
Nominative determinism - ikeboy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism
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WalterGR
I am a software engineer because my last name is Rader.

My paternal ancestors had the occupational surname Radermacher (wheel-wright /
cart-wright.) Over time, that became shortened to Rader. When my father went
to the US Air Force recruitment office to enlist, the recruiter thought it
appropriate for William Rader to become a Radar technician.

My father learned electronics and went on to become an electrical engineer. He
learned industrial automation technologies, including microprocessor design
and programming. When microcomputers became small and affordable, he had them
at home.

I grew up with those computers and was rather fond of them. I went on to earn
a CS degree and become a software engineer.

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Swizec
> a person's name can have a significant role in determining key aspects of
> job, profession or even character. It was a commonly held notion in the
> ancient world.

\--> [http://www.nber.org/papers/w9873](http://www.nber.org/papers/w9873)

"Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment
on Labor Market Discrimination"

"We perform a field experiment to measure racial discrimination in the labor
market. We respond with fictitious resumes to help-wanted ads in Boston and
Chicago newspapers. To manipulate perception of race, each resume is assigned
either a very African American sounding name or a very White sounding name.
The results show significant discrimination against African-American names:
White names receive 50 percent more callbacks for interviews. We also find
that race affects the benefits of a better resume. For White names, a higher
quality resume elicits 30 percent more callbacks whereas for African
Americans, it elicits a far smaller increase. Applicants living in better
neighborhoods receive more callbacks but, interestingly, this effect does not
differ by race. The amount of discrimination is uniform across occupations and
industries. Federal contractors and employers who list Equal Opportunity
Employer' in their ad discriminate as much as other employers. We find little
evidence that our results are driven by employers inferring something other
than race, such as social class, from the names. These results suggest that
racial discrimination is still a prominent feature of the labor market."

Turns out names DO have an impact on your life.

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CephalopodMD
If you haven't read or seen Freakonomics, I should begin by saying that it is
quite entertaining, and you should check it out, but it actually looks into
this very issue. It turns out that names, while they may not directly cause a
person to turn out a certain way in life, are strongly correlated because
different social groups have different naming patterns. Low income African
American communities have children with distinctly sounding unique names like
Darnel or Ladayna. Lower class children often wind up with outdated older
names like Scooter or Candy. Upper class children usually wind up with more
hip names.

Names often become something of a self fulfilling prophecy. If you were raised
in an environment where it seemed reasonable for your parents to name you
something unfortunate, your life will probably be just as unfortunate as your
name.

The thing is, people know this. If you are dealing with a Laquicha or a
Brandi, more likely than not, you will assume that she is from a lower class
upbringing. This might influence the way you think about her.

~~~
M8
"Upper class children usually wind up with more hip names" \- not sure about
that. Look at billionaires and royals. The more boring and safe - the better.

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hockley
Reminds me of my odds-on favorite candidate for name of the year: Dr. Electron
Kebebew

"His father, an Ethiopean electrical engineer, worried that his children would
not follow in his footsteps as people of science. To make their career paths
clear from birth, he named them after subatomic particles"

I thought this idea of parents using one of their earliest parental acts to
influence the destiny of a child to be a fascinating facet of human nature.

[http://www.nameoftheyear.com/2015/03/we-need-to-talkabout-
dr...](http://www.nameoftheyear.com/2015/03/we-need-to-talkabout-dr.html)

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allworknoplay
Classic fun Asimov story:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spell_My_Name_with_an_S](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spell_My_Name_with_an_S)

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brudgers
The British philosopher John Wisdom comes to mind.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wisdom](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wisdom)

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nthcolumn
This one flipped my wig.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Judge,_Baron_Judge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Judge,_Baron_Judge)

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pmdulaney
The weather guy on one of our TV stations in Los Angeles is Dallas Raines. I
guess he is working in the wrong city, though.

