What’s in a name?
Posted Jan 5, 2012 06:29:10 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – Who hasn’t looked up their name to see what it means? And what parent hasn’t agonized over the naming of their baby, putting the initials together to see if it’s an inappropriate acronym and pondering what the nick-name might be.
Well, now there may be an even greater worry. A new study shows saddling a child with a particular name can lead to bad relationships, low self-esteem, and poor health.
The study comes out of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science and says what it terms as “unfortunate” first names, can bring about negative reactions from strangers and that can have a major negative impact on life. The study shows our associations are partly to blame — whether they come from celebrities or personal history.
But some people in Ottawa said personality can help someone overcome the negative reaction.
“Everybody loves me, I’m a great person, I’ve got a great personality and I’m a lot of fun,” said Juanita whose father named her after a song he heard on the radio the day she was born.
“I think it just depends on… like how you make friends and stuff, you know. Like, my name’s Howe, you don’t hear of many Howe’s here in Ottawa or anywhere else, right? So that’s how people remember me from high school,” said Howe who added it wouldn’t matter if you were called “Balloon” so long as you own the name.
Others disagree, saying the names mean something.
“There are some names that just don’t work,” said Jean who couldn’t pin-point why or think of an example.
“My son’s called Richard, and my wife’s son is Richard, and they’re both hyper so the name has something to do with it,” said Jean-Claude.
And while first names alone may make a difference, this reporter has seen the negative effects of being called “Justin Case” and “Penny Nickel.”
