My Personal Name Theory

I have a personal theory that I have always held to be true and I would like to share it with all of you. I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter. This may be something that most people agree with and have already thought, or it could be something crazy, I don't know.

I believe that those that have the same name have the same personality characteristics. For example, men named Chris all have similar characteristics. It is true with any name.

I have found that the spelling of the name matters. For example, a Brittany is different from a Britni, or Britney.
It doesn't matter what the true name is, only what they go by. For example, my brother's first name is William, but he goes by his middle name. His middle name is true to his personality but his true first name is not.

Now, as with anything, there are always people who are an exception to the rule. So I am not saying this is true for everyone.

I have my own characteristics that apply to different names that, honestly, I'm afraid to share because I don't want anyone to be offended if they don't like the characteristic. But I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter to see if they match up to any of my ideas.

I'm not sure why this theory holds true, at least in my life. I have discussed this with some other people before and they realized it was true in their own lives and our characteristics matched up. I have an idea that a certain name brings up certain thoughts in our mind when we hear it. If this theory is true for everyone, then perhaps children grow up with people around them having a certain expectation of them and they grow into adulthood living out this expectation.

There was a study done about children who had "unusual" names. They found that names like Blaze, Danger, etc ended in adults who had problems with the law. Now, this could be due to many factors, but it basically proved that the children grew up to mimic their name. I can try to find the article if anyone is interested.

But, if children named Danger can grow up to become a problem for the law, then why can't children named Rachel have their own unique characteristic that they embrace while growing up.

Again, I am not saying everyone named the same acts exactly the same, but they do have at least one linking characteristic.

So what say you? Do you find this to be true in your own life? Do you think this is a quacked out theory? I would love to hear your experiences with this.

You are not crazy. I have often thought the same thing. And yes, there are exceptions to the rule but they are usually minor differences with a rare complete opposite.

reply to post by tport17


I believe your theory has the characteristics of the name: "Horoscope"

This is nothing new.
Main reason is that the parents are of a certain "class" and they tend to give names to their children that "fit".
Thus, their class and upbringing will, if we generalize, give them certain characteristics.

Then people in general might have some thoughts of specific names, and unconsciously treat people with that name "in that way".. which in order makes the person itself acknowledge him to the person people see him/her as.

In fact, people in "lower classes" have started to name their children after more successful people, because they believe that will make all the difference. This in itself should erase the tendency though. Self confidence is good, and anything that helps helps.. but I don't think this holds any water, really.

To summarize, by name, in general, you can probably guess with slightly higher than random probability from which "class" the person is from, and that's pretty much it.

I think you could be right. I was thinking the exact same thing just the other day.
I think it's also to do with how the name sounds, and what you associate that sound with.

I can agree with your OP, if you are looking at it in broad general terms.

Depending on who I am with and where I am. I have about 7 different names and nicknames I go by. I'm not sure what that says but it's something to think about.

reply to post by trysts


From what I have seen, the horoscope stuff wants you to apply a number to each letter of your name and add them together until you get a single digit then read a paragraph about who you are. That is not what I mean. Each name has a different line of similar characteristics unique to the name.

I am also not talking about name meaning, such as a name meaning purity or love or whatever. I've found those to be completely wrong.

Originally posted by Consequence
This is nothing new.
Main reason is that the parents are of a certain "class" and they tend to give names to their children that "fit".
Thus, their class and upbringing will, if we generalize, give them certain characteristics.

Then people in general might have some thoughts of specific names, and unconsciously treat people with that name "in that way".. which in order makes the person itself acknowledge him to the person people see him/her as.

This is EXACTLY where I think this comes from. Like my example with the name Danger in the OP, think about what kind of parent would name their child Danger. Think about what kind of environment that child lived in and how it would be conducive to law breaking. It fits perfectly. And those kids he grew up with treated him a certain way because his name was Danger. It says something about him.

Danger is an extreme and obvious example of the theory. What I am saying is that normal sounding names like Jacob also have some kind of "stigma" attached that cause a kid named Jacob to grow up a certain way and the same is true for every Jacob.

If you grew up being told you are bad you will believe you are bad and will act it out.
If someone tells you what you are you forget what you really are.
You are not a label. You are the un-namable.

reply to post by tport17

it is probably half name, half horoscope.

More likely this is similar to racism, only it's nameism.

You see one stripper named Jasmine, and you think every other girl with the name Jasmine is a stripper.

reply to post by watchitburn


You know, I'm really not sure about that one. Maybe having many different names means something in and of itself. Maybe you identify with one of the names more than the others.

Or here is another thought. I don't know your name but say your name is Elizabeth. Your parents call you Elizabeth and they see you in one certain light. Your boyfriend/girlfriend calls you Beth and he/she sees you in a different light. Your friends call you Liz and they see you in a third light. And my guess is, you conform to those "lights" when you are with those individual people. You are an Elizabeth with your parents and a Beth with your bf/gf. You know what I mean? Who knows, it is fun to think about

Originally posted by The Cusp
More likely this is similar to racism, only it's nameism.

You see one stripper named Jasmine, and you think every other girl with the name Jasmine is a stripper.

Well, like I said, it isn't every detail about the person. It is usually one or two common links. So it isn't so much you know a stripper named Jasmine and every Jasmine you know is a stripper. Perhaps every Jasmine you know has one linking characteristic that they like to flirt. Each Jasmine would express that in a different way, one being a stripper, one being an innocent flirty girl.

I don't know any Jasmines, I was just making an example. If someone's name is Jasmine please don't take offense haha!

Originally posted by watchitburn
I can agree with your OP, if you are looking at it in broad general terms.

Depending on who I am with and where I am. I have about 7 different names and nicknames I go by. I'm not sure what that says but it's something to think about.

Me too. Even my family didn't call me by my real name.

I am curious as to what names tend to stay out of prison. Has a Rory or a Julie ever been incarcerated? How many Wilts or Maggies have even broken the law?

I agree with this.

When I was in 5th grade, I found this book called "You're such a Dave." I brought it into class and started pointing out to everyone how similar they were to their personality profile as described in the book. Fun time.

Another story. At the gas station the other night, I noticed the cashier's name was Pat and I commented that I was also a Pat. He said, "Pat's are the best and everyone knows it."

Lol...on my way to read some anti-ego threads.

i've often had the same thought, and i'd really like to know what your names and characteristics are and if they line up with mine. if you're worried about offending people, i think you've already given enough of a disclaimer. also, it's nice to know this wasn't just a random crazy thought i had lol

reply to post by jvl1985


How about I u2u you and we can compare

Edit:
After sending the u2u I decided to go ahead and post a few of the names on here that are positive.


Charlie - extremely good hearted

Joe - tend to enjoy or play music and seem to love life

Sarah - creative in all art forms including writing but not at the same time. One might be good at drawing and another with writing. Sometimes they have multiple arts.

Elizabeth - only that name no variation. They are travelers that need to see lots of different people and places.

That is just a few I can think of at the moment. Let me know if these sound familiar to you, and especially if you have one of these names yourself and can identify with what I said.

The real Jewish people take great care over the names they chose for their kids.

There is a story I heard about a tribe and some English people centuries ago calling their children ugly names, so evil spirits didn't take away. For example, cheese, bucket, pigface.
I have no idea whether this worked or if the children grew up hating their names. I would have thought the children would be happy in the knowledge that their parents were scared to lose them and so gave them an ugly name.????

Maybe it works, because our words are basically vibrations and frequencies. All names have a meaning. So if you say a name that means warrior, that child could do one of two things, become one or run the other way (due to their personal goal=Natal stars).

I have named my eldest a name that has about 10 meanings. And she is very hard to put in one character box. My youngest was going to be called a certain name and 3 days before she was born I suddenly got another name for her, and she is that name. The one I chose would not have suited her at all. lol.

Interesting thread BTW.

Hello, tport17.

I'm not sure where your belief systems lie but I've taken the liberty of scanning a few pages from a book I own titled "The Great Tao" by Dr. Stephen T. Chang.

Here is the link to the file hosting service I am using. Once there, you can click the picture to have it zoom in so that you can read it better. I apologize about the slightly off-angled scans and lower quality:

Imgur Hosting

The pages are based off of the Taoist numerology system and go into detail about individuals' names. They claim to be able to determine your destiny, appearance by others, and even past life, solely from your name. I can understand if you are skeptical but please take a look as it might be congruent to what you believe. In any regard, take from it what you will.

P.S. I would invite anyone reading this to take a look at it as well. You might find some interesting details about yourself or someone else.

P.S.S In regards to vowels versus consonants, I am not sure what the Taoist would have considered the letter "Y". I have a Y in my name and just acted as though it was a consonant.

Originally posted by PatrickGarrow17
, "Pat's are the best and everyone knows it."

That's funny, because every pat i have ever known, likes to party...

Do you like to party?