Nominative determinism

Nominative determinism is the hypothesis that people tend to gravitate toward areas of work or interest that fit their names. The term was first used in the magazine New Scientist in 1994, after the magazine's humorous "Feedback" column noted several scientific studies carried out by researchers with remarkably fitting surnames. These included a book on polar explorations by Daniel Snowman and an article on urology by researchers named Splatt and Weedon. These and other examples led to lighthearted speculation that some sort of psychological effect was at work.

Since the term appeared, nominative determinism has been an irregularly recurring topic in New Scientist, as readers continue to submit examples. Nominative determinism differs from the related concept aptronym, and its synonyms "aptonym", "namephreak" and "Perfect Fit Last Name" (captured by the Latin phrase , which means "the name is a sign"), in that it focuses on causality. "Aptronym" merely means the name is fitting, without saying anything about why it has come to fit.

The idea that people are drawn to professions that fit their name was suggested by the psychologist Carl Jung, citing as an example Sigmund Freud who studied pleasure and whose surname means 'joy'. A few recent empirical studies have indicated that certain professions are disproportionately represented by people with appropriate surnames (and sometimes given names), though the methods of these studies have been challenged. One explanation for nominative determinism is implicit egotism, which states that humans have an unconscious preference for things they associate with themselves.

Background

Template:Globalize section In history, before people could gravitate toward areas of work that matched their names, many people were given names that matched their area of work.Template:Sfn The way people are named has changed over time.Template:Sfn In pre-urban times, people were known by a single name – for example, the Anglo-Saxon name Beornheard.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn-ua Single names were chosen for their meaning or given as nicknames.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In England, it was only after the Norman Conquest that surnames appear, although some pre-Conquest individuals had a byname, such as Edmund Ironside; these bynames were not hereditary.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Surnames were created to fit the person, mostly from patronyms (e.g., John, son of William, becomes John Williamson), occupational descriptions (e.g., John Carpenter), character or traits (e.g., John Long), or location (e.g., John from Acton became John Acton).Template:Sfn Names were not initially hereditary; only by the mid-14th century did they gradually become so.Template:Sfn Surnames relating to trades or craft were the first to become hereditary, as the craft often persisted within the family for generations.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn-ua The appropriateness of occupational names has decreased over time, because tradesmen did not always follow their fathers:Template:Sfn an early example from the 14th century is "Roger Carpenter the pepperer".Template:Sfn

Another aspect of naming was the importance attached to the wider meaning contained in a name. In 17th-century England, it was believed that choosing a name for a child should be done carefully. Children should live according to the message contained therein, or the meaning of their names.Template:Sfn In 1652, William Jenkyn, an English clergyman, argued that first names should be "as a thread tyed about the finger to make us mindful of the errand we came into the world to do for our Master".Template:Sfn In 1623, at a time when Puritan names such as Faith, Fortitude and Grace were appearing for the first time, the English historian William Camden wrote that names should be chosen with "good and gracious significations", as they might inspire the bearer to good actions.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn With the rise of the British Empire, the English naming system and English surnames spread across large portions of the globe.Template:Sfn

By the beginning of the 20th century, Smith and Taylor were two of the three most frequently occurring English surnames; both were occupational, though few smiths and tailors remained.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn-ua When a correspondence between a name and an occupation did occur, it became worthy of note. In an 1888 issue of the Kentish Note Book magazine, a list appeared with "several carriers by the name of Carter; a hosier named Hosegood; an auctioneer named Sales; and a draper named Cuff".Template:Sfn Since then, a variety of terms for the concept of a close relationship between name and occupation have emerged. The term aptronym is thought to have been coined in the early 20th century by the American newspaper columnist Franklin P. Adams.Template:Sfn The linguist Frank Nuessel coined "aptonym", without an "r", in 1992.Template:Sfn Other synonyms include "euonym",Template:Sfn "Perfect Fit Last Name" (PFLN),Template:Sfn and "namephreak".Template:Sfn In literary science, a name that particularly suits a character is called a "charactonym".Template:Sfn Notable authors who frequently used charactonyms as a stylistic technique include Charles Dickens (e.g., Mr. Gradgrind, the tyrannical schoolmaster)Template:Sfn and William Shakespeare (e.g., the lost baby Perdita in The Winter's Tale).Template:Sfn Unlike nominative determinism, the concept of aptronym and its synonyms do not say anything about causality, such as why the name has come to fit.Template:Sfn

Because of the potentially humorous nature of aptronyms, a number of newspapers have collected them. The San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen reported irregularly on reader-submitted examples, including a substitute teacher Mr. Fillin, a piano teacher Patience Scales, and the Vatican's spokesman on the evils of rock 'n' roll, Cardinal Rapsong.Template:Sfn Similarly, the journalist Bob Levey on occasion listed examples sent in by readers of his column in The Washington Post: a food industry consultant named Faith Popcorn, a lieutenant called Sergeant, and a tax accountant called Shelby Goldgrab.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn A Dutch newspaper, Het Parool, had an irregularly featured column called "Nomen est omen"Template:Efn-ua with Dutch examples.Template:Sfn Individual name collectors have also published books of aptronyms.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The onomastic scholar R. M. Rennick called for more verification of aptronyms appearing in newspaper columns and books.Template:Sfn Lists of aptronyms in science, medicine, and law are more reliable as they tend to be drawn from easily verifiable sources.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Definition

File:Arthur Prior in Wakefield 1959 from son Martin Prior.png

Arthur Prior was known for his contribution to temporal logic.Template:Sfn

Nominative determinism, literally "name-driven outcome",Template:Sfn is the hypothesis that people tend to gravitate toward areas of work that reflect their names. The name fits because people, possibly subconsciously, made themselves fit. Nominative determinism differs from the concept of aptronyms in that it focuses on causality.Template:Sfn

The term has its origin in the "Feedback" column of the magazine New Scientist in 1994. A series of events raised the suspicion of its editor, John Hoyland, who wrote in the November 5 issue:

The editors of Feedback, John Hoyland and Mike Holderness, subsequently adopted the term "nominative determinism" as suggested by the reader C. R. Cavonius. The term first appeared in the December 17 issue.Template:Sfn Even though the magazine tried to ban the topic numerous times over the decades since,Template:Sfn readers kept sending in curious examples. These included the U.S. Navy spokesman put up to answer journalists' questions about the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, one Lieutenant Mike Kafka;Template:Sfn authors of the book The Imperial Animal, Lionel Tiger and Robin Fox;Template:Sfn and the UK Association of Chief Police Officers' spokesman on knife crime, Alfred Hitchcock.Template:Sfn

As used in New Scientist the term nominative determinism applies only to work.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn In contributions to other newspapers, New Scientist writers have stuck to this definition, with the exception of the editor Roger Highfield in a column in the Evening Standard, in which he included "key attributes of life".Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Efn-ua

Prior to 1994, other terms for the suspected psychological effect were used sporadically. "Onomastic determinism" was used as early as 1970 by Roberta Frank.Template:Sfn The German psychologist Wilhelm Stekel spoke of (The obligation of the name) in 1911.Template:Sfn Outside of science, "cognomen syndrome" was used by the playwright Tom Stoppard in his 1972 play Jumpers.Template:Sfn In Ancient Rome, the predictive power of a person's name was captured by the Latin proverb , meaning 'the name is a sign'.Template:Sfn This saying is still in use today in EnglishTemplate:Sfn and other languages such as French,Template:Sfn German,Template:Sfn Italian,Template:Sfn Dutch,Template:Sfn SlovenianTemplate:Sfn and Polish.

New Scientist coined the term "nominative contradeterminism" for people who move away from their name, creating a contradiction between name and occupation. Examples include Andrew Waterhouse, a professor of wine;Template:Sfn a would-be doctor, Thomas Edward Kill, who subsequently changed his name to Jirgensohn;Template:Sfn and the Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Sin.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn-ua The synonym "inaptronym" is also sometimes used.Template:Sfn

Research

Theoretical framework

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Mark L. Prophet, prophet, founder of The Summit Lighthouse

The first scientists to discuss the concept that names had a determining effect were early 20th-century German psychologists.Template:Sfn Wilhelm Stekel spoke of the "obligation of the name" in the context of compulsive behaviour and choice of occupation;Template:Sfn Karl Abraham wrote that the determining power of names might be partially caused by inheriting a trait from an ancestor who was given a fitting name. He made the further inference that families with fitting names might then try to live up to their names in some way.Template:Sfn In 1952, Carl Jung referred to Stekel's work in his theory of synchronicity (events without causal relationship that yet seem to be meaningfully related):Template:Sfn

Jung listed striking instances among psychologists—including himself: "Herr Freud (Joy) champions the pleasure principle, Herr Adler (Eagle) the will to power, Herr Jung (Young) the idea of rebirth ..."Template:Sfn

In 1975, the psychologist Lawrence Casler called for empirical research into the relative frequencies of career-appropriate names to establish if there is an effect at work or whether we are being "seduced by Lady Luck". He proposed three possible explanations for nominative determinism: one's self-image and self-expectation being internally influenced by one's name; the name acting as a social stimulus, creating expectations in others that are then communicated to the individual; and genetics – attributes suited to a particular career being passed down the generations alongside the appropriate occupational surname.Template:Sfn

In 2002, the researchers Pelham, Mirenberg, and Jones explored Casler's first explanation, arguing that people have a basic desire to feel good about themselves and behave according to that desire. These automatic positive associations would influence feelings about almost anything associated with the self. Given the mere ownership effect, which states that people like things more if they own them, the researchers theorised that people would develop an affection for objects and concepts that are associated with the self, such as their name.Template:Efn-ua They called this unconscious power implicit egotism.Template:Sfn Uri Simonsohn suggested that implicit egotism applies only to cases where people are nearly indifferent between options, and therefore it would not apply to major decisions such as career choices. Low-stakes decisions such as choosing a charity would show an effect.Template:Sfn Raymond Smeets theorised that if implicit egotism stems from a positive evaluation of the self, then people with low self-esteem would not gravitate toward choices associated with the self, but possibly away from them. A lab experiment confirmed this.Template:Sfn

Empirical evidence

Portrait of a man in a business suit

Igor Judge, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2008 to 2013

Those with fitting names give differing accounts of the effect of their name on their career choices. Igor Judge, former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, said he has no recollection of anyone commenting on his destined profession when he was a child, adding "I'm absolutely convinced in my case it is entirely coincidental and I can't think of any evidence in my life that suggests otherwise." James Counsell, on the other hand, having chosen a career in law just like his father, his sibling, and two distant relatives, reported having been spurred on to join the bar from an early age and he cannot remember ever wanting to do anything else.Template:Sfn Sue Yoo, an American lawyer, said that when she was younger people urged her to become a lawyer because of her name, which she thinks may have helped her decision.Template:Sfn Weather reporter Storm Field was not sure about the influence of his name; his father, Frank Field, also a weather reporter, was his driving force.Template:Sfn Psychology professor Lewis Lipsitt, a lifelong collector of aptronyms,Template:Sfn was lecturing about nominative determinism in class when a student pointed out that Lipsitt himself was subject to the effect since he studied babies' sucking behaviour. Lipsitt said "That had never occurred to me."Template:Sfn Church of England vicar the Reverend Michael Vickers denied being a Vickers had anything to do with him becoming a vicar, suggesting instead that in some cases "perhaps people are actually escaping from their name, rather than moving towards their job".Template:Sfn

I remember as a child people saying to me "of course you are going to be a barrister because of your name". How much is down to the subconscious is difficult to say, but the fact that your name is similar may be a reason for showing more interest in a profession than you might otherwise. Any link in adult eyes may seem trivial but to someone in their formative years starting to think about their career it's possible it may have an effect.

Template:Mdash James Counsell, barristerTemplate:Sfn

While reports by owners of fitting names are of interest, some scientists, including Michalos and Smeets, have questioned their value in deciding whether nominative determinism is a real effect.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Instead, they argue that the claim that a name affects life decisions is an extraordinary one that requires extraordinary evidence.Template:Sfn To select only those cases that seem to give evidence for nominative determinism is to ignore those that do not. Analysis of large numbers of names is therefore needed.Template:Sfn In 2002, Pelham, Mirenberg, and Jones analysed various databases containing first names, surnames, occupations, cities and states. In one study, they concluded that people named Dennis gravitate toward dentistry. They did this by retrieving the number of dentists called Dennis (482) from a database of US dentists. They then used the 1990 Census to find out which male first name was the next most popular after Dennis: Walter. The likelihood of a US male being called Dennis was 0.415% and the likelihood of a US male being called Walter was 0.416%. The researchers then retrieved the number of dentists called Walter (257). Comparing the relative frequencies of Dennis and Walter led them to their conclusion that the name Dennis is overrepresented in dentistry.Template:Sfn However, in 2011, Uri Simonsohn published a paper in which he criticized Pelham et al. for not considering confounding factors and reported on how the popularity of Dennis and Walter as baby names has varied over the decades. Given Walter was a relatively old-fashioned name, it was far more likely for Pelham et al. to find people named Dennis to have any job, not just that of dentist, and people named Walter to be retired. Simonsohn did indeed find a disproportionally high number of Dennis lawyers compared to Walter lawyers.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn-ua

Aware of Simonsohn's critical analyses of their earlier methods, Pelham and Mauricio published a new study in 2015, describing how they now controlled for gender, ethnicity, and education confounds.Template:Efn-ua In one study, they looked at census data and concluded that men disproportionately worked in eleven occupations whose titles matched their surnames; for example, baker, carpenter, and farmer.Template:Sfn

In 2009, Michalos reported the results of an analysis of the occurrences of people with the surname Counsell registered as independent barristers in England and Wales versus those with the name in England and Wales as whole. Given the low frequency of the name in England and Wales as a whole, he expected to find no one registered, but three barristers named Counsell were found.Template:Sfn

File:Amy Freeze at Soldier Field.jpg

Amy Freeze, meteorologist

In 2015, researchers Limb, Limb, Limb and Limb found that British doctors have surnames related to their specialties more often than expected by chance. Reproductive medicine had the largest proportion, with 1 in 52 doctors having specialty-relevant surnames including Horn, Hussey, and Woodcock. Second was urology, with 1 in 59 related names such as Burns, Waterfall, Ball, and Koch.Template:Sfn "Dr Pain" appeared most commonly in general surgery.Template:Sfn

Selected data from Limb, Limb, Limb and Limb

Specialty	Surname frequency	Surname examples
Cardiology	8 (1 in 213)	Hart, Pump, Payne
Dermatology	4 (1 in 243)	Boyle or Hickey
General medicine	63 (1 in 101)	Mysore, Safe, Warning
General surgery	56 (1 in 91)	Gore, Butcher, Boyle, Blunt
Paediatric medicine	46 (1 in 119)	Boys, Gal, Child, Kinder
Plastic surgery	7 (1 in 140)	Carver, Mole, Price

In 2010, Abel came to a similar conclusion. In one study, he compared doctors and lawyers whose first or last names began with three-letter combinations representative of their professions – for example, "doc", "law" – and likewise found a significant relationship between name and profession. Abel also found that the initial letters of physicians' last names were significantly related to their subspecialty. For example, Raymonds were more likely to be radiologists than dermatologists.Template:Sfn

As for Casler's third possible explanation for nominative determinism, genetics researchers Voracek, Rieder, Stieger, and Swami found some evidence for it in 2015. They reported that today's Smiths still tend to have the physical capabilities of their ancestors who were smiths. People called Smith reported above-average aptitude for strength-related activities. A similar aptitude for dexterity-related activities among people with the surname Tailor, or equivalent spellings thereof, was found, but it was not statistically significant. In the researchers' view, a genetic-social hypothesis appears more viable than the hypothesis of implicit egotism effects.Template:Sfn

See also

• Linguistic relativity
• Aptronym