essay about names

“Names Have Power”: Five Essays on Names and Identity

Image by Girish Gopi (CC BY 2.0)

“Names have power,” writes Jena Barchas-Lichtenstein in a recent popular essay, “The Violence of Naming.” We identify ourselves by names: family names, nicknames, the surnames of our partners, pseudonyms, and more. These five essays , curated by Cheri Lucas Rowlands at the Discover blog , explore the ties we have (or don’t have) to our names, and the roles that they play in our evolving identities.

The essays are:

• “The Violence of Naming,” Jena Barchas-Lichtenstein
• “Call You By Your Name,” Roxanne Krystalli, Stories of Conflict and Love
• “Ain’t Nothing But a Family Thing,” Matt Miklic
• “How I Changed My Name,” Ellen Kittle, Stickler
• “The Mystery of Carl Miller,” Sarah Miller, Longreads

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Essays About Your Name: Top 5 Examples and 6 Prompts

Every person’s name is special. Read the following essays about your name for examples and prompts to discover how you can create a thoughtful and personal piece.

Whether given or chosen, names have a powerful hold over each person. They can be curious mysteries, reminders of painful pasts, fond monikers, or personal treasures. Like our faintest scars and mental states, they also have deep histories ingrained into our very being. They can become means by which we trace our ancestors, create opportunities, or cherish our present situations. Your name is more than a means of calling your attention. It can convey an abstract idea of your personhood, experiences, and beliefs.

For example, what comes to mind when you hear the name Marilyn Monroe ? Most people think of the iconic blond bombshell from the 1950s to the early 1960s. Depending on how much you know about her, you may know her as a bright and determined woman or a sweet but ditzy character, which she often played in TV and film roles. Her name alone indicates her accolades, skills, and perceived personality.

5 Essay Examples

1. long essay on what’s in a name by prasanna, 2. the story of my name by rong xiaoqing, 3. the mystery of carl miller by sarah miller, 4. name and identity by jennifer wang, 5. call you by your name by roxanne krystalli, 1. the power of nicknames, 2. my unique and interesting name, 3. what it’s like being named after popular people, 4. why i chose this nickname, 5. cultural names and their meanings, 6. my name if i were from a different place.

“In a deep sense what creates the true meaning and power of a name is the worth of the individual or thing as reflected in the outer world.”

Prasanna divides her essay into three parts, explaining how people receive their names, how these monikers affect their identities, and how powerful names can be. The essay title was lifted from William Shakespeare’s “ Romeo and Juliet ,” reiterating Juliet’s profound line, “What’s in a name? What we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” This script refers to the reality that names’ importance is directly related to the unique qualities someone possesses.

For help with your essays, check out our round-up of the best essay checkers .

“Those who read my name did not know how to pronounce it, and those who heard it did not know how to write it.”

Rong shares her struggles of being a Chinese American and the complications of her name. Her name contains two of the most complicated Chinese characters that she found difficult to write when she was young, plus it was hard to pronounce in English. However, when Rong learned the meaning of her name, she fell in love with it.

In the next section of her essay, she talks about instances where names are more than names, referring to cases such as a parent losing custody of their children for giving them Nazi names. Rong also includes relevant studies that connect names and race and the times people deliberately mispronounced her name to be cruel. She concludes that she’s still growing and has all the time in the world to learn more about herself.

Looking for more? Check out these essays about names and essays about self .

“The last name Miller says nothing about me, but if pressed I would say I appreciate the way it evokes a beautiful neutrality, and the way it reminds me that all of us could so easily have been someone else.”

The author, Sarah Miller, only knows part of the story behind her ancestors. In her essay, she shares a few facts about her father’s birth and what she knew of her grandmother, then she recalls how she often asked about her grandfather, Carl Miller. The essay focuses on the author’s curiosity about Carl Miller and her emotional journey about accepting that she might never learn more about him.

“No others show me being stretched between two very different cultures and places—the ‘Jennifer’ clashing with the ‘Wang,’ the ‘Wang’ fighting with the ‘Jennifer.’”

In this short essay, Wang describes her internal confusion between her two cultures, disclosing how she struggles to be in the United States as a Chinese woman. She remembers how she wandered toy aisles looking for dolls with the same skin tone as hers and how she turned to shun her Asian heritage because she didn’t understand it. While the essay centers around Wang trying to introduce herself, her writing echoes the dilemma many young immigrants still face today.

“By the time I went to college, Roxani had been left behind. I was fully Roxanne by then, until one day my roommate beckoned: “Rooooox, do you want to watch an episode of something with me?” My father had an aversion to nicknames and never called me anything short of my full name: Roxani.”

Krystalli talks about how her name transitioned from the Greek Roxani to Roxanne to several other variations and then back again. She shares her life experiences and thoughts about these names as she grew up and gained new monikers. By the end of her essay, Krystalli tells the reader how she yearns to become Roxani again and reconnect with her Greek roots.

6 Prompts for Writing Essays About Your Name

Your nickname has a history that is as unique as yours. Nicknames are unpredictable and can sometimes be challenging to accept. For example, some children often pick nicknames based on their peer’s appearance, particularly if something stands out to them. However, nicknames can often be a sign of affection; naming someone with a nickname can be a way to show your friendship and close bond.

With this prompt, share how you dealt with any given nicknames you didn’t like. You can also speak about a short backstory of how others chose these nicknames. Explain your thoughts when you felt like you had no choice but to take other people’s nicknames for you. 

Whether your parents got creative in naming you or you chose a one-of-a-kind name for yourself, those with unique names share distinct experiences. For example, people may rarely pronounce or read it correctly. Others may have difficulty spelling your name when they need to write it down. 

In this prompt, share your experiences that connect to your unique name. Talk about the most interesting and memorable instances you remember and if you expect them to happen again.

If your parents are die-hard fans and decided to name you after their favorite book character, musician, or public figure, your name can feel like a borrowed one. Although some enjoy sharing names with well-known people, others would rather have a unique name. 

Delve into people’s reactions when they learn your name in your essay. Discuss how you’ve handled their jokes, or share the questions you already anticipate once they realize where your name came from.

Your name can change people’s perception of you, and choosing a nickname gives you control over that. This prompt is excellent if you have a nickname that has no connection with your given name. It’s also a great conversation starter. In your essay, explain why you chose that moniker and what it means to you. 

You can also add how people reacted before and after they learned the history of it. Your nickname doesn’t have to have a deep history. It can be as simple as earning the nickname “Cookie” because you like to eat cookies.

In some cultures, people still practice giving traditional names or nicknames to children, and you may belong to a culture that does the same. If you want to share this experience with your readers, discuss your name in this essay. Explain the language your name comes from, what it means, and why you received it. You can also give other examples, like the nicknames of your siblings, cousins, or ancestors.

Appreciation of another culture can push us to ponder what we’ll be called if we were from that group. If you’ve had an intense interest and appreciation for another culture or country, you may have already thought about how you want to be addressed. Share the name you chose, its meaning, and why you picked it. This also extends to fictional or fantasy worlds or cultures. 

Tip: If writing an essay sounds like a lot of work, simplify it. Write a simple 5 paragraph essay instead. For help picking your next essay topic, check out our 20 engaging essay topics about family .

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What’s In A Name Essay | Short and Long Essay on What’s In A Name for Students and Children

October 1, 2021 by Prasanna

What’s In A Name Essay: Names are the identity of a person or object that distinguishes one from another. But human beings put a lot of importance on the power of naming. In childhood, a name is given to someone based on affection, relation, or family background. As a person grows up, a name becomes an identity for him/her and is associated with personal attributes and characteristics.

When a person stands out from others by virtue of his qualities or contribution, his name becomes iconic and synonymous with the character and personality of that person. It suggests that the name not only carries the identity of a person, but also the power and worth associated with it. There are instances in history where the parental name of a person is overshadowed by another popular name that people around him love to use to address him. For example, A classic example of what’s in a name is Netaji is a name that symbolizes courage and leadership, although his actual name is rarely used.

You can also find more  Essay Writing  articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

A name as given by the parents or family members has a connection with place, family, culture, and traditions. Starting from childhood to adulthood, a person grows through his name. A name is as familiar and as close to us as anything else. In fact, we become more concerned with our name than the person that it identifies. Many believe that what’s in a name is not as important as personality or character, but after all, it’s the name that shapes one’s destiny. Name is considered a powerful tool in shaping one’s personality and self-esteem considering the meanings we associate with a name. But many times an individual demonstrates totally different characteristics than his name actually signifies. The name of that person then carries an identity based on the perception of others around him but not the name itself.

Long Essay on What’s In A Name 700 Words in English

Naming an individual

A name is the first thing that we own after our birth. It is a word that identifies us, remains with us from childhood till death, and is closely knit to our personalities. When a child is born, the parents give him/her a name as per their wish. The name could be in accordance with their cultural practices, customs, events, relatives, birthplace, etc. Some people also like to name their children after some renowned people, who are admired in the society or have some adorable characteristics that the parents may want their children to follow. Every name has some sense of power or value associated with it. Many believe that names have some influences in building the personalities of an individual.

Names as Identity

Names are considered to be an incredibly important part of our identity. They often carry deep personal, cultural, and traditional connections. They also give us a sense of our belonging to the community and the environment. Since childhood, we become so familiar with our name that we develop a very close association with it. Our names become a nice-labeled sound that appeals to us when someone calls us. Some of us grow with our names, maybe we like the way they are used by our loved ones.

Many of us think about what’s in a name and take our name for granted in the sense that we rarely pay attention to the name – what it means, why we have it, how it is to be regarded or valued. It’s also important to consider the meanings associated with names, which are given by our near and dear ones. These are the products of heritage, upbringing, and culture that we are imbibing. In fact, identity not only hinges on a name but also the importance that we place on a name.

Names always play a crucial role in people’s lives. For some, it is like what’s in a name with no deeper sense or meaning. But most of us like to have names that are unique in some way or others. It’s an identity that distinguishes one from the other. Earlier, it was a tradition to give names matching with siblings which were one form of identification that relates one family member with others. With times, this practice has changed especially due to the small family structure. Now the meaning, as well as uniqueness, is given priority while naming a child.

In the world around us, everything that is in existence has a name attached to it be it humans, plants, animals, or objects. Such names help to bring to memory the thing in question when referred by its name. Every name has some sense of perception or significance associated with it. When a child is born, he/she is given an identity through a name, which helps to differentiate one from others. But as the child grows up, this identity includes features like self-esteem and self-awareness that build his personality and character.

The Power of a Name

The origin of this phrase ‘What’s in a Name’ has actually been derived from the famous romantic tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” written by William Shakespeare. The female protagonist in this play says “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. The quotation really has a very profound meaning. It signifies that a name we put on something is simply a label to differentiate one from another. But the identity lies in the unique characteristics that anyone or anything possesses. In a deep sense what creates the true meaning and power of a name is the worth of the individual or thing as reflected in the outer world.

FAQ’s on What’s In A Name Essay

Question 1. What is the origin of the phrase ‘What’s in a name?

Answer: The origin of the phrase ‘what’s in a name’ comes from William Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy ‘Romeo and Juliet’.

Question 2. What are the factors influencing the naming of a person in childhood?

Answer: Names given to an individual depend on factors like family, culture, customs, heritage as well as the place of birth.

Question 3. How much importance is given to the meaning of a name given to a child?

Answer: The parents name a child as per their wish. The meanings of the name they choose reflect their cultural & religious beliefs, preference towards any object, person, or event.

Question 4. Why are children named according to some renowned person?

Answer: Parents choose to name a child according to a person who is admired and respected for his character and actions and expects their child to adopt the same in future life.

Question 5. How does a name associate with one’s personality or characteristics?

Answer: We identify a person or object by its name but in the actual sense, we relate the unique features and remarkable qualities in them with their name.

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“Names/Nombres” by Julia Alvarez Summary, Theme & Analysis (Names Nombres)

“Names/Nombres” is a personal essay by Julia Alvarez about how she viewed the many versions of her and her family’s names. It’s a popular  selection for students . This analysis starts with a summary of “Names/Nombres” then looks at a theme.

“Names/Nombres” Summary

The mispronunciations of their names continue at the hotel, their new apartment building, and at school. Julia wonders if she should correct them, but her mother says it doesn’t matter.

Julia’s younger sister, Ana, has the easiest name and looks the most American, and is called Anne most of the time.

(End of “Names/Nombres” summary)

Theme of “Names/Nombres”: Identity

Cultural or national background and personal names as facets of identity overlap throughout.

At school, Julia is called Judy, Judith and, once, Juliet. Later she gets the nicknames Jules, Hey Jude and Alcatraz. Her feelings about her personal name undergo a change.

She answers the question of where she’s from by first saying New York, then the Caribbean, and finally, the Dominican Republic. She’s not comfortable being identified as a foreigner.

Julia’s younger sister, Ana , has the easiest time blending in with Americans. Her name (she goes by Anne) is easy, she’s lighter skinned, she has blonde hair and she’s beautiful.

Cultural identity comes to the fore in the graduation scene, where Julia stands out as different. Her extended family attends the ceremony, unlike the other students who usually just have their parents there. They speak Spanish loudly during the proceedings, have Spanish names and some of the family relationships are a bit convoluted.

The congratulations sign her family hangs sums up what came before. They’ve always called her by her Spanish name. On the sign, it says “Julie”. It seems the printer, like many others, couldn’t get her name right. Or if it was premade, Julie was the closest name they could find. This difficulty people have with foreign names isn’t going away, and it will still be an issue.

I hope this summary of “Names/Nombres” and look at a theme was helpful.

How our names shape our identity

What's in a name? A lot.

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Sometimes we try to live up to our names. Sometimes we try to run away from them. But either way — and for all the options in between — your name is a crucial factor in developing your sense of self, and thus helps propel you forward on various paths of life and career.

The term nominative determinism was coined in a 1994 issue of New Scientist to describe this phenomenon. The magazine's editors noticed two instances of scientists gravitating toward subjects that were strangely linked to their last names. "We recently came across a new book," they wrote: " Pole Positions — The Polar Regions and the Future of the Planet , by Daniel Snowman. Then, a couple of weeks later, we received a copy of London Under London — A Subterranean Guide , one of the authors of which is Richard Trench."

Maybe it's just a coincidence. Or maybe these scientists' names really did influence their career paths.

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Research on the influence of names appears to stretch back at least a half century. A 1996 article called " Name and Behavior " by H. Edward Deluzain and describes a famous 1954 study published in the British Journal of Psychology :

One of the classic pieces of research on the relationship between names and behavior was conducted in Africa by G. Johoda of University College of the Gold Coast. In discussions with teachers and social workers on the formation of character in young people, Jahoda discovered that the people he was working with — all of whom were Ashanti — sincerely believed that the day of the week on which a person was born has a lot to do with the kind of character traits and behavior the person will show throughout life. Specifically, Jahoda learned that the Ashanti believe that boys (but apparently not girls) who are born on Monday will be mild mannered and peace loving, but those born on Wednesday will be violent and aggressive. [Behind the Name]

As a result, the Ashanti community has a long-held custom of including the day a person was born in the person's name. After discovering the Ashanti's custom, Jahoda then took his research to the records of the local juvenile court to see if males born on Wednesday committed more crimes.

"The number of violent acts committed by the boys born on Wednesday was significantly higher than would be expected through mere chance, and it showed that Wednesdays tended to live up to the reputation," wrote Deluzain . "When this figure was compared to the number of Mondays in the population… it bore out the superstition that boys born on that day would lead more peaceful and law-abiding lives."

Though stereotyping can't definitively dictate future behavior, it does provide a spring-board for making assumptions about a person. When a new person introduces himself to you (let's call him "Spencer"), your first instinct is to assemble a rough mental sketch of everyone you have ever known named Spencer. Maybe someone named Spencer bullied you in second grade. Maybe Spencer was the name of your first kiss. Perhaps Spencer is the name of your father. You subconsciously judge this new Spencer, at least a little, based on all the other Spencers you have ever known.

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Gender dynamics, socio-economic status, and unusual spelling can also play a role in determining the behavior of a child. That's why it's perfectly fine for parents to spend a few months fretting over the potential drawbacks of choosing a child's name. Sometimes, parents desire strong names for boys, and more feminine names for girls. Most parents, it would seem, take it a step further and ask if the name they choose could be interpreted a certain way, or rhymed with a certain word that get their child teased in school.

Research psychologist David Figlio of Northwestern University in Illinois showed how a baby's name can have leave a long-lasting imprint on their lives — for better or worse, reports LiveScience . Figlio started by studying millions of birth certificates. He then further broke each name down into thousands of phonemic components, and started to find behavioral patterns.

Boys with names traditionally given to girls are more likely to misbehave than their counterparts with masculine names, research suggests… When in elementary school, boys named Ashley and Shannon, for instance, behave just like their more masculine-named classmates named Brian and other boyish names. "Once these kids hit sixth grade, all of a sudden the rates of disciplinary problems skyrocket [for those boys with girlish names], and it was much more the case if there happened to be a girl in the grade with that same name," Figlio [said]. [LiveScience]

Self-esteem may also play a factor. "People who particularly dislike their name and also if other people think it's an odd and unlikeable name, that can cause some problems," psychology professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University told LiveScience . "[They] tend not to be as well-adjusted."

"People draw subconscious cues all the time about people," Figlio said. "You meet a person for the first time and without thinking about it on an explicit level you're looking at the way they're walking, what their accent sounds like, how they're dressed, whether they smell… and you're developing these immediate reactions," said Figlio . "I think there's probably an evolutionary reason behind that. We're hardwired to try to figure out in a heartbeat whether or not we want to trust somebody, whether we want to run from somebody."

To answer the age-old question: What's in a name? A lot of stuff, apparently.

Michael Hedrick is a writer and photographer in Boulder, CO. His work has appeared in Salon , Thought Catalog and various other places across the web. His book, Schizophrenic Connections, is available here .

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How to Write an Essay about Your Name

Are you looking for an easy and quick way to write an essay about your name? Then this is the perfect tutorial for you! 

I’m Constance, and in this tutorial, I will show you how to write an essay about your name in six simple steps. I will also give you an example of such an essay as we go through the process step by step.

Let’s begin!

Step 1: Choose your main idea.

If you want to organize your thoughts and present them clearly and concisely in an essay, you need to choose your thesis — a main idea for your essay. Simply take a stand and write it down as a simple sentence.

What do you want to say about your name? Do you like your name? Do you think it’s interesting? Whatever you think of will act as your thesis . 

For example, you can say, “I love my name.”   Note that we kept it really simple. By doing so, we can clearly think of the next things we need for the essay.

Step 2: Think of three supporting ideas.

Trying to write an essay on only one undivided idea or thesis will get you stuck.

So, you need more than one idea. Two ideas are better than one. Three is even better. But four may be too many because you’re just writing a simple essay. 

So, coming up with three supporting ideas is the best method. Why? Because three is the perfect number the brain can handle. And it works all the time! We call it the Power of Three.

So, let’s use the Power of Three to keep our ideas flowing.

The Power of Three is a three-part structure that divides your main idea into three distinct supporting points. It helps create your body paragraphs.

Let’s apply it to an essay about your name. 

Ask yourself – “why do I love my name?” And write down three answers. Here are mine:

• I like its Latin origin .
• I like how my parents came up with it.
• It sounds great .

Using ideas that are too similar to each other may cause writer’s block. So, note that our three supporting points are totally different from one another.

Keep them distinct and simple to avoid running out of things to write down the line.

Step 3: Write your thesis statement.

Now that we have a clear picture of the essay’s structure, we can write a thesis statement.  

When writing a thesis statement, take your main idea and its supporting points and write them out as a sentence or complete sentences in a single paragraph.

Once you’ve written your thesis statement, you have a nice outline for your essay.

Here’s an example of a thesis statement:

“I love my name because I like its Latin origin, the story of how my parents came up with it is pretty cool, and it sounds great, too.”

Note how clear the statement is. We started with our thesis, and the three supporting points sound like great ideas to back it up. So, it works.

Great! Now, we’re ready for the next step.

Step 4: Write the body paragraphs.

After dividing our main idea into three distinct points, we can easily write three body paragraphs for our essay.

When writing a body paragraph , you should start with a topic sentence summarizing the entire paragraph. Then, briefly explain it and illustrate it using examples .

Note that your paragraphs should go from general to specific. 

In a body paragraph, your topic sentence (the first sentence) is the most general statement. After writing your topic sentence, you will unpack it by writing more specifically, using an explanation and examples.

Here are examples of body paragraphs for our essay:

Paragraph 1

One of the few things I like about my name is its etymology. It has a Latin origin, rooted in the word “constantem,” which means “faithful” or “steadfast.” It is a name that represents perseverance and dedication regardless of the challenges ahead. I could not be more proud and grateful for my name’s origin. It reflects my determined personality and my loyalty to the people I love.

Paragraph 2

I also love that I was named after my grandmother Constancia. I appreciate my mom and dad naming me after her – someone I loved so much. My grandmother was an amazing woman. She raised eight kids despite her humble status in life, which highlighted her steadfastness. And she was faithful to her family and supported it however she could.

Paragraph 3

My name has a certain sonorous quality to it with its consonants that roll off the tongue. I am thankful for the sound of my name. It has a beautiful melody to it that I always love to hear. Every time I hear it, it brings me a sense of warmth and joy and puts a smile on my face.

Note how each paragraph proceeds from a general statement to more specific points.

Now that we’ve written our body paragraphs, we are ready for the next step.

Step 5: Write the introduction and conclusion.

Introduction.

An introduction can be just one more general sentence, after which you should simply proceed to your thesis statement, which includes your thesis and three supporting points.

Here’s an example of an entire introductory paragraph:

Many of us may not think much about it, but our names are a part of our identity and can have a lasting impact on us. I love my name because of its Latin origin, the story of how my parents came up with it, and its cool sound. My name means “constant” or “steadfast” in Latin, which reflects my determined personality. It came from my grandmother’s name, Constancia, whom I loved so much. And it just sounds amazing, even if I only say so myself.”

If you want a time-proven, easy, and quick way to write a conclusion for your essays, I recommend restating what you stated in your introduction using different words. 

Here’s an example of a conclusion for our essay:

My name is an important part of my identity and has a special place in my heart. It has a meaningful linguistic origin from the Latin word constantem, meaning “steadfastness.” It is a special reminder of my grandmother, Constancia. And it has a nice ring to it that brings me joy.

Now, we’re ready for the final step.

Step 6: Proofread.

The final step in writing an essay is going back and proofreading it. Look out for:

• Misspellings
• Grammatical errors
• Irrelevant material (stuff that doesn’t belong in the essay)
• Contradictions (make sure you don’t contradict your own points)

And we are done writing an example of an essay about a name. 

I hope you learned a lot in this tutorial. Now go ahead and write an essay about your name!

Tutor Phil is an e-learning professional who helps adult learners finish their degrees by teaching them academic writing skills.

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Names and Behavior

Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace; Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go; Friday's child is loving and giving, Saturday's child works hard for a living; But the child that is born on the Sabbath day, Is bonny, and blithe, and good, and gay.

Works Cited Busse, Thomas V. and Louisa Seraydarian. "The Relationship Between First Name Desirability and School Readiness, IQ, and School Achievement." Psychology in the Schools 15 (1978): 297-302. Harari, Herbert and John W. McDavid. "Name Stereotypes and Teachers' Expectations." Journal of Educational Psychology 65 (1973): 222-225. Jahoda, G. "A Note on Ashanti Names and Their Relationship to Personality." British Journal of Psychology 45 (1954): 192-195. Rosenthal, Robert and Lenore Jacobson. Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher Expectation and Pupils' Intellectual Development. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968.

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Why Your Name Matters

In 1948 , two professors at Harvard University published a study of thirty-three hundred men who had recently graduated, looking at whether their names had any bearing on their academic performance. The men with unusual names, the study found, were more likely to have flunked out or to have exhibited symptoms of psychological neurosis than those with more common names. The Mikes were doing just fine, but the Berriens were having trouble. A rare name, the professors surmised, had a negative psychological effect on its bearer.

Since then, researchers have continued to study the effects of names, and, in the decades after the 1948 study, these findings have been widely reproduced. Some recent research suggests that names can influence choice of profession , where we live , whom we marry , the grades we earn , the stocks we invest in, whether we’re accepted to a school or are hired for a particular job , and the quality of our work in a group setting. Our names can even determine whether we give money to disaster victims: if we share an initial with the name of a hurricane, according to one study, we are far more likely to donate to relief funds after it hits.

Much of the apparent influence of names on behavior has been attributed to what’s known as the implicit-egotism effect : we are generally drawn to the things and people that most resemble us. Because we value and identify with our own names, and initials, the logic goes, we prefer things that have something in common with them. For instance, if I’m choosing between two brands of cars, all things being equal, I’d prefer a Mazda or a Kia.

That view, however, may not withstand closer scrutiny. The psychologist Uri Simonsohn, from the University of Pennsylvania, has questioned many of the studies that purport to demonstrate the implicit-egotism effect, arguing that the findings are statistical flukes that arise from poor methodology. “It’s like a magician,” Simonsohn told me. “He shows you a trick, and you say, ‘I know it’s not real, but how did he pull it off?’ It’s all in the methodology.” A problem that he cites in some of these studies is an ignorance of base rates—the over-all frequency with which something, like a name, occurs in the population at large. It may be appealing to think that someone named Dan would prefer to be a doctor, but we have to ask whether there are so many doctor Dans simply because Dan is a common name, well-represented in many professions. If that’s the case, the implicit-egotism effect is no longer valid.

There are also researchers who have been more measured in their assessments of the link between name and life outcome. In 1984 , the psychologist Debra Crisp and her colleagues found that though more common names were better liked, they had no impact on a person’s educational achievement. In 2012, the psychologists Hui Bai and Kathleen Briggs concluded that “the name initial is at best a very limited unconscious prime, if any.” While a person’s name may unconsciously influence his or her thinking, its effects on decision-making are limited. Follow-up studies have also questioned the link between names and longevity , career choice and success , geographic and marriage preferences, and academic achievement .

However, it may not be the case that name effects don’t exist; perhaps they just need to be reinterpreted. In 2004 , the economists Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan created five thousand résumés in response to job ads posted in the classifieds in Chicago and Boston newspapers. Using Massachusetts birth certificates from between 1974 and 1979, Bertrand and Mullainathan determined which names appeared at a high frequency in one race but at a low frequency in another, creating groups of what they termed “white-sounding names” (like Emily Walsh and Greg Baker) and “black-sounding names” (like Lakisha Washington and Jamal Jones). They also created two types of candidates: a higher-quality group, with more experience and a more complete profile, and a lower-quality group, with some obvious gaps in employment or background. They sent two résumés from each qualification group to every employer, one with “black-sounding” name and the other with a “white-sounding” one (a total of four CVs per employer). They found that the “white-sounding” candidates received fifty per cent more callbacks, and that the advantage a résumé with a “white-sounding” name had over a résumé with a “black-sounding” name was roughly equivalent to eight more years of work experience. An average of one of every ten “white” résumés received a callback, versus one of every fifteen “black” résumés. Names, in other words, send signals about who we are and where we come from.

These findings have been demonstrated internationally as well. A Swedish study compared immigrants who had changed their Slavic, Asian, or African names, such as Kovacevic and Mohammed, to more Swedish-sounding, or neutral, ones, like Lindberg and Johnson. The economists Mahmood Arai and Peter Skogman Thoursie, from Stockholm University, found that this kind of name change substantially improved earnings: the immigrants with new names made an average of twenty-six per cent more than those who chose to keep their names.

The effects of name-signalling—what names say about ethnicity, religion, social sphere, and socioeconomic background—may begin long before someone enters the workforce. In a study of children in a Florida school district, conducted between 1994 and 2001, the economist David Figlio demonstrated that a child’s name influenced how he or she was treated by the teacher, and that differential treatment, in turn, translated to test scores. Figlio isolated the effects of the students’ names by comparing siblings—same background, different names. Children with names that were linked to low socioeconomic status or being black, as measured by the approach used by Bertrand and Mullainathan, were met with lower teacher expectations. Unsurprisingly, they then performed more poorly than their counterparts with non-black, higher-status names. Figlio found, for instance, that “a boy named ‘Damarcus’ is estimated to have 1.1 national percentile points lower math and reading scores than would his brother named ‘Dwayne,’ all else equal, and ‘Damarcus’ would in turn have three-quarters of a percentile ranking higher test scores than his brother named Da’Quan.’ ” Conversely, children with Asian-sounding names (also measured by birth-record frequency) were met with higher expectations, and were more frequently placed in gifted programs.

The economists Steven Levitt and Roland Fryer looked at trends in names given to black children in the United States from the nineteen-seventies to the early aughts. They discovered that names which sounded more distinctively “black” became, over time, ever more reliable signals of socioeconomic status. That status, in turn, affected a child’s subsequent life outcome, which meant that it was possible to see a correlation between names and outcomes, suggesting a name effect similar to what was observed in the 1948 Harvard study. But when Levitt and Fryer controlled for the child’s background, the name effect disappeared, strongly indicating that outcomes weren’t influenced by intrinsic qualities of the name itself. As Simonsohn notes, “Names tell us a lot about who you are.”

In the 1948 study, the majority of the uncommon names happened to be last names used as first names—a common practice among upper-class white families at the time. Those names, too, served as a signal, but in this case as one of privilege and entitlement—perhaps their unsuccessful bearers thought that they could get by without much work, or that they could expose neuroses that they would otherwise try to hide. We see a name, implicitly associate different characteristics with it, and use that association, however unknowingly, to make unrelated judgments about the competence and suitability of its bearer . The relevant question may not be “What’s in a name?” but, rather, “What signals does my name send—and what does it imply?”

Maria Konnikova is the author of “ Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes .”

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Names and Identity

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In this essay, 17-year-old Jennifer Wang, who came to the United States from Beijing, China, when she was seven, reflects on a time when she had to introduce herself to a group of strangers at a new school.

Something about myself? How do I summarize, in thirty seconds, everything which adds up and equals a neat little bundle called Me? Who am I, and why do I matter to any of you? First of all, I am a girl who wandered the aisles of Toys “R” Us for two hours, hunting in vain for a doll with a yellowish skin tone. I am a girl who sat on the cold bathroom floor at seven in the morning, cutting out the eyes of Caucasian models in magazines, trying to fit them on my face . . . While I was growing up, I did not understand what it meant to be “Chinese” or “American.” Do these terms link only to citizenship? Do they suggest that people fit the profile of either “typical Chinese” or “typical Americans”? And who or what determines when a person starts feeling American, and stops feeling Chinese? I eventually shunned the Asian crowds. And I hated Chinatown. . . . I hated the noise, the crush of bodies, the yells of mothers to fathers to children to uncles to aunts to cousins. . . . I hated not understanding their language in depth—the language of my ancestors, which was also supposed to be mine to mold and master.  I am still not a citizen of the United States of America, this great nation, which is hailed as the destination for generations of people, the promised land for millions. . . . I stare blankly at my friends when they mention the 1980s or share stories of their parents as hippies. And I hate baseball. The question lingers: Am I Chinese? Am I American? Or am I some unholy mixture of both, doomed to stay torn between the two? I don’t know if I’ll ever find the answers. Meanwhile, it’s my turn to introduce myself . . . I stand up and say, “My name is Jennifer Wang,” and then I sit back down. There are no other words that define me as well as those do. No others show me being stretched between two very different cultures and places—the “Jennifer” clashing with the “Wang,” the “Wang” fighting with the “Jennifer.” 1

• 1 Jennifer Wang, “Orientation Day,” in YELL-Oh Girls! Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian American, ed. Vickie Nam (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), 199–200. Reproduced by permission from HarperCollins Publishers.

Connection Questions

• What words or phrases does Jennifer Wang use to describe her identity? What words or phrases does she use to describe her attitude toward her identity?
• What does Wang mean when she says “the ‘Jennifer’ clashing with the ‘Wang,’ the ‘Wang’ fighting with the ‘Jennifer’”? What examples does she provide to support this description of her name?
• What might your name tell others about your identity? What stories about you or your family might your name reflect? What about your identity is simplified, hidden, or confused by your name?

How to Cite This Reading

Facing History & Ourselves, “ Names and Identity ”, last updated August 2, 2016.

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Guest Essay

The Killer Climate Disaster That Has No Name

By Eric Klinenberg

Mr. Klinenberg is a sociologist and the author of “Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago.”

Do you remember the heat dome that settled over Washington and Oregon in 2021, leading to thousands of hospitalizations and over 600 estimated fatalities? Or last summer’s heat wave in Phoenix , when the temperature hit or exceeded 110 degrees for 31 straight days, accounting for most of Maricopa County’s 645 heat-related deaths in 2023?

How closely are you tracking the potentially record-setting heat wave across the Western United States this week?

In typical years, more Americans die in heat waves than in hurricanes, tornadoes and floods combined. Historically, though, the public, the media and politicians are quick to forget heat disasters — even where they happen most. It’s as if we have a will not to know about the brutal ways that extreme heat affects us.

Denial only makes us more vulnerable to the searing summers ahead. Between 1999 and 2023, heat deaths in the United States more than doubled. As the planet warms and lethal heat events become more severe and more frequent, there’s an urgent need to make dangerous heat more recognizable.

Fortunately, there is a low-cost and promising solution: naming major heat waves, giving each potentially catastrophic event its own identity and publicly acknowledging how extreme heat is changing our lives.

Naming dangerous weather systems is hardly a revolutionary idea. The United States already does it for tropical storms and hurricanes, and with great effect. Forecasters started that tradition in 1953, in the hope of improving public communications and reducing the risk of confusion when multiple storms emerged at once.

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Names

Essays on Names

Brief description of names.

Names are more than just labels; they carry cultural, historical, and personal significance. Exploring the topic of names can provide insight into identity, language, and societal norms.

Importance of Writing Essays on This Topic

Essays on names can offer a unique opportunity to delve into the complexities of identity and the power of language. They allow for personal reflection and critical analysis, making them significant for both academic and personal exploration.

Tips on Choosing a Good Topic

• Consider the cultural significance of names in different societies
• Explore the impact of naming trends on individuals
• Reflect on the role of names in shaping personal identity

Essay Topics

• The Significance of Naming Ceremonies in Different Cultures
• The Influence of Surname Traditions on Identity
• The Power Dynamics of Naming and Labeling in Society
• Exploring the History and Meaning of Biblical Names
• The Impact of Name Changes on Personal Identity
• The Role of Nicknames in Shaping Personal Identity
• Argumentative Essay: The Ethics of Naming Children After Historical Figures
• Reflective Essay: My Personal Journey with My Name
• The Symbolism of Names in Literature and Pop Culture
• The Intersection of Gender and Names: Exploring Unisex and Gender-specific Names

Concluding Thought

Names are more than just words; they are powerful symbols that shape our identities and experiences. By exploring this topic through essays, one can gain a deeper understanding of the cultural, social, and personal significance of names. Happy writing!

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