matthew jay: call my name out
today i read an article in newsweek about a scientific (*scientific*) study that proves that people gravitate towards the first letter of their first name.
here’s an excerpt to give you the basic idea:
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In what they call “moniker maladies,” a pair of researchers find that although no baseball player wants to strike out, players whose names begin with K (scorecard shorthand for a strikeout) fan more often than other players. Most students want As, but those whose names begin C or D have lower grade point averages than students whose names begin with A and B—with an even greater effect if they say they like their initials. That has real-world consequences: students whose names begin with C or D and go to law school attend lower-ranked ones than students whose names begin with A or B.
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ok, so let me get this straight. a considerable amount of time and (probably) money were used in order to *scientifically study* if people like things that start with the first letter of their own name?
was this like, a fourth grade science fair project? oh oh oh, next week can we put a potato in a jar of water and see if we grow a plant out of it?
so i read this article and obviously thought it was kind of dumb. since my name starts with an “s,” and i can’t really get S as a grade, what does that mean? i guess “S” could stand for Satisfactory, but i don’t think i got to be an over-achiever cos i was aiming to be Satisfactory.
hmmm. or maybe it’s S for Success! and that’s why i was driven to be a straight A student in high school! not to mention the fact that my best friend Seth was the valedictorian!! hmm. i think i may be on to something!
does that mean i’m also drawn towards characteristics that start with S? ok, let’s see… sassy? sure! smart? i think so! solemn? eh, not really. skanky? WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY ABOUT ME, SCIENCE?!!!
seriously (<– whoah, i *do* write that word a lot), is this study complete BS, or is it just one of those “big duh” stories, cos i mean, yeah, if you like yr name, then you like the letters in it.
maybe it’s all driven by consumer culture. as a kid, whenever i was on a trip with my family, i would scour the keychain stalls to find my name on a hawaiian pineapple or a texas license plate, even though i really didn’t have any keys and therefore did not require a keychain to hold anything. there’s a certain satisfaction when you see yr name somewhere, isn’t there?
like, even if the item is not for me, sarah, but for another sarah, i still get a tiny thrill when i spot something that is so familiar to me.
i think that hat is for a baby, but i would sooo wear it.
i guess that’s why monogram places are still booming. we feel a primal need to stake claim of our possessions. it’s like how cats pee on stuff to leave their scent, except we are more evolved and therefore use label makers and bling initial jewelry instead.
what the study neglects to explain is how, even though i love “S” cos it stands for sarah, i positively REVILE any item featuring the grotesque disfigurement of my name, i.e. “sara,” even though it starts with an “S”, too.
GAH!!!!! you have no idea how hard it was for me to post this on my blog. not to mention the shady black leather couch and the “i just caught a whiff of kerosene” green plush.
i mean, LOOK at that. my name has been MANGLED.
so yeah, my extreme aversion to the misspelling of “sarah” proves that people care about their names. but again, big duh. does that mean i’ll strive for anything starting with an “S”? if that was the case, cupcakes would be spelled supcakes, right?
maybe i’ll do an experiment of my own with the names of my friends.
sofia is Swedish.
matt is Mad (like a hatter).
john is Jolly (i know it’s a stereotype, cos he’s irish, but it’s true).
henri is a Ham.
winston is Wise (he’s a doctor, yo!).
josh is Jewish.
erica is Energetic (she ran a freaking marathon).
i would say these results are 100% conclusive and 80% ridiculous and hopefully at leat 40% entertaining.
now, while i suck on a sweet strawberry shake, tell me how you guys feel about yr names. have they been the driving force behind every major life decision, or do you just like to see yr name on mugs and snow globes?
p.s. i LOVE seeing my name on snow globes. i am not kidding.
LINKS
apparently, women face discrimination in coffee shops. here’s why that’s not a surprise (in a totally funny, double true way).
have you guys been watching the radiohead webcast covers? gah how can this band continue to be SO AWESOME?
Yeah, that’s actually just the acronym of my initials.
John is jive in human form.
I wish I was. I guess I’m jolly. Sigh.
W also equals washington (dc) and wuss and wack; so the experiment definitely works
i don’t know about the letters thing, but i’ve noticed that people i know with certain names tend to have similar characteristics. if they deviate from the standard characteristics i associate with that name, i think they’re weird.
your hatred of “sara” always makes me think of anne of green gables and her displeasure of “ann” or “catherine”.
Wow. Suddenly I realize how much I love things that start with E. Hmmmm. But I must say I undersatnd the Sara thing….Erika, Really is that any way to spell a name?
I have issues with “Katy.”
I would like to submit that science has not considered the plight of those of us whose first names start with less popular letters-I mean there is a reason that they give you R, S, T, L, N, E on the final puzzle in Wheel of Fortune. There is also a reason why you are not automatically given K.
I do not necessarily prefer kites or kangaroos. Nor is this an excuse for poor spelling. Some people, when faced with the assignment to make an acronym out of their names, would see the k as an excuse to misspell words like crazy, or caring etc.
On an unrelated, but yet tangential note, some of those scary orange and black wrapped candy you talked about in your Halloween post appeared in my library candy basket. I know my aide thought she was being generous-but thanks to your blog I knew the truth-neither she nor her girls liked those nasty things either.
It’s pretty hard to have a name starting with ‘O’.
I hate other Olivias, by the way. It’s like they’re stealing my unique identity. And I hate when people use my name when they’re annoyed with me or mad at me. I will not let people use my name if we’re arguing.
Possibly that’s weird?
I don’t like oranges. But I do like olives. Maybe that is because it’s SO close to my name. And I like Oh!s, and sometimes spell my name Oh!livia.
Ok enough.
So I guess this explains why I like you, Sarah :). One thing that was kind of a bummer as a kid is that none of those key-chains or cheesy souvenirs ever had my name on it :(. But thats ok…I love my name although it has been annoying since Selena died. People used to ask me how I spelled my name before that; now they just assume its spelled “Selena”. And it drives me crazy when people pronounce my name like Selena! And just cuz my name is Selina doesn’t automatically mean that I am Mexican! Ok, I am done ranting for now.
I will also accept Jovial.
Some years ago, I realized that my brother and I both had names that were also words. Josh. Randy. Then I realized that I tend to josh a lot, then I wondered if my brother’s personality was randy. Then I got disturbed and decided not to think about it anymore.
I have never ever seen my name on anything except when I put it there or it specifically references, relates to, or addresses me. I have known or heard of other people who spell my first name the same way, and others who maybe have a homophone of my first and second name, but none that have my unique combination of names and spellings. As a kid I used to wish I could find just one keychain on a rack with my name, but now I like the uniqueness of it. Also, my maiden (and still legally in tact) initials are cool…if you rotate them 180 degrees, they’re the same. I’m actually kinda obsessed with my name. What does that say about me? M is for…maniacal? Hmm.
It’ so cool to see another Selina out there even though it’s spelled differently from my version. It’s only one letter off. I was always sad that I could never find a key chain or a license plate with my name on it. The closest was Celine which is what people tend to call me when they first meet me. I worked with a woman who called me Celine for 2 years and I was too nice to correct her until my last day of work when I told her she was leaving off the “a”. She was really embarrassed.
I also got that whole Selena crap after she died. I would tell people my name and they would say, “You’re supposed to be dead.” Hilarious! The other reason I think people call me Celine and not Celina is because apparently all Celina’s have to be Mexican and
since I look completely opposite from Mexican (pale, blond) people assume it’s Celine, like Celine Dion. Now it’s worse since my last name is French Canadian, thanks to my husband.
I also hate giving my name at restaurants or Starbucks because they always look at me like I’m an alien, and then just scribble Salina or Selena. Sometimes I just say something easy to spell like Nicole or Jennifer, but then 5 Nicoles or Jennifers stand up to get their coffee simultaneously. Ok, I’m done. Selinas/Celinas unite!
Yay Selinas/Celinas :)! I feel your pain. When people would say things to me like “Ha Ha Are you dead”…I would just say “Wow, you are so funny…you are the first person to come up with that one!”
When Selena died people would shoe polish their cars with things like “I love you Selena”. One day this popular, stupid girl in high school that I hated turned to me in class and said (with a really awful smirk on her face)”so, like when you see the cars with the shoe polish that says “I love you Selena” do you like think they are talking about you?!” and turned and laughed with her friends. Fun times
i agree with all other selina’s its anouying looking at keychains with all your friends names on them but never your own, and you kinda get used to people getting your name wrong after awhile but its still gets on my nerves.