Hello my name is ___________.
One day at work, I overheard some parents discussing in the lobby that names can determine how the child will be when they grow up. I’d hear things like “Jacob tends to be a nice boy” and things like “Jake tends to be bad” (apparently they did not realize that both are exactly the same names).
This got me wondering if there are any tests created to assess whether a given name can have an impact on personality. The answer is no — at least not really. The closest I got to an actual answer was with a study done with the name Brady affecting the amount of health issues Brady would have. The researchers used the term Nominative Determinism to describe this theory and they actually found a correlation — not causation — between the two (Keaney et al. 2013). However, considering this is not a psychological study, I looked deeper and found a personality quiz entitled “What should your name REALLY be?”.
My name should REALLY be Teshi, because according to my answers I am full of laughter. The test has five scenario-type questions dealing with very important issues such as preparing for quizzes and partying vs. grieving. Needless to say, there is absolutely no internal consistency; none of those test items are related in any way. There are also too few questions to determine any kind of personality traits from, and I am sure the names are chosen at random and very subjectively. Although the test may be reliable and yield the same results every time, it most definitely is not valid.
“Whoever created this quiz should REALLY be called Britta
because she Britta’d the test somehow.” — Me
I realize that the test is meant to be fun, but I am upset that there aren't any stronger and more valid tests out there. I also realize that it may be very difficult to determine how a name can affect personality, and perhaps there is a mediating factor, such as stereotypes and prejudices, that can also come into play. It is an interesting theory that I believe should be looked into, at least to disprove its existence so that I can tell the parents they’re being silly.
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