Adults With Unusual Baby Names Look Risky Or Dangerous-Sounding, Study Shows

For many parents, choosing a baby name becomes challenging. While you may want your child to stand out, make sure you don't give him an unusual baby name as it might make your child look risky or dangerous as an adult later on.

It may seem farfetched how baby names contribute to the well-being of your child later on. However, one cannot deny the results of numerous studies that showed the adverse adulthood impact of having unusual baby names.

Long Term Effects Of Unusual Baby Names

According to Parenting, a 2012 study looked at the perception of people regarding names and the results were astonishing. The study was conducted in a global scale, and it found that the more unusual a name is, the higher the chances of the person being viewed as potentially risky or dangerous.

Aside from this, it also found that statements made by individuals who have simple names are more believable than those with unusually sounding names. Though it does not necessarily follow that you cannot be trusted, still an unusual name might make people take a step back and sow some doubt on what you are saying.

Try not to worry too much if you were given an unusual baby name by your parents, because after all the study showed the majority's opinion and not a blanket conclusion. In fact, Victoria University of Wellington lead researcher, Eryn Newman, provided a scientific explanation regarding the outcome of the study.

She said, "The easy names just feel more familiar or easy to process than the difficult names." She explained further that the brain is hardwired to trust something that is easy to process or familiar-sounding, as opposed to information that the brain finds difficulty processing.

Live Science mentioned that David Figlio, Institute of Policy Research of Northwestern University director, said, "We're always trying to think about the first bit of a child's identity and so if we as a society pay a lot of attention to names it makes a lot of sense that people's names might influence how they think about themselves and the way in which people might think about them."

One example given by Live Science was giving a baby boy an unusual baby name that sounds like a girl. Such may cause behavioral problems for the child later on.

Based on this appalling study, try to choose a less unusual baby name for your precious little one. By doing so, you'll be doing him or her a lot of good.