How important are our names?

My best friend from Hot Springs and I had a good chuckle recently when she told me she that if her new granddaughter had been a boy, he would have been named Felix. Turns out her father is from France and Felix is a popular name in France. 

When I was a little girl (Yes, a long time ago. No, I’m not going to tell you how long ago), I insisted that my family call me Rose. I didn’t like my name, so I just decided that I would change it. 

A study was done some time ago to determine the impact a person’s name has on teachers’ perceptions of them. It found that those with common names did better. 

So why the popularity of such uncommon names or of spelling common names uncommonly? As Parker Knox said in one of his columns years ago, it’s just asking to get that child’s name spelled wrong in the newspaper.

A recent study done in the UK showed that teachers there said they could identify which children are likely to be troublemakers by their names. A poll of 3,000 teachers found that more than one in three of the teachers surveyed expected children with certain names to cause more trouble than others.

The survey also asked teachers which names they thought indicated bright pupils. 

On the naughty list for boys were the following names: 1. Callum, 2. Connor, 3. Jack, 4. Daniel, 5. Brandon, 6. Charlie, 7. Kyle, 8. Liam, 9. Jake and 10. Brooklyn.

On the girls naughty list, the C’s topped the list, with the following names: 1. Chelsea, 2. Courtney, 3. Chardonnay, 4. Aleisha, 5. Casey, 6. Crystal, 7. Jessica, 8. Brooke, 9. Demi and 10. Aisha.