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HelpRe: Some sanity on baby names
in reply to a message by Anneza
That bit about impulse control is not the punchline. It's the stupidest quote in the whole article, IMO. The smart part is the part about the effect of"being raised by parents who would," and I think the father of E made a better, more general punchline point:
"I wouldn't say that names don't matter at all," he says. "But how they matter depends on the context."
I wonder about the supposed initial-letter effect. I mean, they say that if your name starts with C you'll statistically do slightly less well in school than people named A names, or that people with K names statistically strike out more in baseball. I'd like to see how they demonstrated that those findings weren't confounded by other factors, or just achieved by bias in selection of the question and answer. It doesn't seem real. I keep seeing it cited, like it was the gospel or something, and I'm more skeptical each time. The paper was entitled "Moniker Maladies"? Ahem
- mirfak
"I wouldn't say that names don't matter at all," he says. "But how they matter depends on the context."
I wonder about the supposed initial-letter effect. I mean, they say that if your name starts with C you'll statistically do slightly less well in school than people named A names, or that people with K names statistically strike out more in baseball. I'd like to see how they demonstrated that those findings weren't confounded by other factors, or just achieved by bias in selection of the question and answer. It doesn't seem real. I keep seeing it cited, like it was the gospel or something, and I'm more skeptical each time. The paper was entitled "Moniker Maladies"? Ahem
- mirfak
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Replies
Ha.
Growing up I had an unusual name, I had to explain it 24/7 and my impulse control sucked.
Growing up I had an unusual name, I had to explain it 24/7 and my impulse control sucked.
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Even when you have a common name, you still have to explain it. This article is BS in a lot of ways.
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agree
It's so hokey, and nobody should take it seriously.
It's so hokey, and nobody should take it seriously.
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Not to mention the effect names having in application processes (job, college, etc). Society places certain expectations on certain names, it's sadly unavoidable. I've seen it myself in workplaces especially, having taken part in the hiring process a few times and needing to stop my bosses from disregarding certain applications cause of a name alone.
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I believe that those who make the hiring decisions at my workplace must be free of any name prejudice, in that a great number of the newer employees are young African-Americans, the majority of whom have recognizably African-American names.
There have been a few people here who have argued with me that there even is such a thing as a recognizably African-American name, and who have either implied or stated that I'm employing stereotypes and displaying prejudice for even thinking that there is. The last time this happened, I came close to posting all of the recognizably African-American first names of some of my co-workers, along with the fact that when I first saw these names in the work chat, before knowing to whom of the many new employees they belonged, I knew that their bearers were black. Because it just gets to the point that I feel it's insulting my intelligence. I decided not to post it in the interest of not being seen as being too argumentative.
So regardless of the merits of the rest of the article, I'm glad that the author points out "the growing ease with which one can guess whether a person in the US is black or white". Thank you.
There have been a few people here who have argued with me that there even is such a thing as a recognizably African-American name, and who have either implied or stated that I'm employing stereotypes and displaying prejudice for even thinking that there is. The last time this happened, I came close to posting all of the recognizably African-American first names of some of my co-workers, along with the fact that when I first saw these names in the work chat, before knowing to whom of the many new employees they belonged, I knew that their bearers were black. Because it just gets to the point that I feel it's insulting my intelligence. I decided not to post it in the interest of not being seen as being too argumentative.
So regardless of the merits of the rest of the article, I'm glad that the author points out "the growing ease with which one can guess whether a person in the US is black or white". Thank you.
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