
Are You More Likely to Be a Baker If You’re Named “Baker”? - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/blog/are-you-more-likely-to-be-a-baker-if-youre-named-baker
======
powera
This is the worst of science. Two people, each convinced the other is wrong,
doing various arbitrary experiments until they get ones that kind-of support
their claim, and then publishing ten of those to say they have "evidence".

[also: the conclusion that everything in the article is hogwash kind of agrees
with the person arguing against the phenomena, but that doesn't mean I agree
with him either]

~~~
Camillo
That's the second worst. The worst is a hundred people, all convinced of the
same thing, doing various arbitrary experiments until they get ones that kind-
of support their claim, and then publishing ten of those to say they have
"evidence".

------
stanfordkid
Perhaps correlation but _not_ causation

... I wonder if historically "Baker" was used for people who were of the
profession baker? It is well known that certain genetic characteristics may
pre-dispose people to go to certain professions.

So having the name "Baker" would imply you are descended or contain the genes
of people who historically baked.

This factor alone may pre-dispose you to becoming a baker moreso than any
psychological effects.

It's a lot easier to see when you look at the children of painters, musicians
etc tending to go towards the arts.

~~~
prawn
Yes, the surname "Baker" would've originally been a baker. There are a variety
of occupational surnames that you can quickly recognise: Potter, Cooper, Cook,
Miller, Fisher, Carter, Tailor, Smith. As well as a few -smith specific ones:
Green, Silver, Gold, White, Black, Brown - all having origins in things like
working with tin (whitesmith), copper (greensmith) or silver, etc.

I doubt that genetic disposition would be a strong factor given that the
skills for these various physical lines of work would be fairly similar.

~~~
Nadya
Not to mention variations on spelling! Tailor->Taylor, Cook->Cooke,
Fisher->Phisher.

[Name] of [Father/Town/Clan] were also all common.

"John of Connor" (John, fathered by Connor)

German: Hans von Duisburg (Hans from the city of Duisburg)

(Feudal) Japanese: 藤原 鎌足 (Fujiwara of the Kamatari clan)

Then, as mentioned by another user, some names were given based on
characteristics or parents' wishes of the future.

Russian: Неулыба (One who does not smile)

Or even the location of where your family lived ("place names"):

Japanese (again): 田中 (center/middle field), 中村 (center of village), 山本 (base
of the mountain).

~~~
sdrothrock
> (Feudal) Japanese: 藤原 鎌足 (Fujiwara of the Kamatari clan)

Another neat thing about Japanese surnames is that you can typically tell
which families were retainers etc. for the Fujiwara by the presence of the
character 藤 (the "Fuji" in Fujiwara, often read "toh" in other names) in names
like the very common 佐藤 (Satoh).

------
ikeboy
>That you might unconsciously be drawn to Georgia if your name is George, or
choose a career in baking if your last name is Baker, or be more likely to get
worse grades if your name begins with the letters C or D, goes against the
belief that you’re responsible for—or are the authors of—your choices.

Of course, merely knowing that Bakers are more likely to become bakers is not
enough to determine that it's because of unconscious choices. Nothing in this
article supports that conclusion.

------
ahelwer
My favorite example of nominative determinism: modern temporal logic was
developed by a man named Arthur Prior.

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kemiller2002
If that's the case, I really feel bad for the person with the last name:
ServeAsATerribleExampleForOthers. Talk about being born into the wrong family.

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cableshaft
Mine is Cable. Anytime the network goes down I have to put on headphones
because I know I'm about to be inundated with 'Someone go get the cable!' and
'Why don't you check the cable?', and 'The cable is down!' and get briefly
confused. The network's gone down more often than you'd expect.

And I haven't worked for Cable TV, but I have worked on things you play on
TVs.

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mariuolo
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_T._Krebs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_T._Krebs)

This guy was into alternative oncology and his name is the German for cancer.

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InquilineKea
I'd wonder if people get complimented/noticed more if their name matches their
occupation..

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DyslexicAtheist
[Mordor]

FRODO: Do you believe in nominative determinism?

SAM: [chuckling] That your name can affect your future?

SHAGRAT: Stop it guys

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bake
Here to answer any questions you may have.

\- Baker

~~~
nicolas_t
Thanks! What's great about HN is that we often get great comments from
relevant experts and, as a community, we know how to differentiate between
anecdotes and statistically relevant data. It's why the quality of comments is
so high.

So to put the question to rest once and for all and to verify the claims from
Pelham studies, here are a few questions:

\- Do you bake?

\- Is that your job?

\- If not, would there be reasons for it to contradict Pelham's rigorous
studies? did you maybe marry into your name?

Thank you for advancing science! You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar!

~~~
bake
Thanks for your questions! It's very rewarding to be able to draw on the
experiences I've worked so hard to build over a lifetime. To your questions:

\- Do pancakes qualify as baked goods? If so, then yes.

\- No, it's not my job. However, I do work with fintech and hence with banks
and, on occasion, bankers...

\- Baker is my first name, actually. Will need to contact Mr. Pelham to see
how the first name / last name distinction is reflected in his analyses.

------
boulos
For those of us in San Francisco, I recently learned that Josey Baker Bread is
from a guy named Josey Baker who only started baking bread in 2010:
[http://www.joseybakerbread.com/about/](http://www.joseybakerbread.com/about/)
.

