The Name Game

What's in a name? The secret to your success.

A study published in the Journal of Social Psychology found
that people tend to predict career success based on how well a person's
name matches the gender associated with their vocation. Ohio University
researchers asked participants to read descriptions of
people—including their name and occupation—and found that they deemed
women with a more feminine name such as Emma more likely to be successful in
traditional female occupations such as nursing, while men with a more
masculine name like Hank were expected to excel at jobs like
plumbing—traditionally considered a male career.

The results suggest that people with names that don't "fit" their
desired career might have more difficulty finding work than equally
qualified colleagues with more fitting names. This surprised James
Bruning, Ph.D., an Ohio University psychology professor and the study's lead author.
"We thought that with today's political correctness, everybody would be
assumed to be able to do everything equally well—but we just didn't find
that." He suggests that parents "be aware of the name they give [because
it] probably does reflect their expectations for the child."