Baby Name Central

Some people believe that your name can shape your destiny and predetermine the course of events in your life. Whether or not this is true is debatable. Is there a significance or hidden power in each name that can help parents pick a "better" one for their baby? Does what you call your baby have a bearing on her future job, which school she attends, how she fits in with her peers?

Boy names linked with future success and terms such as luxury, winning, nobility, prosperity, royalty, and wealth include:

* Art
* Christian
* Dale
* Edward
* Ned
* Otto
* Ren
* Royce
* Theodore/Ted
* Winston

For Girls:
* Ann
* Deborah
* Judith
* Laura
* Mercedes
* Tiffany
* Tori
* Velvet
* Veronica
* Victoria

Our names make statements about us to others, says Laura Wattenberg, author of "The Baby Name Wizard" (www.thebabynamewizard.com). People often have a preconceived notion about you before you even meet, based on what you're called.

"Your name sends out signals to other people," says Wattenberg. "So even if being named Bruno doesn't make you want to be an offensive lineman, someone else hearing the name forms this impression of you in their mind." She says this is especially true in today's modern technological world where very often your name is the only impression a person has of you.

Think about talking to someone on the phone--you usually have an idea of what the other person looks like or should look like. What does the name Bob conjure up? A round face, nice guy, hard worker? Brians, Tims, and Toms are thought to be slim; Ricks are long-faced with angular features. People think Roberts are honest. This effect of stereotyping for different names must have social and political implications.

Wattenberg points out that our names are very much a calling card or our "brand," so to speak. "It's worth thinking about what that name can convey," she adds, "and perhaps avoiding names that call up one very specific image that can pigeonhole the child into one path. People gravitate toward places and professions that are similar to their names, however, it's a pretty small effect compared to everything else in your life," she says.

An Ohio University study released in June 2000 in the Journal of Social Psychology (www.heldref.org/jsp.php) suggests that people subconsciously predict career success for those with names that more closely match the gender stereotype associated with a profession. Study participants forecasted that women with more feminine names such as Emma, Marta, Irma, and Winifred would more likely have successful careers if they pursued traditional female occupations such as nurse, hair stylist, or interior decorator. Men with more masculine names like Howard, Boris, Hank, and Bruno were expected to be successful with traditional male careers such as plumber, truck driver, or electrician, according to the research.

Those whose names least matched the occupation stereotypes might have a harder time landing particular jobs, the study indicated. A woman named Garret pursing a job in daycare or a man named Hank contemplating a career as a hair stylist, for example, might be searching for that dream position longer than an Emma planning to be a flight attendant or a Bruno seeking construction work.

The names chosen for the study, though perhaps unusual or unpopular today, were chosen to minimize other influences on the predictions of success. Lead researchers suspected that if the occupation study had used more popular or trendier names, the connection between name gender, job stereotype, and career success would have been even more pronounced.

"There are so many other factors that affect your success," says Roy Feinson, artist, writer, and graphic software engineer for Doubletake Images in Washington, D.C. (www.doubletakeimages.com), and author of "The Secret Universe of Names: The Dynamic Interplay of Names & Destiny." "There is double reinforcement in that part of this name-success thing is caused by the fact that parents who choose a name for their child are doing so because they themselves want to live through their children." So if mother gives her daughter the name Barbie, she's really choosing to raise her like what her version of a Barbie is. A name can predispose people to think of a person in a certain way, and this prejudgment can affect us as we age and find our place in society.

"Names are fun," Feinson adds. "But the real test is looking at what corporations do. They spend major money -- we're talking millions of dollars a year -- naming their products and companies. They wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't important."