Why Your Name Matters

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In 1948, two professors at Harvard University published a study of thirty-three hundred new graduates, looking at whether their names had any bearing on1. have bearing on： 與……有關(guān)，對(duì)……有影響。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 problems than those with more common names.2. flunk out： 〈口〉因?qū)W分成績(jī)不及格而被學(xué)校除名；exhibit：顯示出，表現(xiàn)出；symptom：癥狀；psychological： 心理上的，精神上的。The Mikes were doing just fine, but the Berriens were having trouble.3. 叫邁克的人表現(xiàn)都很好，但是叫貝里恩的人卻遇到了麻煩。A rare name,the professors surmised, had a negative psychological effect on its bearer.4. surmise： 推測(cè)，認(rèn)為；bearer：此處指名字所有者。

Since then, researchers have continued to study the effects of names. Some recent research suggests that names can in fluence 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.5. disaster victim： 災(zāi)民，災(zāi)難受害者；initial： 姓名的首字母縮寫(xiě)；relief fund： 救濟(jì)金，救助金。

《說(shuō)文解字》中解釋“名”時(shí)稱(chēng)：“名自命也”。一直以來(lái)，人們或多或少地都會(huì)意識(shí)到名字對(duì)人的性格和成就的影響。雖然東西方取名的習(xí)慣和理念有所不同，但是天下父母心，都想為自己的孩子取個(gè)好名字，掙個(gè)好命運(yùn)。但同樣的，疑問(wèn)也從未停止過(guò)：“天下同名同姓人之多，為什么同樣的姓名，人的命運(yùn)卻差千里呢？”名字密碼遠(yuǎn)非如此簡(jiǎn)單，里面盤(pán)根錯(cuò)節(jié)地牽扯了歷史學(xué)、心理學(xué)、社會(huì)學(xué)、經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)……看來(lái)，取個(gè)好名字不容易啊。

Much of the apparent in fluence 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.6. attribute to： 把……歸因于，認(rèn)為是……的結(jié)果；implicit-egotism：內(nèi)隱自我中心理論，認(rèn)為人們潛意識(shí)中會(huì)傾向于與自己相關(guān)的事物；resemble： 像，與……相似。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.7. all things being equal： 其他條件相同的情況下；Mazda： 馬自達(dá)汽車(chē)，日本汽車(chē)品牌；Kia： 起亞汽車(chē)，韓國(guó)汽車(chē)品牌。

That view, however, may not withstand closer scrutiny.8. withstand： 經(jīng)得起，頂?shù)米?；scrutiny：仔細(xì)檢查，審查。It is argued that the findings are statistical flukes that arise from poor methodology.9. fluke： 僥幸，偶然；methodology： 方法論。For example, it may be appealing10. appealing： 有吸引力的，有感染力的。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 valid11. valid： 有效的，正確的。.

There are also researchers who have been more measured12. measured： 慎重的，有分寸的。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. And while a person’s name may unconsciously in fluence his or her thinking, its effects on decision-making are limited. Followup studies have also questioned the link between names and longevity,career choice and success, geographic and marriage preferences,13. longevity： 長(zhǎng)壽，長(zhǎng)命； geographic：地理學(xué)的，地理分布的。and academic achievement.

However, it does not necessarily mean 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 in Chicago and Boston. They faked groups of what they termed “whitesounding 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 pro file,14. candidate： 應(yīng)試者，候選者；pro file：（對(duì)一個(gè)人的能力、個(gè)性的）簡(jiǎn)要描述，簡(jiǎn)介。and a lower-quality group, with some obvious gaps in employment or background. They sent two résumés from each quali fication 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.15. 他們發(fā)現(xiàn)：“名字聽(tīng)起來(lái)像白人”的求職者收到招聘者電話(huà)的幾率要高出百分之五十，而且擁有“聽(tīng)起來(lái)像白人”名字的簡(jiǎn)歷相對(duì)于“聽(tīng)起來(lái)像黑人”名字的簡(jiǎn)歷要多出八年以上工作經(jīng)驗(yàn)的優(yōu)勢(shì)。roughly： 粗略地，大致上；equivalent： 相同的，相等的。At average, 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.

The effects of name-signaling—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 in fluenced how he or she was treated by the teacher, and that differential treatment, in turn, translated to16. translate to： 把……轉(zhuǎn)化為。test scores. Children with names that were linked to low socioeconomic status or being black, were met with lower teacher expectations. Unsurprisingly, they then performed more poorly than their counterparts17. counterpart： 地位相同的人，對(duì)應(yīng)方。with nonblack, higher-status names. And children with Asian-sounding names 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 recent days. 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.18. 那種地位，反過(guò)來(lái)，影響了一個(gè)孩子隨后的人生成就——意味著名字和成就之間可能還是存在著關(guān)聯(lián)的，這與1948年哈佛大學(xué)研究的發(fā)現(xiàn)相似。subsequent： 隨后的，后來(lái)的；correlation： 相互關(guān)系，關(guān)聯(lián)。As theysaid, “Names tell us a lot about who you are.”

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.19. 我們看到一個(gè)名字時(shí)，會(huì)暗自將其與不同的特征聯(lián)系起來(lái)，然后利用（盡管是不自覺(jué)地）這種聯(lián)系對(duì)名字持有者的能力和適宜性做出不相干的判斷。The relevant question may not be“What’s in a name?” but, rather, “What signals does my name send—and what does it imply?”