When considering a baby’s name, most parents will consider how it sounds, whether they like it or not, whether their child may get teased with it and if it goes with their surname. But do they really give much thought to how it might shape your child’s personality or influence their life?
Well perhaps we should, as although there is not conclusive evidence that we are shaped by our names, some studies show that a name can affect a person’s self confidence, personality attributes and more.
This research states that boys with girly sounding names are more likely to misbehave in school. This could be to do with teasing from their peers, or feeling slightly ‘outside’ the social norm, so acting up to gain attention or to fit in. Boys with unisex names such as Riley, Ashley, Kylie, Jo/e and Jody were more likely to misbehave if there was a girl in the class who shared their name.
School Days
Strangely enough, girls with unisex sounding names such as Alex and Taylor were more likely to chose traditionally ‘male dominated’ subjects at school such as math and science, while girls with extremely feminine sounding names like Isabella and Olivia were more likely to choose a humanities subject. This is in no way a bad thing, but is an interesting occurrence.
Researchers believe that even parents react differently to their children according to their given name, whether they realize it or not. For example, they may treat a child who they have named Lily differently to another daughter they have named Toni, because subconsciously they may have different expectations.
Expectations
Expectations are the main reason for why somebody may end up being shaped by their name. Names have certain associations and expectations and if these expectations are expressed, subconsciously or not, to a child then they will generally live up to them. For example, certain names may be attributed to being more popular amongst lower income families than other ‘posh’ sounding names.
In the same study as above, teachers were found to react differently and have lower expectations for the children with names popular in lower income families. Because a child will typically meet these lower expectations, they may do worse in school just because of their given name.
There is also a link to self-esteem and names. People who like their name as a child and adult generally have higher self esteem than those who dislike their name. However this is a hard barrier to overcome when choosing a name for your baby, as there’s no way of knowing whether they will like it or not. The safest bet is not to choose something too crazy and out-there, although your child may like to be unique, so even that isn’t 100% effective in ensuring your child will like their name.
Being Too Quirky?
That brings us onto the subject on uniqueness in names. Is it better to name your child a unique name or something more traditional? Well, studies show that children with very uncommon names generally try other ways of standing out, too. This is more likely to be linked with how they are brought up than their name choice, however. A parent who prefers a unique, different names is more likely to encourage individuality and teach in a different way to a parent who chooses a traditional name for their child, who may encourage ‘fitting in’ more.
There is research to suggest that children with ‘misspelled’ variants of a traditional name might also have problems with spelling later on in life. This is because if a child is constantly being ‘corrected’ for the way they spell their name, they may develop issues around spelling and self-confidence.
To sum up, your child’s name could affect your child’s life in many ways! However, most of this is because of other people’s expectations of them, so if you make sure you treat all your children equally no matter what type of name they have, that should reduce the chance of their name affecting them negatively. Then you just have to try and chose a name you think they will like!
About the author: Rosanne Moulding is interested in baby names and how they can change your child.