Listen to this PodcastMore 60-Second Mind
-
How to Enjoy Your Decision
5/22/13 -
Inside the Mind of a Psychopath
5/14/13
You may think your name is pretty rare. But whether you’re a John or a Jocasta, a recent study finds that you will consistently rate your first name as rarer than other people would rate it.
Researchers showed 247 subjects a list of nine names and their frequencies in the population. The subjects then rated how rare they thought their own names were, on a scale from 0 to 100. The researchers then asked another group to also rate the names of the volunteers.
Turns out that the subjects always rated their name as more rare than the estimated ratings done by the other group. The study is The British Journal of Social Psychology.
The research also revealed that those with truly rare names tended to be happier with those names. And those who’d ever considered changing their name said it was because they thought theirs was too common.
The researchers think that the assumption that one’s name is less common than it really is comes from a subconscious desire to feel special. But Shakespeare cut to the chase four centuries ago: after all, what’s in a name?
—Christie Nicholson
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
See what we're tweeting about
6 Comments
Add CommentI am pretty sure I am the ONLY Todd Hilehoffer on the Planet.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPerhaps you only read the title - the brief article is about unusual first names. I'm pretty sure there's some other Todds out there...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne of my favorite college basketball players was Baskerville Holmes
(you know - Sherlock Holmes: "The Hound of the Baskervilles")
Not to say there isn't someone out there with the same name as me but I have never met a Calan in my life.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisObviously that for practical purposes we have to feel ourselves the `first person` endowed with certain uniqueness. For our self esteem it is essential that we think that at a certain degree we are `singular persons`.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHowever, you ever thought in your name in the plural form? Like that: Johns Hopkins (?). Yes it is the proper name of a great personality from the past. He was a philanthropist and his name was given for a famous university. This is the well known Johns Hopkins University.
See the history of that name and what Mark twain wrote about this in the topic ` The philanthropist and the founding` at the link,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johns_Hopkins_University
Mark Twain.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell, Todd, I googled the name you posted. You're either very prolific on the web, or, you share your name with others.... That can be a good thing these days though.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this