Do names influence or even shape personality? It’s a question I’ve often pondered. My first name is unique. While I have heard the name “Darcy” (or Darci) on occasion in my adult years, I have never run into another Darcia. In a sense, my name is an outcast. Did that have anything to do with me being somewhat of an outcast throughout my youth?
Research by S. Gary Garwood of Tulane University addresses this issue. A group of teachers were asked to rate names as either desirable or undesirable. Garwood later performed psychological tests of personality and self-concept on a group of elementary school children. He separated the completed tests into “desirable” and “undesirable” groups according to the teachers’ ratings of the names. Garwood then compared the scores, finding that the group with the desirable names showed “a considerably higher level of adjustment” than the group with the undesirable names.
Is the problem that the names are undesirable in general? Or undesirable to the person with the name, who then projects his or her discomfort to the world?
A study by Orlo Strunk, Jr. of West Virginia Wesleyan College compared people’s opinion of their name with each person’s self-concept. Strunk found that “there appears to be a persistent tendency for individuals who dislike their first name to have less affirmative attitudes toward themselves than do those who like their first name.”
Looking at the issue in that way, self-esteem is not so much tied up in the teasing one receives from an odd first name but, instead, from the person’s own opinion of that name he or she is permanently stamped with.
The problems with “odd” first names seem to be much worse for boys than for girls. Various studies over the years have found higher tendencies toward mental illness in people with uncommon first names. (Thankfully, I think I managed to avoid this dilemma, despite my uncommon name. Maybe it is because I always liked being the only one with the name!) This tendency is, for whatever reason, higher in men than in women. Perhaps society allows for more freedom and extravagance with female names. The reasons are unclear. However, parents might want to give serious thought before naming their son Fleming, Dax, or Altair. And, while “A Boy Named Sue” might have been a great song, I don’t think Johnny Cash meant for your son to be tormented throughout grade school.
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