Parents, Better Play The Name Game Well

What’s in a first name? Quite a bit, particularly if the name is unusual or uncommon, say psychologists Nancy Karlin of the University of Northern Colorado and Paul Bell of Colorado State University.

A person’s first name has more than a chance influence on one’s life course, they wrote in a recent issue of Psychological Reports. Self-esteem, achievement in grade school and college and even emotional disturbance have been associated with a person’s name.

To test the value of the right name, Bell and Karlin analyzed the first names of 1,476 psychology students and identified the four most common male names (James, Michael, Jeffrey and Scott) and the four least common names (Carl, Rodney, Harold and Darrell). Among women, Christine, Jennifer, Laura and Michelle led the list while Rose, Joanne, Grace and Alice finished last.

Then the researchers asked 79 men and women which of 20 personal traits (responsible, tolerant, etc.) they associated with these mens and women’s names.

Compared with less common names, more common ones were associated with more than twice as many favorable attributes, they reported.

People like the familiar, Bell said. The unfamiliar is seen as unusual and viewed with suspicion. Anecdotally, I know that some people who have unusual names say they wouldn’t do to their children what their parents did to them.

Totally amazing research breakthrough:

You may recall a past column that reported new studies suggesting that people think that their father was smarter than their mother. That conclusion was extrapolated from surveys conducted by professors in the United States and abroad among their psychology and sociology students.

That made the Wiz wonder if everybody, not just college kids, thought Mommie Dearest was dumber than Dad. So he asked a random sample of adults in a recent Washington Post national survey who they thought was brighter: their mother or father?

Overall, Mom edged out Dad - contrary to the claims of other researchers - a scholarly scoop for the Wiz.

According to the survey, college graduates thought their fathers were smarter, while those with less education said Mom was brainier. In fact, college graduates surveyed were the only ones who clearly thought their fathers were smarter than their mothers.

So earlier researchers get partial credit: For whatever reason, college folks appear to think that Dad’s bulb burned brighter, while others believe Mom’s the one.

Cis boom bah, humbug:

Yes, cheerleaders are popular. But the payoff for perkiness may come at a high price, say two researchers who studied how involvement in extracurricular activities in junior high school enhances popularity and friendships.

Sociologists Donna Eder and David Kinney surveyed students in three middle schools in the Midwest over a four-year period. They found that cheerleaders in the seventh grade were viewed as popular by other students and also were the object of widespread favorable attention by other girls.

“It appears that becoming a cheerleader increases the likelihood that other girls will want to be your friend, both because of the higher esteem given cheerleaders and because of the belief that friendships with cheerleaders enhance one’s own status,” they reported in the Journal of Youth & Society.

But they found those sweet feelings quickly sour. By eighth grade, “cheerleading no longer enhances peer status,” although their identification as one of the “popular kids” still increases.

Why do cheerleaders continue to be popular but less valued as friends? It seems that by eighth grade there has accumulated a critical mass of girls who have tried unsuccessfully to befriend cheerleaders. “Resentments toward cheerleaders who increasingly become perceived as stuck-up are likely to diminish their desirability as friends,” they wrote.

“It is possible to have a high degree of popularity or visibility in a school while at the same time experiencing a decrease in peer status in terms of friendship relations. Because friendship relations are extremely salient for most girls, these results suggest that social status often comes at a high price.”