What You Name Your Kids Might Determine Their Popularity

It's All in a Name

Have you ever met an UN-popular Britney, Catherine, Jessica, or Tiffany? How about a nerdy Jason, Alex, Matt, or Cody? It doesn't matter how you spell the name or whether a nickname is thrown about in the mix somewhere, these names just SCREAM cheerleader and jock, don't they?

How does this work?

I tested the name popularity theory all throughout High School. What I discovered was that every person who acquired a widely-known name like the ones listed above and others (you're probably thinking of a few right now, aren't you?) were more popular as a whole than those who had names that were either less known or less used. It seems as though we are subconsciously drawn to people who have names we hear used more often, and less attracted to people with names we don't use or hear on as often a basis.

Think of this if you don't believe me- ever heard of a cheerleader named Ruth? Martha? Betty? Nah, didn't think so. But Leslie, Kelly, and Andrea made the cut, right? It seems all too clear that we are only as popular as the name we are given at birth.

Take Emma, for example. This name is riding right up to the top of the list of popular kid names, and every Emma I have ever met has had a bubbly personality that tells me they will be well-known and liked throughout their High School lives. Sorry, Abby, Liz, and Rebecca. Better luck in a hundred years. Emma, Hannah, and Isobel are taking center stage.

Don't even get me started on boy names. Seems every Jason, Max, Michael, and Aaron I've ever met have had sports scholarship written all over their faces. Not so for Avery, Ted, and George. Sounds like a very odd and disturbingly true pattern, doesn't it? Not that we can help it, we are simply drawn as human beings to the same things other human beings are drawn to. If we shun a name as geeky, nerdy, or uncool, we assume the individual given that particular name is also that way. Same can be said for the names we deem of-the-moment, cool, and always fashionable. The people lucky enough to have those names since birth seem to carry with them a right of passage through life.