As Trisha Paytas names son Aquaman – the impact of having unique name,
From Elon Musk’s sons X Æ A-12 and Techno Mechanicus, to Nara Smith’s children Rumble, Slim Easy, and Whimsy Lou, there is no shortage of celebrity kids with unique names.
But as influencer Trisha Paytas names her third son Aquaman Moses Paytas-Hacmon, psychologists have revealed why this might not be a good idea.
From your choice of job to how likely you are to get a date, your name can influence more of your life than you might expect.
Psychologists call this effect ‘nominative determinism’, and it is the theory that we are drawn towards life choices that match our names.
When surnames first emerged in the 11th century, they were often a simple reflection of someone’s career – with names like Hunter, Smith, or Baker.
Nominative determinism takes this a step further and argues that someone called Baker really is much more likely to find themselves working in a bakery.
However, it is bad news for children who end up with highly unusual and unique names.
Studies suggest that people with unpopular names often end up less happy, worse off, and more dissatisfied with their lives.
One of the simplest ways that your name might affect your life is by influencing the kind of career you gravitate towards.
Psychologists attribute this to a phenomenon called ‘implicit egoism’, which is the idea that we prefer things that remind us of ourselves.
In 2024, researchers from the University of Utah said that this could be why people disproportionately end up in careers which start with the first letter of their own name.
For example, their study found that someone called Dennis is more likely to be a dentist while someone called Lawrence might be more likely to become a lawyer.
This same effect could explain why Agatha Christie ended up as an author or why Ariana Grande has been spending more time acting than singing recently.
People also tend to live in places which match their names, which should mean that London has more Lawrences and Lisas than Arthurs and Alices.
That might mean Aquaman could be destined to take up a career in acting and live in Austin, Texas.
However, having an unusual name comes with its own set of drawbacks.
Some psychologists believe that our names are so key to our identity that having a bad one can have serious psychological impacts.
In 2006, a pair of researchers from the University of Michigan found that people who didn’t like their names were less well psychologically adjusted.
Looking at siblings to control for factors such as background and childhood, people with lower rates of name satisfaction had lower self-esteem, life satisfaction, and spent more time unhappy.
The researchers suggested that this was either because disliking their name caused lower self-confidence or their lower self-confidence caused them to dislike their name.
In addition to affecting how you see yourself, your name also has a big impact on how others see you.
Your name is the first thing most people learn about you and affects both how warm and competent others see you as being.
A 2018 study from Syracuse University in New York found that the names Susan, Thomas, Madeline, Kathleen, and Felicia were seen as both warm and confident.
Alvin, Duane, Rex, Roy, Mercedes, Vicki, and Trenton, on the other hand, were seen as having low warmth and confidence.
Likewise, a study looking at hundreds of thousands of names conducted by the Institute of Psychology in Beijing found that people with names seen as less popular or having more negative connotations were more likely to commit crimes.
Experts have warned about the rise in names with violent associations, which could mean bad news for Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly’s son Saga Blade.
Similarly, a German study conducted in 2011 found that people with unfashionable names were more likely to be rejected on dating apps.
However, if you are willing to take a risk, having an unusual name could also have some benefits.
Another study by the same team at Beijing’s Institute of Psychology found that people with a rare name were more likely to have an unusual career such as a filmmaker, actor or judge.
That might mean Nicholas Cage’s son Kal-El Coppola Cage stands a good chance of following in his father’s footsteps.
Speaking to BBC Science Focus, lead author Professor David Zhu said: ‘Early in life, some people may derive a sense of unique identity from their relatively unique names.
‘Parents need to find ways to help the child appreciate his or her uniqueness, perhaps by giving the child a special nickname or frequently affirming the child’s unique characteristics.’
Likewise, some research even suggests that an odd name might help people become more creative and open-minded.
Researchers at Arizona State University examined the names of CEOs at over a thousand US firms.
They found that the rarer the CEO’s name, the more distinctive their business strategy tended to be.
That could mean Trisha Paytas’ children, Malibu Barbie, Elvis, and the newborn Aquaman, might be more creative than your average John or Jane Doe.
