How Attractive Is My Name?
I was supposed to be born on July 4th. Eager to fit into a country they just immigrated to, my parents named me after America’s first president. So I became a “George.”
Growing up, I liked my name. It’s recognizable without being overly common. I never had to compete with another “George” in any of my classes nor did I ever have to spell out my name to someone over the phone.
But then hormones hit. Suddenly the topic of girls swept through my brain like a horde of Dothraki riders and I started to resent my name because of what I saw as its biggest downside: “George” isn’t sexy.
The Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome of women’s dreams is a Michael, Alejandro, or Ryan. Yes, George Clooney is a housewife heartthrob, but for most people, “George” conjures up comparisons to the Bushes, George Takei, or even George Constanza. If life were a movie, “George” is the boring husband the female protagonist cheats on with the bad-boy firefighter.
But why?
In theory, my name has nothing to do with how attractive I actually am. Yet people have preconceived notions about me because of my name.
These stereotypes go beyond my specific name. Finding out you’re going on a date with a “Scarlett” feels more exotic than planning to meet a “Margaret.” Every name triggers instantaneous judgments, which in turn make some names more attractive than others.
So I wanted to understand why.
“George” is not an attractive boy name.
Exploring why some names are more attractive than others assumes that some names are more attractive than others. But maybe that’s wrong. Maybe my belief that “George” is an unattractive name is just a rationalization for my lack of success with women.
So I conducted a survey asking people to rate the attractiveness of different names. I used the five most popular names for both men and women across three different time periods: 1880, 1993, and 2018.
If people found all names equally attractive, then all the names should have the same rating.
Yet there was a statistically significant difference between the top rated boy and girl names (Michael & Olivia) and the bottom-rated names (Frank & Minnie).
“George” — a popular boy name from the 1880s — was actually the second least attractive boy name on the list. So it’s not just in my head. Stacy did only turn me down in the 9th grade because of my name (or at least that’s what I’ll continue to tell myself).
Dating apps support my results. The dating app The Grade (think British Tinder) found that certain boy names — such as Brett — have a higher positive swipe rate than other names — such as Joey (24% vs. 17%). For women, Briannas have the most success (70%) while Alisons are more likely to get passed over (57%).
So some names are hot. And some names are decidedly less so.
But what determines what names are which?
Popular baby names change over time.
On a surface level, a cognitive scientist from MIT found that certain names just sound better than others. Male names with a stressed vowel sound at the front of the mouth (e.g. Nick or Matt) were more attractive than names where the dominant vowel is made at the back of the throat (e.g. Paul or Charles).
Unfortunately for me, George falls in the latter category.
For women it’s the reverse. Women with round-sounding names (e.g. Laura) tended to score higher than those with smaller vowel sounds (e.g. Amy).
An article titled “The Attractiveness of Names” provides an explanation.
Researchers show how a well-documented psychological phenomenon called the “mere-exposure effect” affects our perceptions of names. Simply put, the more frequently we are exposed to certain stimuli (face, objects, concepts), the more likely we are to have a positive preference for that stimulus. So it could be that many years ago, front-mouth vowel names just happened to be more popular than back-mouth vowel names, which created a virtuous cycle leading to front-mouth vowel names to be more attractive.
This would also explain why my name, “George,” was less attractive: it had fallen out of vogue. Looking at my survey results, there was a clear difference in attractiveness between the more popular names of today (1993 & 2018), compared to the older names of the 1880’s.
But while this showed that attractive names tend to be more popular, it pushes the question one level deeper, how do certain names become popular and why do other names fall out of popularity?
Let’s start with the second question first. The same researchers who determined that popular names tend to be more well-liked also established that there is a tipping point to such an effect — what they call the “inverted U hypothesis.” There reaches a point where a name becomes too popular and a cooling-off period follows where the name declines.
An example of this is “Charlotte.” This baby name was popular leading up to the 50’s before falling out of favor, only to resurface five decades later.
For my name, “George” was popular in America during the 1880’s but as a boy baby name, it has been on a steady decline ever since.
If I were to move to the UK though, I would have more luck. “George” has resurfaced as a baby name starting in the mid 1970’s.
But what sparks these baby name trends? There are some clues.
Pop culture certainly plays a role. After Game of Thrones became popular, “Khaleesi” ranked among the top 1000 most popular baby girl names in the US. And for “George” in the UK, Prince George’s birth noticeably affected the name’s rise as well.
Where you live also makes a difference. More independently minded Northwestern “frontier” states are found to be less likely to choose popular baby names.
Researchers have also observed that people have a tendency to mash together previously popular names to create newly popular names. For example, if names that start with a “K” were previously popular (such as “Katie”) as well as names that end with “en” (like “Warren”), then there’s a higher likelihood that a name such as “Karen” would be a popular girl baby name going forward.
But at the end of the day, nobody really knows. Understanding why a name is popular is like trying to understand why bowl cuts became fashionable in the 90’s — there’s no clear reason, just a lot of head shaking.
So what does my name say about me?
So back to my name. It may be unsexy, but I’ve learned to love it. For every awkward networking event where I had to share a fun fact about myself, I get to default to the story behind my name.
Because at the end of the day, you get to determine what you do with your name more than how your name defines you. And that’s why I’ve written an entire article about being named “George.”