I saw this article on the New York Times website (found via Alykat) that says we tend to have more of a “connection” to people with names similar to our own. Some of us search for our own names (sometimes even the first and last names together, if they’re common enough), and check to see what those people are doing.
Have I ever done that? Occasionally. When I first signed up with MySpace a few years ago, I remember searching for my first name to see who else came up. (As of this morning, current people-search results for “Zandria” on MySpace results in 4800 matches. I’d guess that not all of those people have “Zandria” as their real first name, but they’re using it in some way on their profile.)
According to the New York Times article, we do this because “human beings are unconsciously drawn to people and things that remind us of ourselves.”
“It’s what we call implicit egotism,” Dr. Pelham, who is now a writer and researcher for the Gallup Organization, said. “We’ve shown time and time again that people are attracted to people, places and things that resemble their names, without a doubt.”
Something else I thought was interesting? Social scientists did these studies, and found that in the past six years “Johnsons are more likely to wed Johnsons, women named Virginia are more likely to live in (and move to) Virginia, and people whose surname is Lane tend to have addresses that include the word ‘lane,’ not ’street.’”
And now, of course, I have to be honest and point out that…hellloooo…..I live in Alexandria. When I moved to the DC area in the fall of 2006, I didn’t choose this location on purpose, per se. But could my subconscious, attracted to the name of this fine city, have been doing the choosing for me? It’s entirely possible.
(Also, when I moved out of my first apartment to the place where I live now, I wasn’t looking at any areas other than Alexandria. Even though I wouldn’t let the name of a place dictate where I moved if I were to leave this particular geographic location, Alexandria does seems like a mighty fine place to live at the moment.)
8 Comments
what a crazy coincidence – I never would’ve picked out “xandria” in Alexandria but…whoa! I wonder what kind of things I’ve done because of my name? I’m leslie and I married a Daniel so I guess we both have “l,” “i” and “e” in our names? So interesting.
Hmm that is very intriguing, though perhaps disliking ones name predisposes one to avoid it? I can’t think of any name related coincidences in my life, but I am not a fan of my name at all!
You know I had this thought/discussion the other day with someone when we were talking about avatars. Some people look like their avatars, some don’t. But I think people think their avatars represent how they see themselves, even if their idealized version of themselves.
haha…I am only laughing because when I think about words that describe you, egotistical would not be in the top 20!
But I understand the comfort factor of seeking out things/people/places that seem comfortable or familiar even if it’s subconscious. The only Janets I know are like 50 yrs old!
As someone with a very very common name, I guess I don’t see it as much. If I were to google Jennifers or search for them on MySpace, the response would be so huge as to be totally meaningless. And I don’t have any close friends named Jennifer–not a single one. Perhaps the opposite is true for me–after a lifetime of having the same name as everone else, I seek out friends with more unusual names (Florence, Marjorie, Laynie)…
That’s really interesting! Now I’m going to spend the rest of the day examining if the things in my life are associated with my name…
ok and **I** thought that zandria was just a nom-du-blog.
that it WAS a play on alexandria and you were rolling incognito.
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Love this post!