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Does Your Baby’s Name Predict Her Future?
Can a Baby's Name Predict Her Destiny?
Naming a child is frequently the first big decision you make as a parent. There’s a lot of pressure on you to pick just the right name — one that suits your child, sounds good with your last name, and that both you and your spouse can agree upon.
But is your choice of a baby name going to determine your child’s destiny? To some extent, it will, argues “Freakonomics” authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.
In July, I wrote about how your baby’s name could even predict her career path. Research in Names: A Journal of Onomastics found that people’s names can influence the type of career they take.
Now, in the upcoming film version of “Freakonomics,” the authors ask, “Can a name have some sort of magical power over your entire destiny?”
To make their case, the filmmakers present the story of a girl named Temptress who grew up to be sexually promiscuous and eventually ran into troubles with the law. Was young Temptress merely trying to live up to the expectations of her provocative name? Watch this video clip from ”Freakonomics” and decide for yourself.
What do you think? What does your child’s name say about him or her? Do you think names determine people’s life paths?
Photo: flickr/almoko
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Kathy Newman commented on Sep 14 10 at 11:55 amI thought more about this with my daughter than my son. I have a girl cousin named after our grandfather, David (her name is Dava) and she is one of the only women aeronautical engineers in the country, and has tenure at MIT. I wanted Alex (great grandfather’s name) or Bill (probably Billie) for my daughter, but we waited until after she was born to name her and went with “gender neutral”, Casey. I do think she has a more masculine orientation (interested more in Martial Arts than Ballet) but I’ll be curious to see how it plays out! She also has my husband’s surname, whereas our son has mine! So that will also be an interesting thing to watch! I love this topic!
Emily commented on Sep 14 10 at 12:52 pmI hear a lot about our chosen names, but I have to say that it’s also the atmosphere in which you’re raised. The example in the clip is extreme, but I have a feeling if she’d gotten “tempest” right – or heck, even named her daughter ashley or brooke or janet — that atmosphere would still have produced a troubled girl.
ABB commented on Sep 14 10 at 2:18 pmI agree with Emily. It seems like the little girl was doomed from the start.
paulabernstein commented on Sep 14 10 at 2:27 pmI’m curious why Emily and ABB think that this girl was doomed from the start. Was it because her mother couldn’t even spell her name correctly or because we assume she didn’t get a proper education/upbringing? The video isn’t clear on those points.
Lucky commented on Sep 15 10 at 9:38 amI’d bed it’s got more to do with the parents raising their children according to the name they chose. Someone who uses a Biblical name isn’t going to raise their kid the same as someone who chooses hippy names, or even hipster names…
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