Names Affect Appearance and Personality

How Our Name Affects Our Personality, Appearance and Who We Become

The name we are given can influence our future fate.

Shakespeare said that a Rose by any other name would not smell as sweet. But there’s evidence that suggests that he was wrong in this assertion.

Parents often give a great deal of thought to what name they will give their baby. Some parents want unique names that will distinguish their child while others choose names that are particularly feminine or masculine.

Sometimes parents may name for a loved one which may provide guidelines for choosing the name. In my case, I was named for two uncles who had died before I was born. Because of this, my parents wanted my first name to start with an N and my middle name to start with a C. My father wanted Nancy for my first name while my mother wanted Natalie. My father’s main opposition to the name Natalie was it was too “big” while my mother believed I’d grow into it. Apparently, I did! My middle name wasn’t so uncommon but they decided to spell it differently — Caryl.

A person’s name has been shown to be associated with a number of later characteristics. In eight studies conducted in two different countries, researchers found that a person’s name was related to what they later looked like. People were able to pick the right name for strangers more accurately than what would result from chance.

In these studies, there appeared that there were common perceptions of how a person with a certain name would look. This indicates that we have an idea of what is the“right” name for a certain face, which can be determined even in the absence of meeting or observing them. As it’s also been shown that names given at birth aren’t related to physical appearance at this time, this suggests that our name influences what we later come to look like rather than our appearance affecting the name we’re given.

Names may affect appearance on several levels. It could be the relationship serves as a type of self fulfilling prophecy related to our shared ideas of what names represent about a person. People with certain names may develop a specific appearance by adapting what they believe to be expected behavior, facial expressions, looks, stance, posture, walk etc. Others may also serve to cue these things through their expectations.

These relationships between our own name related expectations and the messages we receive from others continue to affect us throughout our lifetime. This results in people with the same name coming to develop a similar physical appearance and behavior.

For example, say you are a woman named Jasmine. Since this a floral name, social coding may lead you to act in a feminine manner, to smile demurely, wear flowing dresses, grow your hair long, and speak softly. You may behave in a way that you perceive to be easy going, non-confrontational, kindhearted and “sweet.”

If you are a woman who has a name that might be unisex or given more often to men than women, you might be more outgoing, assertive, and feel freer to push the boundaries of gender stereotypes. These characteristics may affect what subjects in school you favor, what hobbies you take up and what career you pursue.

In addition to appearance, our names are associated with our personality, character, the way we act and our psychological adjustment. As far back as 1948, studies indicated that the names we are given affect how we perform later in life. One study looked at 3300 men who had or should have recently graduated from college to see if their names were associated with their academic performance.

Those men with unusual names, were found to be more likely to have flunked out and to have experienced psychological problems than those with common names. It was concluded that rare names could negatively affect a person’s psychological and academic adaptation. Common names may serve to help make the person feel like they fit in better, leading to better overall adjustment.

Subsequent research has shown that our given names can affect our grades in school, what profession we choose, where we live geographically, whom we marry, what we choose to invest in financially, whether we’re accepted to certain colleges or are hired for particular jobs, and how well we work in group settings. Our names can even determine whether we give money to charity, for example contributing to disaster victims.

Take Away

The name given to us at birth is the first way we are identified socially. Each name has certain characteristics, behaviors, and physical features that are associated with it. This means that people who have similar characteristics can be identified by others with an identifiable name.

While there are trends in names at different times or eras, as these shifts occur, so do our common ideas of what aspects of a person each name represents. This suggests that we can quickly develop shared conceptualizations of what newly trending names represent in terms of physical appearance, personality and behavior.

These commonalities in our expectations affect us based on how we perceive our name. The way others others treat us based on their expectations regarding our name also affect us as we will unconsciously try to live up to these expectations in a type of self-fulfilling prophecy.

Natalie C. Frank, has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. She specializes in Pediatric Psychology and Behavioral Medicine.

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