby Names

Consciously or unconsciously, we all have private pictures of the people that answer to certain names. Jackie could be sophisticated and beautiful like Jackie Kennedy, or fat and funny like Jackie Gleason. These pictures come from personal experience as well as images absorbed from the mass media and therefore may conflict in interesting ways.

Over the years researchers have been fascinated by the "real" meanings of names and their effect on their bearers. Studies tend to show that people actually agree on the characteristics of each baby name's characteristics.

If people think of Mallory as cute and likable, does that influence a girl named Mallory to become cute and likable? Experts agree that names don't guarantee instant success or condemn people to certain failure, but they do affect self images, influence relationships with others, and help (or hinder) sucess in work and school.

In San Diego research suggested that average essays written by Davids, Michaels, Karens, and Lisas got better grades than essays written by Elmers, Huberts, Adelles, and Berthas. The reason? Teachers expect children with popular names to do better, and thus they assigned higher grades to those kids in a self fulfilling prophecy.

The name you select for your baby is likely to be that child's label for a lifetime. It is important to consider how that name is going to be perceived by others before making your final choice.

by Bruce Lansky

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