Names

First Names

• "Why Your Name Matters," The New Yorker, Maria Konnikova (December 19, 2013).

"In 1948, two professors at Harvard University published a study of thirty-three hundred men who had recently graduated, looking at whether their names had any bearing on their academic performance. The men with unusual names, the study found, were more likely to have flunked out or to have exhibited symptoms of psychological neurosis than those with more common names. The Mikes were doing just fine, but the Berriens were having trouble. A rare name, the professors surmised, had a negative psychological effect on its bearer."

"In the 1948 study, the majority of the uncommon names happened to be last names used as first names—a common practice among upper-class white families at the time. Those names, too, served as a signal, but in this case as one of privilege and entitlement—perhaps their unsuccessful bearers thought that they could get by without much work, or that they could expose neuroses that they would otherwise try to hide. "

"A Note on Singularity in Given Names," B. M. Savage &F. L. Wells 271-272 (1948).

" In 2004, the economists Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan created five thousand résumés in response to job ads posted in the classifieds in Chicago and Boston newspapers. Using Massachusetts birth certificates from between 1974 and 1979, Bertrand and Mullainathan determined which names appeared at a high frequency in one race but at a low frequency in another, creating groups of what they termed “white-sounding names” (like Emily Walsh and Greg Baker) and “black-sounding names” (like Lakisha Washington and Jamal Jones). They also created two types of candidates: a higher-quality group, with more experience and a more complete profile, and a lower-quality group, with some obvious gaps in employment or background. They sent two résumés from each qualification group to every employer, one with “black-sounding” name and the other with a “white-sounding” one (a total of four CVs per employer). They found that the “white-sounding” candidates received fifty per cent more callbacks, and that the advantage a résumé with a “white-sounding” name had over a résumé with a “black-sounding” name was roughly equivalent to eight more years of work experience. An average of one of every ten “white” résumés received a callback, versus one of every fifteen “black” résumés. Names, in other words, send signals about who we are and where we come from."

"A Swedish study compared immigrants who had changed their Slavic, Asian, or African names, such as Kovacevic and Mohammed, to more Swedish-sounding, or neutral, ones, like Lindberg and Johnson. The economists Mahmood Arai and Peter Skogman Thoursie, from Stockholm University, found that this kind of name change substantially improved earnings: the immigrants with new names made an average of twenty-six per cent more than those who chose to keep their names."

• "The “name game”: affective and hiring reactions to first names,"John L. Cotton, Bonnie S. O’Neill and Andrea Griffin, Journal of Managerial Psychology, 23 pp. 18-39 (2008)

"Common names were seen as least unique, best liked, and most likely to be hired. Unusual names were seen as most unique, least liked, and least likely to be hired. Russian and African-American names were intermediate in terms of uniqueness, likeability and being hired, significantly different from Common and Unique names, but not significantly different from each other"

"Fryer and Levitt’s (2004) data indicates that not only are these names distinctively African-American, but that among those born in the last two decades, “a distinctly Black name is now a much stronger predictor of socioeconomic status” (p. 801). This study found that African-sounding names tend to be more common among lower-class African-Americans. So names can imply not only race, but also economic class. However, in looking at life outcomes, Fryer and Levitt (2004) found that distinctly African-American names are unrelated to the life outcomes, after including controls for education, education of parents, age of mother, marital status of mother, and other factors. "

"Bertrand and Mullainathan (2003) examined how names influence callbacks for job interviews. These authors sent out resume´s with a variety of African-American and Caucasian-sounding names. Their results indicated that resume´s with African-sounding names received fewer callbacks than the Caucasian names. In addition, a higher-quality resume´ elicited more callbacks with Caucasian names, but the greater quality had no impact on callbacks when paired with an African-American name. This research was repeated and publicized in a 20/20 segment on ABC, where they posted 22 pairs of names with identical resume´s on prominent job websites and found that Caucasian names received more attention than African-American sounding names (Ruppel, 2004)."

"Bertrand and Mullainathan’s (2003) study from labor economics examined job-hiring behavior, but it was not clear whether the effects were entirely due to race. For example, some of the Caucasian names used were Emily, Allison, Kristen, Brendan, Geoffrey, and Brett. Many of these names are not only Caucasian, they also tend to be perceived as above average in success (Mehrabian, 1990). It is possible that the names employed varied not just on race, but also on perceptions of familiarity, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics (Fryer and Levitt, 2004). For example, the African-American names (Latoya, Ebony, and Tremayne) are more unique than the Caucasian names (Jill, Anne, Greg)."

Bertrand, M. and Mullainathan, S. (2003), “Are Emily and Greg more employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A field experiment on labor market discrimination”, NBER Working Paper No. 9873, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.

Fryer, R. and Levitt, S. (2004), “The causes and consequences of distinctively black names”, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 119 No. 3, pp. 767-805.

• "This baby name will be most successful at landing a job," Resume.io.

• "Male graduates named David will hit the jackpot and can expect to rake in £41,617 a year in their chosen field

• Charles, Alex and Robert among favoured male candidate names
• However, employers are less likely to heap praise (and pennies) on male employees with less successful names of Adam, Callum and Connor
• Graduates named Lily take the ladies top spot and can expect to earn £30,821 a year in their chosen field
• Anna, Elizabeth and Sarah among female candidates with more successful names.
• However, employers are less likely to cash-in on female employees named Chloe, Bethany and Chelsea
• 2020 female graduates named Paige stand to earn the least in their chosen field, at £20,190; £10,631 less than colleagues with the successful name of Lily."

• "BORN FOR SUCCESS – THE BABY NAMES MOST LIKELY TO EARN THE BIG BUCK," Asktraders.com.

Name Number of CEO's Average Salary

Michael 7 £42,673.00

Mark 7 £38,663.00 David 7 £28,767.00 John 6 £50,849.00 Steve 5 £42,441.00 Simon 5 £38,149.00 Peter 5 £41,617.00 James 5 £41,250.00 Daniel 5 £42,204.00 Paul 4 £38,826.00

Name Number of CEO's Average Salary

Mary 4 £42,746.00

Robin 2 £45,426.00 Beth 2 £27,843.00 Zandra 1 £28,888.00 Tricia 1 £30,142.00 Teresa 1 £26,894.00 Phoebe 1 £38,888.00 Penny 1 £31,977.00 Pamela 1 £29,476.00 Nancy 1 £33,192.00

• "How to write a CV: How changing your name can boost career success, Stylist.com (2017).

"Those with middle initials (to use the researchers’ example, ‘David F. Clark’) were perceived as smarter, more eloquent, and more qualified than those without (‘David Clark’). Not only that, but they found that using more than one initial (think ‘David F.P.R. Clark’) was more likely to receive glowing reviews."

A recent study by LinkedIn has found that, while men tend to secure the top jobs if they go by a nickname (hey there, Phil and Bob), it’s a very different story for women. In fact, the most common names of female CEOs include Deborah, Cynthia and Carolyn – without a shortened name in sight.

Place Names

• Professor Eugene Volokh says of Kiev:

"In Russian, it's pronounced more or less "Kiev" ("Kee-ehv"), and written in a way that would normally be transliterated "Kiev" in English.

In Ukrainian, it's pronounced more or less "Kyiv" (with the "y" sounding like the "y" in "crypt," though further back in the mouth), and written in a way that would normally be transliterated "Kyiv" in English.

But in English, it has historically been pronounced more or less "Kiev," and written "Kiev," doubtless because it was borrowed into English from Russian.

After all, in English we have our own names for many foreign places. We write and say "Moscow" and not "Moskva," "Russia" and not "Rossiya," "Ukraine" and not "Ookraina," "Florence" and not "Firenze," "Spain" and not "España." Indeed, sometimes our names are far indeed from the original: "Germany" and not "Deutschland," "Albania" and not "Shqiperia," "Georgia" and not "Sakartvelo."

I'd say the same about Turkey, which is the English name for the country that calls itself "Türkiye"—just as "İngiltere" is apparently the Turkish name for the country that calls itself "England." I don't think anyone should expect the Turks to change to saying England; why should we expect English speakers to change to saying "Türkiye"? (Greece, by the way, is apparently "Yunanistan" in Turkish, and "Ellada" or "Ellas" in Greek; again, I don't think either Turkish or English or Greek speakers need to change how they pronounce things.)"