Does naming a child after a famous figure have any effect on their life, positive or negative?

January 22, 2009 3:02 AM

Does naming a child after a famous figure have any effect on their life, positive or negative?

With all of the tiny Barack Obamas and Michelle Obamas who are popping out around the world, I wondered whether there was any evidence (anecdotal or otherwise) that being named after a famous figure has an effect on the child's life, either positive or negative. This would be in terms of their success, career choice, happiness, or anything else.

I tried Googling for this in the vain hope someone might have published a study, but I couldn't find anything, so this might be difficult to answer. All I found on AskMeFi was someone commenting that his family members who had been named after famous Presidents had hated it and changed their names.

(Also, I'm talking here about famous figures who are widely respected - not the poor Adolf Hitler kid.)

Can the hivemind help me?

posted by Kirn to science & nature (26 comments total)

Scarred me for life. /jk
I was given the same name as a somewhat famous person here in Australia (unintentionally, so my parents say, although I'm not so sure).
My namesake has been dead for going on twenty years now, but still not a day goes by that it's not remarked upon by someone.
It does wear thin after a while.
posted by Duke999R at 3:31 AM on January 22

I think it really depends on where in the world you are. Like, say, in Brazil it is really very common for people to be named after a distinguished person. There are loads of "Washington"s there, so it's so normal people don't even think about it. I'm sure there will be plenty of "Obama"s too, and I'm pretty sure no one will give it a second thought. There are, however, some seriously disturbing names in Brazil, where, like in the US, you can name your kid whatever you want.

Here in Portugal, you have a list of authorized names you must follow, so no Obamas for us. That said, Cristiano Ronaldo? "Ronaldo" is for "Ronald". As in "Reagan". Turned out pretty well for him.
posted by neblina_matinal at 4:10 AM on January 22

Here's a study that's not on the same point but is about the effects of having a less desirable vs. more desirable first name. And this NYT article talks about the psychological effects of having a first name that's typically associated with the other gender.

Both of those studies say the effect was weak to nonexistent. In the first study, the undesirable name had no effect as long as people were seeing the person's face. As far as the gender question from the 2nd link: "Researchers have studied men with cross-gender names like Leslie. They haven’t found anything negative — no psychological or social problems — or any correlations with either masculinity or effeminacy."

So maybe the whole idea that your first name dramatically affects your life is wrong.
posted by Jaltcoh at 4:33 AM on January 22

I was accidentally named after a major porn star. I used to be embarrassed by the smirks and giggles that occurred when I was introduced. I've even had high school teachers and college profs make snide remarks when calling role on the first day of class, which was especially mortifying. More recently, a cashier at Lowe's read my name from my credit card, turned red, lost her ability to operate the cash register and had to walk away for a moment to compose herself. Thankfully the star in question has been dead long enough now that I only run into these situations a couple of times a year. No lasting damage has been done, and at times it's even a handy icebreaker.
posted by jon1270 at 4:36 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]

We're about to have our second child (a boy) and I had at one time been really into using the name Judas - it's just a great SOUNDING name and means something along the lines of "the praised one". But as much as I like it, there's really no escaping the fact that Judas is one of the most disliked people in history and there's no doubt that people would react adversely.

And then there's Adolph Hitler Campbell and his sisters who were recently removed from their home...

Yeah, I think it would affect you.
posted by speeb at 4:43 AM on January 22

Jon, your domain name isn't exactly countering the image. :)

Also, as Speeb says, this certainly suggests famous names can have an impact.

If it's a famous person, it seems to me a much safer bet to pick one whose place in history is well established, like 200+ years ago.
posted by rokusan at 4:52 AM on January 22

I did a bit of primary school in Spain, following my parents for work. I had one teacher there who was Don Adolfo, another who was Don Benito.
They were both about the right age for the names, but seemed normal enough. It was pretty common, and apparently there were lots of kids on the other side who were called Lenín or Carlos Marx, or variations.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:03 AM on January 22

For every George Washington Carver, there's an Adolph Hitler Campbell.

That said, while the name itself might not mean much, someone who's likely to name their child after a famous and great figure is likely someone who would instill in their child the values of that person. A child named Thomas Jefferson is more likely than most to have a parent who teaches them the values of liberty and justice, and more likely to feel inspired and compelled toward doing right.

I think it's not a direct causation, but rather a correlation where the parent or parents are the common link. Good parents definitely have a positive effect on children, regardless of the name given.
posted by explosion at 5:04 AM on January 22

People with the middle name "Wayne", including "John Wayne" show up in News of the Weird frequently enough that they have their own category; Chuck Shepherd (who compiles the news reports) speculates: "Before anyone asks me, I will answer: No, I have no idea whether the number of middle-named Wayne murderers is statistically significant. I suspect that aggressive-personality fathers during the 1950s and 1960s did in fact hopefully and disproportionately name their boys after that era's icon of ruggedness, John Wayne. Beyond that, I dare not venture."
posted by TedW at 5:06 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]

There's an interesting chapter on this in Freakonomics. Names like "shithead" (pronounced Sha-tee-AD) and "Winner" and "Loser". Funny stuff. I think the general conclusion was that no, names are not a causal effect for future life prospects.
posted by Grither at 5:19 AM on January 22

There was a doctor who lived near my grandparents in Chennai, India who gloried in the name of Isaac Newton Rajkumar. I could never pass that sign without wondering what his parents were thinking. Still, I guess it does make him easy to remember which might be a useful thing for a doctor trying to build up his practice.
posted by peacheater at 5:41 AM on January 22

I have a name that in some parts of the world might be as reviled as "Adolf Hitler". Fortunately, it's also a very common combination of names in other parts of the world, so it's only history buffs in the US (where my first name is less common) who notice, and they tend to find it amusing. Also, I wasn't actually named after the guy. Just saying.
posted by spaceman_spiff at 6:05 AM on January 22

My grandfather's parents named him William Howard Taft. (Their family name was Taft.) He hated it and called himself Howard.

My wife's dad's name was Theodore Roosevelt. He called himself Bill.
posted by grumblebee at 6:27 AM on January 22

I went to school with a Stephen King, who absolutely hated it, and a Burt Reynolds, who would cringe from time to time when someone made a joke, but didn't seem THAT bothered by it.

On the other hand, I worked with a Michelle Pfeiffer who didn't change her name when she got married. She actually found it useful in business because people always remembered her name. I also worked with a John Holmes. Sure, he could have gone by Jack or Jonathan, but he didn't. I suspect he enjoyed the awkward pauses when he introduced himself.
posted by ValkoSipuliSuola at 7:18 AM on January 22

When you say, "being named after a famous figure," what do you mean exactly?

I think what you mean is to choose a first name, like "Barack," that we would now associate nearly automatically with a famous figure who is generally positively viewed. (You tried to ward off the "Hitler" point, but not wholly successfully. A lesser example is all the little girls named "Paris.") At most, you are talking about first and middle names -- e.g., "Barack Obama Mnestra." You are not talking about circumstances where someone shares the entire name of the famous person (like "John Wayne" or "Burt Reynolds"), which depends upon a coincidence of surnames or an actively deranged parent, and is in any event probably so infrequent as to defy study. Correct?

Even so, I am sure the answer depends on the particular degree of collective reverence for the person in question, how uncommon the name was originally and how common it eventually becomes, etc. And I am sure it is hard to distinguish in effect from those who were already given the name "Barack," though they may be at pains to explain that fact their entire life (or to conceal it).
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 7:31 AM on January 22

Probably not the sort of historically significant famous figure you're talking about, but I know a John McLean (different spelling but same pronunciation as Bruce Willis' Die Hard character) who loathes that be cannot introduce himself without 4 out of 5 people wanting to talk about the Die Hard movies with him. See also: the Michael Bolton character from Office Space. That said, I do not think that John's name being the same as a movie character's has had a big impact on his life, aside from upping the annoyance factor.

The thing is that every name has a "thing" associated with it - something people will think of or comment on when they hear it. Mine is "Amanda" and while there aren't any uber-famous Amandas (much less any with my same last name), I still get the "A Man, Duh" and "Amanda Hugginkiss" stuff. It's annoying every time I hear it, but I don't know that you'll be able to find any name where there isn't some sort of association with it. So I guess what I'm saying is, better "Oh, Michelle Obama, how nice, she was a first lady" rather than "Oh, Ron Jeremy.... *snicker* what a... nice... name...*chortle*"
posted by alpha_betty at 8:00 AM on January 22

I recall reading a study that said that having the name of a great person had a positive influence, and having a very unpopular or difficult name, i.e., Bertha for a girl, for a boy, had a negative influence. Sorry, can't remember where I read it, but Metafilter is likely.
posted by theora55 at 8:33 AM on January 22

I am accidentally/unintentionally share my name with a famous figure. Yes, there are the occasional jokes. However, people rarely forget my name, and on many occasions it was a very easy way to start a conversation with new friends.
posted by jerryg99 at 10:03 AM on January 22

Where I grew up on the middle US just about everyone was named after saints or other famous people from the Bible. Seemed to work all right for us. Then I moved to California and met people named after constellations and spices, and I thought they were weird and they thought I was bland. Then I moved to Japan and met guys named Nob and girls named Mommy who couldn't even pronounce my name.

So it doesn't matter what you name them, someone somewhere in the world will love it, someone else will think it's the funniest thing they ever heard.

You can check out part of the chapter on baby names in Freakanomics from Google books at this link but some of the pages are missing. The bottom line is that a parent's education, income, etc are vastly more important than the name. The definitive quote would be "What the California names data suggests is that an overwhelming number of parents use a name to signal their own expectations of how successful their children will be. The name isn't likely to make a shard of difference." (emphasis theirs.)
posted by Ookseer at 10:34 AM on January 22

I believe that a relative inability to pull up some names via google will or has had some professional consequences for people with famous names. I have a friend who shares a name (and semi-unusual spelling) with a comedian/writer who has become quite popular in the past couple of years, and finding out ANYTHING about him online requires an incredibly specific search. Whether this is to his benefit or detriment is unclear, though the fact that his famous counterpart wrote a parody book about his field of expertise makes for some weird job interviews.
posted by Benjy at 11:09 AM on January 22

My boss was named after a famous person and he says it's affected how he sees himself- something along the lines of not wanted to let the name down or something.

Here in Portugal, you have a list of authorized names you must follow

This sounds so horrible to me!
posted by small_ruminant at 12:39 PM on January 22

As long as it's someone respectable, there shouldn't be much of a problem.

I dated a James Taylor. That was an unfortunate name because... well. James Taylor. And he got crap for that a lot.

But I'd have no problem naming my kid Rainer Maria or Nikola Tesla or Gabriel Garcia because they're people I respect. And it's hard to make a joke about the three of them because, hello, geniuses and inspirational people. Or even after a literary character - Franny or Zooey (Zooey Deschanel's named after him). These people have a sort of mythical air about them.

It all depends on who's the namesake. I'd shy away from people who are too current (e.g. Barack Obama or Richard Nixon - I'm sure some kid got stuck with that after he was inaugurated and a couple yrs later, whoops) and still alive, as they can still kind of f*** up their reputation.
posted by HolyWood at 3:03 PM on January 22

Seriously, I don't think you're going to find anything except anecdotal evidence. Two pieces from me:

1. I cringe every time I watch one of the Cosby Show reruns on late at night when Sandra and Elvin bring over Winnie and Nelson. You probably know whats become of Winnie.

2. When I was working with kids, I knew a girl named after a band. I could not believe her parents did that. What did this 11 yr old girl do to combat that? She talked about how her namesake was one of the "best mad scientists in the world". This cute, popular 11 yr old knew more about mad science than any college graduate I knew. Her name was Tesla.
posted by hal_c_on at 4:17 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]

I share a name with a famous Malaysian actress; she changed her name to mine soon after I was born. (Besides, I was named after a song in a sailor movie.) Everyone I was introduced to called me "Tiara Jacquelina!" as though they were the first to think of that. I knew it was permanent when that was the first reaction of the Prime Minister. (I was part of a group interviewing him.)

Aside from that - and the occasional "Proton Tiara" references when a car by that name went out - it hasn't affected me too strongly either way. It's memorable, once people work out that I'm not a Kiara/Tamara/Tara. I don't know if I've been at a great advantage for it, but at least I stand out wherever I go.

A few years ago I bumped into Ms. Jacquelina at a restaurant opening. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hey, are you Tiara Jacquelina?
TJ: Yep, that's me.
Me: Ooh! My name's Tiara too!
TJ: Really? It can't be your real name.
Me: Sure is! *shows her my ID* People keep calling me "Tiara Jacquelina" all the time and now I get to meet you firsthand!
TJ: Wow! That's interesting. Maybe your parents named you...
Me: Oh, no. They named me after a song.
TJ: Oh.
posted by divabat at 9:40 PM on January 22

Should have said Leslie for a boy. with apoloiges to any Berthas and Leslies.
posted by theora55 at 5:34 AM on January 25

Thanks for all the answers guys, some interesting contributions.
posted by Kirn at 12:04 PM on January 26