Would your life be different...

[justinkiller]

Do you think your life would be different if you were given a different name at birth?

This is a question I have been thinking about for a while, and about 50% of the people I ask say yes it would, and the other half say no, so I thought I would ask on here too.
For my example lets pretend that everyone stereotypes Samanthas as quiet, and Sarahs as loud and outgoing.
Lets say you are a girl born with the name Samantha, through your life you are quiet, and nice, do you think if you were given the name Sarah, that the way people talk to and think of Sarahs in general would make you more outgoing?

 

[Laptop65]

I think yes, I think people treat or act different towards people depending on what their name is. I think it would be different, yes.

 

[Dimethyl]

I highly doubt it, unless it's a really unique name. I'm sure there would be a few small things different about my life, but I'd pretty much still be the same person I am now. For the most part, no one is going to treat you any differently if your name is Samantha instead of Sarah, other than someone maybe commenting on having the same name as you or something. I still don't see how your name would affect your overall personality though.

 

No, as i've changed my name legally.

 

[Loyal 2 da game]

I bet if my birth name was Faggot, I'd probably treated a lot differently.

 

Unless it was something really odd and stupid, no. Kids who have dumb names get bullied, so I think that'd make you a different person.. so in some cases it might.

 

[Silver]

I actually had my name changed legally to Jason, so I don't think it would have changed me personally .

 

[Loyal 2 da game]

I actually had my name changed legally to Jason, so I don't think it would have changed me personally .

i dont mean to derail this thread but i just have a few questions:

why?
what made you choose that name?
how did you do it?

 

[Silver]

i dont mean to derail this thread but i just have a few questions:

why?
what made you choose that name?
how did you do it?

My name was a vietnamese name at first chosen by my mom, I found it to unique and at school it would be hard for like the teacher just to pronounce my name. I chose the name Jason when I was around 6, it was actually randomly chose when I was watching "Power Rangers" and the red ranger's name was Jason lol.. and how did I do it, my mom actually legally changed it for me, and she also legally changed her name because at that time she was mad about some family issues.

 

[rue]

If my current name (Roman) was replaced with a more generic name such as Joseph, then yes. I probably would've accumulated more nicknames over the years but nothing more than that.

 

[Pockets]

Lots of studies suggest that names do in fact have a noticeable impact on the future of individuals.

Here's a pretty interesting example: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=684721

 

Yes, very. I've been using an alias since age 12 and still am!

 

[SexayMistahBee]

Nope, we don't have stereotypes related to names

 

[kill dank]

See, it definitely would for me. I am the only person in the world with my first name. It is constantly getting spelled wrong and pronounced wrong.. A lot would change, I'd suspect.

 

[rue]

See, it definitely would for me. I am the only person in the world with my first name. It is constantly getting spelled wrong and pronounced wrong.. A lot would change, I'd suspect.

For the record, what's your name?

 

[Rocket.Sales]

I don't think this's a relation betwen a personality and a name either a girl's or a boy's. Personality can’t be changed by our names but can be changed by a lot of situations such as life stress, fall in love with girls or boys who like outgoing personality but we’re not... So we should think what we want and what we need, that’s the real key to change our personality. It’s just my personal viewpoint.

 

[Dave.]

In my opinion, names relate to personality, like some people called richard may act the same way etc, it's quite noticeable if you think about it and know a lot of people who have the same name, obviously this isn't the same for everyone though, and yes i do think i would be different.

 

[Lame]

Im sure a teenager named Dick would have a much better quality of "Highschool life" if his name was john or chris or josh or something.

 

[I_DONT_BOT]

Dick is a nickname for 'richard'....

I don't think so. I think if I wasn't called jack my life wouldn't be any different, as it's only what people call you, that wouldn't affect my lifestyle, whether I joined sythe or whether I worked on a farm, as I'm sure we have nearly every name under the sun as a sythe member. I'd like to think that if it could make a difference, the only one would be a different surname, meaning different parents and a totally different lifestyle, but I'm quite happy with my current life thanks.

 

[Sun]

As a young kid (in primary school and heading into junior high), I think it'd make a slight difference as kids may think the name is funny and not want to be your friend. I don't think it'd make that much of a difference otherwise.