So, What’s In a Name?

I remember that chapter in Freakonomics quite well, and not just because it directly applies to me. What I found were people trying to explain away my name based on the Freakonomics theory without paying attention to (1) the conclusion that the authors come to in the chapter and (2) that Freakonomics is a book applying economic theory to random events in real life. Just because Levitt and Freyer came up with a conclusion that does not make their results fact.

If you check out Levitt and Freyer’s original research paper, you see their conclusion clear as day in the first paragraph:

We find, however, no negative relationship between having a distinctively Black name and later life outcomes after controlling for a child’s circumstances at birth.

So research suggests there is no negative relationship.

However, there is a social penalty, which we discovered in Wendi’s post Sumpin’ Turrrble. There are still many people who will place a value judgement on your name, which does have an impact on one very key area of life. Let’s revisit the second paragraph from the Times’ article:

“Names only have a significant influence when that is the only thing you know about the person,” said Dr. Ford, a developmental psychologist at George Mason University. “Add a picture, and the impact of the name recedes. Add information about personality, motivation and ability, and the impact of the name shrinks to minimal significance.”

So, where in life does it occur when someone is in the position to make a value judgement about you based only on your name?

In the hiring process.

The only time in my adult life when I have ever considered using a different version of my name was a couple years ago, when I was on the border of being an administrative assistant and getting a job with a new title. I noticed that the amount of callbacks I received did not reflect my qualifications. In many cases, I was overqualified in the right ways for the position (i.e., they asked for three years and I had four; they asked for MS Office and I had that plus bookkeeping, etc.) but still did not get the call back. My time based in recruiting positions also fed my name based-paranoia because I remember seeing things like that happen. People would look at the name on the resume and make a value judgement, regardless of skills. So ethnic names (and I mean any ethnic name – last or first) were often assumed to be accompanied by an accent and therefore deemed inappropriate for reception duties. Sometimes it was the recruiter making this judgement call, sometimes it was the client, but a lot of people with adequate to excellent resumes never got the chance to present themselves in an interview.

Ultimately, I decided that having my name potentially work against me in hiring might be a positive thing. I doubt I would want to work for a company who would use a name as means to select a candidate. So it works out.

Also, in Wendi’s post, a few of the commenters brought up some excellent points. EvilAngelFish’s post (number 73) shows how bias factors into areas like housing and recruitment. And commenter Wanna provides the other side of this perspective:

Wanna wrote:

Interesting discussion and points made by all.

My first name is Tawanna. When I was a child, people of all colors used to have a lot of trouble with it. But I haven’t had an issue with it in decades, and I have not personally felt any stigma with having such an ethnic sounding name.

Except from other blacks.

My husband told me once that when he and I were getting to know each other in college, he “was surprised at how intelligent I was for a Tawanna”. *wrinkles nose* And when I met his mother, she was blunt enough to comment on the poor choice of name my parents gave me. Since then, the only other negative experiences I have had with my name have been from other blacks on message boards.

I thought of Wanna’s comment when I was reading the Stuff Black People Hate Blog.**** In Admiral Furious’ latest post, he takes on what he calls “Stupid Names:”

At a Kenneth Cole in Bethesda a few months back, I had the pleasure of meeting a very attractive young black woman working the sales floor. Very tall, very well-built, assertive yet soft-spoken, and ambitious enough to be pursuing an advanced degree without being a dick about it. I was damn near ready to marry this girl on the spot.

Then she told me her name. “La La.”

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