James viewed as charismatic and Gemma unkind, but name stereotypes miss target
● Survey finds judgments based on names do not match with reality
What’s in a name? It is a question that has intrigued humankind since the time of William Shakespeare.
Now an analysis of people’s impressions of six of the most popular names in the UK have found people called James – such as 007 James Bond – are thought to be the most charismatic and confident, while those named Gemma are assumed to be bad-tempered and unkind.
Women with the name sarah are often considered in a good light. The research revealed Sarahs are usually believed to be compassionate, sociable, kind, conscientious and likable. People were also quizzed on their impressions of Christophers, Davids and Lauras.
The report from name tag manufacturer my nametags. com revealed men with the name Christopher are considered to be the most intellectual of all, found to be quiet, high-achieving, reliable and organised. However, they are also assumed to be unsociable and uninventive.
Lauras also do not fare well, according to the stereotypes. The research revealed women named Laura are thought to be unlikeable, uncharismatic and bad team players. However, what they lack in social skills they make up for in energy and creativity, those surveyed claimed.
Chartered clinical psychologist and scientist Linda Blair said: “One of the ways we deal with information overload, a real problem in today’s world, is to create mental ‘shortcuts’ and relying on name stereotypes
is one of them. However, these stereotypes are usually based on only a few highprofile individuals at a particular point in time and, even less realistically, often on fictional characters in books and films. As a result, they rarely hold up in everyday encounters.
“Add this to the fact that each of us displays different, often contradictory qualities depending on the situation and you’ll find those stereotypes bear little relation to the people you meet.”
The firm carried out a series
LINDA BLAIR
Clinical psychologist and scientist
of psychological assessments devised to reveal an individual’s most dominant personality traits on a test group of people with these six common names to determine whether they really did live up to the stereotypes.
The results showed in many instances the stereotypes proved to be entirely wrong, with only around 30 per cent of people tested displaying the characteristics they were expected to have.
The survey suggested those with the names Gemma and
James are considered to be the moodiest.
However, the experiment found that just a third of people named Gemma and James would identify themselves as moody, with an equal amount of Lauras and Christophers admitting to being grumpy people.
Ms Blair added: “I would suggest that it isn’t possible for someone to ‘act like a James’ and we shouldn’t be tempted to make judgments about people based purely on their name because we will almost
certainly be wrong.” Lars B Andersen, managing director at My Nametags, said: “We know that a person’s name can really paint a picture of the type of person they are, which is why naming a child can be such a difficult task.
“It can be easy to be put off a name because we dislike some who shares it or it has negative associations. But our research shows deep rooted stereotypes are almost completely unfounded.”
“One of the ways we deal with information overload... is to create mental ‘shortcuts’ and relying on name stereotypes is one of them”
So, apparently, we think people called James are charismatic, Sarahs are kind, Lauras are bad team players and Christophers are really intelligent but antisocial.
Our fondness for assigning random characteristics to names for no good reason explains a lot. The same sort of flawed reasoning is used by racists, xenophobes, antisemites and the like to demonise other people and rob them of their status as individuals.
Linda Blair, a psychologist, described how our brains have a tendency to create mental ‘shortcuts’ – stereotypes – to help deal with information overload, adding that this was a “real problem in today’s world”.
The Age of the Internet has had many benefits but it may have also helped bring about the rise of farright populism, ‘identitarians’, antiimmigrant sentiment, Brexit and Donald Trump.
Sometimes, we really do fail to live up to the name we gave ourselves, Homo sapiens, the ‘wise’ humans. Maybe it’s time to be a bit more humble and recognise our shortcomings by changing our name to Homo insipiens.