Choosing a name is one of the first few important decisions that parents have to make about their children, and also one of the earliest instances of their influence upon their future. Making this choice is rather difficult and it comes with assuming the responsibility of making an impact on someone’s personality, either without realizing how, or consciously and deliberately, depending on the particular culture and traditions.
But are names really that crucial in the mosaic of characteristics that we develop from childhood? Some evidence suggests that names can truly encode a few personality traits that lie in the subconscious, and they can create assumptions in their surroundings based both on their origins, their cultural and social background, and personal experience or even the way they sound. In this article, we will attempt to find ways in which names can be connected to personality, and maybe this might be a good opportunity for us to reevaluate our own names as well, based on all the ways they could have influenced us throughout our lives.
Ordinary or Not?
Names can be trendy or old-fashioned too, and they can change from one category into the opposite very easily from one generation to the other. There are also names that have never been trendy in a culture, since they are too unusual for general use at any time. Be it the case of any generation, the commonality of names also bears meaning and underlying interpretational value, so here we will look at the benefits and drawbacks of both usual and unusual names.
Firstly, common names are familiar to everyone, and thus they might help those who have them to integrate more easily into new environments and to find common ground with members of foreign communities. Moreover, common names in a culture are often those which have many variants in other languages as well, like David or Sophia, so the benefits mentioned above might work more easily in the case of intercultural communication too, since they make someone look approachable and friendly. People might automatically feel a bond with another person with the same name, so popular names are an easy way to get friends without making much effort during the first impression part of getting to know others.
On the other hand, people who have usual names might have a slightly harder time emphasizing their uniqueness. Names are labels that help to form first impressions and ordinary names can suggest that the person is not much different from any other people who also have their name. We don’t consciously assume that these people are ordinary, but unfortunately the tendency to make prejudices based on unreasonable aspects is always there when it comes to meeting new people, this is why people with these names often choose to distinguish themselves from the others in one way or another. Nicknames, for example, are an efficient way to make up for the commonness of a name, and they can be assigned to a person by their friends or chosen by themselves.
Then there’s the other side of the spectrum, where unusual, weird, and unconventional names stand. These can either be names from a foreign language that a person’s environment is not familiar with, or some others that parents invented themselves, but they can also simply be names not in use today because they are very old or too special to become widely used. Atypical names make people assume that someone is outstanding, with a unique personality, and interesting background conditions. Special names are beneficial because they make people look unique, and this approach gives them confidence, which in most cases leads to success. These people are more likely to pursue unique careers, they get the courage to have unconventional ideas, and their personal brand develops more easily with a name that doesn’t get lost between all the others.
On the other hand, uniqueness can not only lead to success, sometimes people who are perceived as unique have a hard time fitting into communities, and thus they become excluded and as a consequence they develop anxiety. Difficulty with being accepted in a community leads to self-consciousness which might draw a mark on someone’s personality as well. Differences attract attention, and it depends highly on the situation and the person’s character whether this attention is used for the benefit of someone or it becomes a burden.
The Music of Names
There’s a very interesting linguistic effect of sounds which is common in most languages where the same collection of sounds exists. This is the phenomenon where we associate shapes, textures, colors or all kinds of different tendencies to sounds. We hear a word and it not only denotes the given piece of reality, but the sounds compressed in it suggest another layer of meaning we are mostly unaware of, except when paying special attention to it. Take the words ‘Bouba’ and ‘Kiki’, one of the traditional examples for analyzing sound symbolism. These words do not have any meaning of their own, so the experiments about their effects are more accurate. We have to use these words to name two shapes, one of them round and the other one spiky. Most people will pair ‘Bouba’ with the round shape and ‘Kiki’ with the spiky one, simply because of the associations we make based on the sounds they contain.
Along this analogy, names also have music, and this music influences our impressions about a person on a high level. Names that contain round sounds project the image of an adaptable personality, someone who is very sociable, funny and easy-going. On the other hand, sharper names give out the impression that their bearer is more confident, sarcastic and determined. Impressions made based on how words sound can be extended to the concept of gender too, where round sounds are associated with conventionally female qualities and sharp ones are connected to conventionally male qualities. Experiments in this sense suggest the meaningful difference between words that contain sonorants (like m, l, and n) and those that contain voiceless stops (like t, k and p). Names like Katie or Jack that contain voiceless stops are generally considered more extroverted and those having sonorants in them, like Lauren and Molly are perceived as more friendly. We associate sounds with particular emotional contexts, and when hearing someone’s name for the first time, these associations emerge universally, remaining usually unnoticed.
Deliberate Influence
In many cultures, especially those in which ancient tradition are still cherished and practiced, people use names as a deliberate way of influencing the future of a child. They choose their names carefully so it describes them, the circumstances of their birth or the qualities their parents want them to develop.
In Zulu culture, for example, babies are named before their birth, following a shared agreement of the extended family. Their given names are often inspired by ancestors who are admired and commemorated, or they denote the family’s expectations and encouragements for the baby. This way, it is very likely that they will grow up in the same spirit as their name suggests, developing personality traits that were assigned to them even before their birth. Examples of Zulu names of the kind are: Lungani (“You all be good/kind”), Mandla (“strength/power”) and Thalente (“talent”).
In some regions of India, people are given a birth name based on their horoscope, but as they mature, their official given name changes. These names based on the horoscope are chosen intentionally with a specific meaning, so they have beneficial influence upon the life path of the child. Birth names are usually provided by an astrologer, who chooses the letter a name should begin with, which guides the choice of names for the family. Many children are given three names in certain parts of India, as a part of religious teaching. Consequently, all these different beliefs conducting the naming procedure certainly have a meaning in the way a child is raised and they might also have an influence on their personalities. Indian names that refer to personality traits are for example Anika (graceful, sweet face), Gauravi (polite) and Aarav (peaceful, wisdom).
In Inuit society, names are a way to connect with ancestors, traditions and cultural identity. Names are passed down from one generation to the other as a commemoration of every family member that has held that name, since according to their beliefs, no one really dies until someone in the family has their name. They also think that children can share personality traits and even physical appearance with their namesakes. Examples for Inuit names denoting personality traits are: Amaqjuaq (“the strong one”), Taliriktug (“strong arm”) and Yura (“beautiful”).
Our names hold information about our cultural background, social status, nationality or in some cases, personality as well, as we’ve seen in all the instances above. In conclusion, names have meaning whether we acknowledge it or not, and many aspects that influence other people’s perceptions about us are not for us to control, but rather based on the choice our parents took at our birth. Of course, first impressions are not always accurate and we have to take them with a pinch of salt, so those with names they don’t really like shouldn’t panic either, a name is just a tiny bit of the whole constellation of a person.
