If you had a different name would your life be different?
How the name-letter effect might be influencing your life?
Your name. Do you love it? Hate it? For most people, it is something they do not get to choose—yet it may subconsciously contribute to many decisions you make throughout your life.
What is the first letter of your name or the beginning sound? Hold that thought in your head. Now, look around the room. Is there something near you that also starts with the letter or sound? What about in your home? Once I started looking for things that were the same letter and sound as my name, I found them everywhere. Around me right now is my girlfriend “Molly”, Money in my wallet, and a mug. And it is not just a coincidence. I first heard about this phenomenon called the name-letter effect while reading a book I highly recommend, Give and Take by Adam Grant. In Give and Take, Adam highlighted a study from 1985 by the Belgian psychologist Jozef Nuttin who discovered the name-letter effect. It is a study that has been replicated dozens of times, involving subjects from over 15 countries using four different alphabets, and it holds across age and gender.
So what is it!?
The name-letter effect is the tendency of people to prefer the letters in their name over other letters in the alphabet.
But it is more than that! The name-letter effect is proof that we are pretty simple creatures. The name-letter study has shown that we humans have an affinity for things that share letters and or sound like our names! Whether subjects are asked to rank all letters of the alphabet, rate each of the letters, choose the letter they prefer out of a set of two, or pick a small set of letters they prefer, on average, people consistently like the letters in their name the most.
And tons of studies and data prove this across various areas of life!
Your name may determine who you marry! A 2004 study by John Jones looked at marital records in search of the role played by name-letter preference in people’s partner selection. The study analyzed data from two databases of marriages in U.S. states and found a correlation between spouses’ surnames, supporting the idea that we find partners with similar names to our own. My name is Marvin. Do you remember earlier how I mentioned my girlfriend’s name was Molly?
It could determine where we choose to live. A study by Pelham, Mirenberg and Jones in 2002 showed a link between our names and the names of the places we choose to live. The study found that we prefer places whose names are ours. Aka, the Name-Letter effect. Researchers found that a disproportionately high number of women named Virginia chose to live in Virginia Beach, for example. A correlation was even found between the first letters of people’s last names and the name of the state in which they resided.
The same study also showed that people are likely to have names related to their occupations, places of birth, etc. It has also shown up in people’s occupations! In that same study, it was shown that people named Dennis disproportionately become Dentists.
But how does the Name Letter Effect exert its influence, and why do we exhibit this preference for letters similar to our own names? One possible explanation is that we are inherently attracted to familiar things, and the letters in our names are among the first symbols we learn to recognize as children. This early exposure may create a subconscious preference for letters that are similar to our own names.
The crazy thing is that we all have no idea that we are doing this! Yet as the data has shown, it affects numerous outcomes in our life. Yes, that is right, something your parents did the day you were born, for me 27 years ago, may have heavily influenced your life and will continue to influence future decisions you will make. To quote the band Drapht, who has an entire song dedicated to the name letter effect.
“I came into this world, and my Ma' thought
I'ma name this little boy Paul
Plain old boring old Paul
And I always thought.
"If I had a different name, would my life be different?”
So that begs the question. If you had a different name, would your life be different? I think the studies prove exactly that! But how can we prove it in our own lives? Well, we could examine our lives and ask ourselves some simple questions; Does my significant other’s name have the same starting sound or initial as mine? Does where I live or where I work have similar letters to my name? But that isn’t quite a science. After thinking for a while, I came up with a somewhat silly way to see if I could prove or disprove if the letters in my name impacted my life by using my Facebook data. My rationale is that if the studies show it is affecting all of those other areas of my life, it must affect the people I have to accept as my “friend.” Baring Facebook is a good distribution of my friends, that is.
It is no secret that there is a lot of controversy surrounding Facebook and the data they collect. But at times, it can be useful! Facebook lets you download and export all your data, which you can find directions to here.
By taking data from a website that has the top 1000 names from the US Census and data from my very own Facebook profile, I have found a way you can directly measure the name letter effect by comparing your friends’ first initials to your own. Below is work I did initially in Excel, but since then, I have actually created a website that has instructions on how you can download and analyze your data! If you would like to do so, please follow the link. Now, Let’s look at what my Facebook data has shown.
There is a lot that could be potentially derived from my data. The frequency of Friends that share my first initial is higher than the average in the US. But does that prove the name-letter effect is affecting what friends I choose?
Despite the subtlety of the Name Letter Effect, its impact should not be underestimated. It is a phenomenon that has been demonstrated consistently in research and has the potential to shape many aspects of our lives in ways that we may not even be aware of. So the next time you find yourself inexplicably drawn to a person, place, or thing that shares your name’s first letter or sound, it may be worth considering whether the Name Letter Effect is at play. Who knows, perhaps a different name really would have led to a different life!