Nominative determinism

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Nominative determinism (ND) is the hypothesis[1] that a person's name may have a significant role in determining key aspects of job, profession, or even character. Writing in 1953, Carl Jung gave the example of a food minister named Herr Feist ("Mr Stout"). He also mentioned his own last name and that of fellow psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, which respectively, mean "young" and "joy" in German. He pointed out that these are potential examples of what he called the compulsion of the name, considering Freud's pleasure principle and Jung's idea of rebirth.[1]

Such a connection between name and character was a commonly held notion in the ancient world and the Latin term nomen est omen (from Greek όνομα ορίζοντας) is still commonly heard in English and other languages, but translations such as nomenclature is destiny,[2] Jung's compulsion of the name, and others are sometimes heard.

The term nominative determinism was coined in 1994 by New Scientist editor John Hoyland.[3] Synonyms and related concepts include: aptronym, apronym, aptonym, euonym, jobonyms, 'namephreaks', onomastic determinism, 'perfect fit last names' (PFLNs), psychonymics. Tom Stoppard in his play Jumpers labelled the phenomenon cognomen syndrome.[4]

A related term, to refer to a name peculiarly suited to its owner, is the aptronym, said to have been coined by the U.S. newspaper columnist Franklin P. Adams. The distinction between nominative determinacy and a mere aptronym is seen as subtle, but fundamental: i.e. post hoc vs propter hoc. Sometimes ND researchers are referred to as comiconomenclaturists—connoisseurs of humorous names.

Origin and meaning[edit]

The term nominative determinism had its origin in the 'Feedback' column of the British popular science magazine New Scientist in 1994:

"We recently came across a new book, Pole Positions—The Polar Regions and the Future of the Planet, by Daniel Snowman. Then, a couple of weeks later, we received a copy of London Under London—A Subterranean Guide, one of the authors of which is Richard Trench. So it was interesting to see Jen Hunt of the University of Manchester stating in the October issue of The Psychologist: "Authors gravitate to the area of research which fits their surname." Hunt's example is an article on incontinence in the British Journal of Urology by A. J. Splatt and D. Weedon.[5][6][7][8]
We feel it's time to open up this whole issue to rigorous scrutiny. You are invited to send in examples of the phenomenon in the fields of science and technology (with references that check out, please) together with any hypotheses you may have on how it comes about. No prizes, other than seeing your name in print and knowing you have contributed to the advance of human knowledge."[9]

An earlier and widely cited instance of the idea that name may significantly influence choice or behaviour is contained in Carl Jung's seminal 1952 paper on synchronicity:

"We find ourselves in something of a quandary when it comes to making up our minds about the phenomenon which Stekel calls the 'compulsion of the name'. What he means by this is the sometimes quite gross coincidence between a man's name and his peculiarities or profession. For instance ... Herr Feist (Mr Stout) is the food minister, Herr Rosstäuscher (Mr Horsetrader) is a lawyer, Herr Kalberer (Mr Calver) is an obstetrician ... Are these the whimsicalities of chance, or the suggestive effects of the name, as Stekel seems to suggest, or are they 'meaningful coincidences'?"[10]

Jung listed striking instances among psychologists—including himself:

"Herr Freud (Joy) champions the pleasure principle, Herr Adler (Eagle) the will to power, Herr Jung (Young) the idea of rebirth…"[10][11]

Research[edit]

Theoretical framework[edit]

Researchers Pelham, Mirenberg, and Jones argue that people have a basic desire to feel good about themselves and behave, knowingly or unknowingly, according to that desire. People’s positive automatic associations about themselves may influence their feelings about almost anything that people associate with the self. Given that people like objects more when they have been given to them, the ‘’mere ownership effect’’, they theorise that people should develop deep affections for objects and concepts that are chronically associated with the self, such as their name.[12]

Empirical evidence[edit]

In 2002 Pelham, Mirenberg, and Jones analysed various databases with first names, surnames, occupations, cities and states. In one study they retrieved the number of dentists called Dennis (482) from a database of US dentists. They looked up in the 1990 Census database which male first names were the next most popular name, Walter, and the previous, Jerry. The likelihood of a US male being called Dennis was 0.415% and Walter and Jerry combined 0.416%. They then retrieved the number of dentists called Walter (257) and Jerry (270). Comparing the relative frequencies of Dennis, Walter and Jerry dentists, they concluded that people named Dennis gravitate towards dentistry.[13] However, in 2011, Uri Simonsohn published a paper in which he reported on how the popularity of Dennis, Walter and Jerry as baby names has varied differently over the decades. Therefore it was far more likely for Pelham et al. to find Dennis to have any job, not just a dentist, and Walter to be retired. Simonsohn did indeed find a disproportionally high number of Dennis lawyers compared to Walters lawyers.[14]

Aware of Simonsohn's critical analyses of their earlier methods, Pelham and Mauricio published a new study in 2015, describing how they now controlled for gender, ethnicity, and education confounds. In one study they looked at census data and concluded that men disproportionately worked in 11 traditionally male occupations whose titles matched their surnames, for example, baker, carpenter, and farmer.[15]

In 2015 researchers Limb, Limb, Limb and Limb published a paper on their study into the effect of surnames in medical specialisation. They looked at 313,445 entries in the medical register from the General Medical Council. They identified surnames that were apt for the speciality, for example, Limb for an orthopaedic surgeon, and for medicine in general, for example Doctor. They found that the frequency of names relevant to medicine and to subspecialties was much greater than expected by chance. Specialties that had the largest proportion of names specifically relevant to that specialty were those in which the English language has provided a wide range of alternative terms for the same anatomical parts (or functions thereof). Specifically, these were genitourinary medicine (for example Hardwick, Kinghorn, Woodcock, Bell) and urology (for example Burns, Cox, Dick, Koch, Cox, Balluch, Ball, Waterfall). Neurologists had names relevant to medicine in general, but far fewer had names directly relevant to the specialty (1 in every 302). They did not report on looking for any confounding variables.[16] In 2010 Abel had come to a similar conclusion. In one study he compared doctors and lawyers whose first or last names began with three-letter combinations representative of their professions, for example, "doc," "law," and likewise found a significant relationship between name and profession. Abel also found that the initial letters of physicians' last names were significantly related to their subspecialty, for example, Raymonds were more likely to be radiologists than dermatologists.[17]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b "BBC News - Today - When the name fits the job". 
  2. ^ "SBF Glossary: no to NOYDB". 
  3. ^ "A person's surname can influence their career, experts claim". Telegraph.co.uk. 20 December 2011. 
  4. ^ Noah, Timothy (Dec 16, 2005). "Charol Shakeshaft, Topped!". Slate. 
  5. ^ Hunt 1994, p. 480.
  6. ^ Splatt & Weedon 1977.
  7. ^ Trench 1993.
  8. ^ Snowman 1993.
  9. ^ New Scientist, Newscientist.com, Feedback, November 5, 1994
  10. ^ a b New Scientist, Newscientist.com, Feedback, April 20, 1996
  11. ^ Alter 2013, p. 7.
  12. ^ Pelham, Mirenberg & Jones 2002, p. 479.
  13. ^ Pelham, Mirenberg & Jones 2002, p. 479-480.
  14. ^ Simonsohn 2011, p. 23.
  15. ^ Pelham & Mauricio 2015, p. 692.
  16. ^ Limb et al. 2015, p. 24-26.
  17. ^ Abel 2010, p. 65.

Bibliography[edit]



External links[edit]

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