Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Names and individual differences: a systematic review

  • Published:
Current Psychology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

How a name influences its holder has been studied for a long time. This paper labels the fundamental literature in this discipline into three categories: how a name influences its owner’s personality, decision-making, and life outcomes. We also provide suggestions for future studies concerning this topic.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

No data is available for the study.

Notes

  1. These names do not look strange in Asian countries. Examples of famous people include Japanese model, Shira-yuki (White-Snow); Chinese general, Yun-long (Cloud-Dragon) Li; and Chinese actor, Tie-ren (Iron-Man) Zhao.

References

  • Aarts, A. A., Anderson, J. E., Anderson, C. J., Attridge, P. R., Attwood, A. S., Axt, J. R., & Zuni, K. (2015). Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349(6251), aac4716.

  • Albott, W. L., & Bruning, J. L. (1970). Given names: A neglected social variable. The Psychological Record, 20, 527–532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, J. P., & Manuelian, D., P (2005). The ancient Egyptian pyramid texts. Brill.

  • Allen, L. B., Brown, V. J., Dickinson, L. G., & Pratt, K. C. (1941). The relation of family name preferences to their frequency in the culture. Journal of Social Psychology, 28, 19–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, T., & Schmitt, P. R. (1990). Unique first names in male and female psychiatric inpatients. Journal of Social Psychology, 130 6, 835–837.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arthaud, R. L., Hohneck, A. N., et al. (1948). The relation of family name preferences to their frequency in the culture. Journal of Social Psychology, 28, 19–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1948.9921755

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aura, S., & Hess, G. D. (2010). What’s in a name? Economic Inquiry, 48(1), 214–227. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-7295.2008.00171.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Autry, J. W., & Barker, D. G. (1970). Academic correlates of alphabetical order of surname. Journal of School Psychology, 8, 22–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beaudin, A., Kristian, E., Warren, J., & Helgertz, J. (2022). “You’re Not from around Here”: Regional naming and life outcomes. Social Science History, 46(3), 671–691. https://doi.org/10.1017/ssh.2022.7

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Boshier, R. (1968). Self esteem and first names in children. Psychological Reports, 22, 762–762.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brendl, C. M., Chattopadhyay, A., Pelham, B. W., & Carvallo, M. (2005). Name letter branding: Valence transfers when product specific needs are active. Journal of Consumer Research, 32, 405–415.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Busse, T. V., & Seraydarian, L. (1978). The relationships between first name desirability and school readiness, IQ, and school achievement. Psychology in the Schools, 15, 297–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carneiro, P., Lee, S., & Reis, H. (2020). Please call me John: Name choice and the assimilation of immigrants in the United States, 1900–1930. Labour Sconomics, 62, 101778.

  • Chambers, R. N., Boath, E., & Chambers, S. J. (2001). The A to Z of authorship: analysis of influence of initial letter of surname on order of authorship. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 323, 1460–1461.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Chandler, J., Griffin, T. M., & Sorensen, N. (2008). In the “I” of the storm: Shared initials increase disaster donations. Judgment and Decision Making, 3, 404–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charles, M. (2018). Introduction to contemporary psychoanalysis: defining terms and building bridges Retrieved from https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315180120https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315180120. Accessed 9 Sept 2022

  • Coffey, B., & McLaughlin, P. A. (2009a). Do masculine names help female lawyers become judges? Evidence from South Carolina. American Law and Economics Review, 11, 112–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coffey, B., & McLaughlin, P. A. (2009b). From lawyer to judge: Advancement, sex, and name-calling. Sex, and Name-Calling.

  • Coffey, B., & McLaughlin, P. A. (2016). The effect on lawyers income of gender information contained in first names. Review of Law & Economics, 12, 57–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eagleson, O. W. (1946). Students’ reactions to their given-names. Journal of Social Psychology, 23(2), 187.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Efthyvoulou, G. (2008). Alphabet economics: The link between names and reputation. Journal of Socio-Economics, 37, 1266–1285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Einav, L., & Yariv, L. (2006). What’s in a surname? The effects of surname initials on academic success. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20, 175–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, A., & Beechley, R. M. (1954). Emotional disturbance in children with peculiar given names. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 85 2, 337–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fang, Z., & Bian, Y. (2022). Given names change consumption decisions: Evidence from the Female Body Image Market in China. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1944631/v1

  • Finch, J. F., & Cialdini, R. B. (1989). Another indirect tactic of (self-) image management: Boosting. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 15(2), 222–232.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finch, M. E., Kilgren, H., & Pratt, K. C. (1944). The relation of first name preferences to age of judges or to different although overlapping generations. Journal of Social Psychology, 20, 249–264.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ford, M. E., Miura, I. T., & Masters, J. C. (1984). Effects of social stimulus value on academic achievement and social competence: A reconsideration of children’s first-name characteristics. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 1149–1158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gao, G. (2011). Shall I name her “Wisdom” or “Elegance”? Naming in China. Names, 59, 164–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garwood, S. (1976). First-name stereotypes as a factor in self-concept and school achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 68 4, 482–487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garwood S. G., & McDavid J. W. (1974). Ethnic factors in stereotypes of given names. Paper presented at the American Psychological Association meeting, New Orleans, (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 097 994).

  • Harari, H., & Mcdavid, J. W. (1973). Name stereotypes and teachers’ expectations. Journal of Educational Psychology, 65, 222–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartman, A. A. (1958). Name styles in relation to personality. The Journal of General Psychology, 59 2, 289–294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartman, A. A., Nicolay, R. C., & Hurley, J. J. (1968). Unique personal names as a social adjustment factor. Journal of Social Psychology, 75 1, 107–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horne, M. (1986). Potential significance of first names: A review. Psychological Reports, 59, 839–845.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Houston, T. J., & Sumner, F. C. (1948). Measurement of neurotic tendency in women with uncommon given names. The Journal of General Psychology, 39(2), 289–292.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jahoda, G. (1954). A note on Ashanti names and their relationship to personality. British Journal of Psychology, 45 3, 192–195.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jia, F., Li, G., Lu, X., & Xie, S. (2021). CEO given names and corporate green investment. Emerging Markets Review, 48, 100808.

  • Jones, J. T., Pelham, B. W., Mirenberg, M. C., & Hetts, J. J. (2002). Name letter preferences are not merely mere exposure: Implicit egotism as self-regulation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 170–177.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joubert, C. E. (1983). Unusual names and academic achievement. Psychological Reports, 53, 266–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kachersky, L. (2011). Do moniker maladies afflict name letter brands? A dual process theory of name letter branding and avoidance effects. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47, 642–646.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knewtson, H. S., & Sias, R. (2010). Why Susie owns Starbucks: The name letter effect in security selection. Journal of Business Research, 63, 1324–1327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koole, S. L., Pelham, B. W., Spencer, S., & Zanna, M. P. (2002). Motivated social perception: the ninth ontario symposium. In On the nature of implicit self-esteem: the case of the name letter effect. essay, Lawrence Erlbaum.

  • Landman, L. (1974). Recent trends toward unisex: A panel. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 34, 27–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lane, L. (2022). For sale: Baby names, lightly used. Retrieved from. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/04/18/for-sale-baby-names-lightly-used. Accessed 9 Sept 2022

  • Levitt, J. M., & Thelwall, M. A. (2013). Alphabetization and the skewing of first authorship towards last names early in the alphabet. Journal of Informetrics, 7, 575–582.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu, J. G., Liu, X. L., Liao, H., & Wang, L. (2020). Disentangling stereotypes from social reality: Astrological stereotypes and discrimination in China. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(6), 1359.

  • Marszalek, J. M., Barber, C., Kohlhart, J., & Cooper, B. H. (2011). Sample size in psychological research over the past 30 years. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 112(2), 331–348.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McCullough, B. D., & McWilliams, T. P. (2010a). Baseball players with the initial “K” do not strike out more often. Journal of Applied Statistics, 37, 881–891.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCullough, B. D., & McWilliams, T. P. (2011). Students with the initial “A” don’t get better grades. Journal of Research in Personality, 45(3), 340–343.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mcdavid, J. W., & Harari, H. (1966). Stereotyping of names and popularity in grade-school children. Child Development, 37 2, 453–459.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mehrabian, A. (1992). Interrelationships among name desirability, name uniqueness, emotion characteristics connoted by names, and temperament. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22, 1797–1808.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mehrabian, A. (1997). Impressions created by given names. Names: A Journal of Onomastics, 45, 19–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mehrabian, A., & Piercy, M. (1993a). Affective and personality characteristics inferred from length of first names. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 755–758.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mehrabian, A., & Piercy, M. (1993b). Differences in positive and negative connotations of nicknames and given names. Journal of Social Psychology, 133 5, 737–739.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mehrabian, A., & Piercy, M. (1993c). Positive or negative connotations of unconventionally and conventionally spelled names. Journal of Social Psychology, 133, 445–451.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, L. D., & Simmons, J. P. (2007). Moniker Maladies: When names sabotage success. SEIN Social Impacts of Business eJournal.

  • Nelson, S. D. (1977). First-name stereotypes and expected academic achievement of students. Psychological Reports, 41, 1343–1344.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nuttin, J. M. (1985). Narcissism beyond Gestalt and awareness: The name letter effect. European Journal of Social Psychology, 15, 353–361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nuttin, J. M. (1987). Affective consequences of mere ownership: The name letter effect in twelve European languages. European Journal of Social Psychology, 17, 381–402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pelham, B. W., Carvallo, M., DeHart, T., & Jones, J. T. (2003). Assessing the validity of implicit egotism: a reply to Gallucci (2003). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(5), 800–807. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.5.800

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pelham, B. W., & Mauricio, C. (2015). When tex and tess carpenter build houses in Texas: Moderators of implicit egotism. Self and Identity, 14, 692–723.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pelham, B. W., Mirenberg, M. C., & Jones, J. T. (2002a). Implicit egotism and major life decisions.

  • Pelham, B. W., Mirenberg, M. C., & Jones, J. T. (2002b). Why Susie sells seashells by the seashore: implicit egotism and major life decisions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(4), 469–487.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • R. F. H, a. t. c. (1614). The Bible. Retrieved from http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z3988-2003&res_id=xri:eebo&rft_val_fmt=&rft_id=xri:eebo:image:23662. Accessed 9 Sept 2022

  • Savage, B. M., & Wells, F. L. (1948). A note on singularity in given names. Journal of Social Psychology, 27(2), 271.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schonberg, W. B., & Murphy, D. M. (1974). The relationship between the uniqueness of a given name and personality. Journal of Social Psychology, 93 1, 147–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sheppard, D. (1963). Characteristics associated with Christian names. British Journal of Psychology, 54, 167–174.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shevlin, M., & Davies, M. N. O. (1997). Alphabetical listing and citation rates. Nature, 388, 14–14.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sidhu, D. M., Deschamps, K., Bourdage, J. S., & Pexman, P. M. (2019). Does the name say it all? Investigating phoneme-personality sound symbolism in first names. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 148(9), 1595.

  • Urbatsch, R. (2014). Alphabetical effects on political careers. Names, 62, 229–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Praag, C. M., & van Praag, B. M. S. (2008). The benefits of being economics professor A (rather than z). Economica, 75(300), 782–796. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0335.2007.00653.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walton, W. E. (1937). The affective value of first names. Journal of Applied Psychology, 21(4), 396.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Willis, F. N. J., Willis, L. A., & Gier, J. A. (1982). Given names, social class, and professional achievement. Psychological Reports, 51, 543–549.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yuret, T. (2016). Does alphabetization significantly affect academic careers? Scientometrics, 108, 1603–1619.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yuret, T. (2019). A longitudinal analysis of the effect of alphabetization on academic careers. Data and Information Management, 3, 72–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, N., & Li, J. (2020). Do neutral names have an influence on scientists’ research impact. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 57(1), e259.

  • Zwebner, Y., Sellier, A. L., Rosenfeld, N., Goldenberg, J., & Mayo, R. (2017). We look like our names: The manifestation of name stereotypes in facial appearance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 112, 527–554.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zweigenhaft, R. L. (1977). The other side of unusual first names. Journal of Social Psychology, 103, 291–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zweigenhaft, R. L. (1983). Unusual first names: A positive outlook. Names, 31(4), 258–270. https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1983.31.4.258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zweigenhaft, R. L., Hayes, K. N., & Haagen, C. H. (1980). The psychological impact of names. Journal of Social Psychology, 110, 203–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economic Sciences, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA, USA

    Zhou Fang

  2. Department of Economics and Statistics, California State University, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Zhou Fang

Authors
  1. Zhou Fang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhou Fang.

Ethics declarations

Research involving human participants and/or animals

No human/animal subject is involved in the study.

Conflict of interest

There is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fang, Z. Names and individual differences: a systematic review. Curr Psychol 42, 28160–28166 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03926-x

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-022-03926-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation