Psychological Factors Affecting Preferences for First Names*

Anecdotal and anthropological evidence suggests that personal names are of considerable psychological significance, but they have not received much attention from psychologists. The relationship between the familiarity of first names and the degree to which they are liked is of particular interest from the point of view of research in related areas of experimental aesthetics. Evidence from investigations carried out in England and Australia suggests that there is a strong tendency for first names to be liked in direct proportion to their familiarity: in general, the most familiar names tend to be best liked and the least familiar names to be most strongly disliked. These findings are dicussed in relation to previous research into familiarity and liking for letters of the alphabet and words, and a hypothesis is developed which may account for the cyclical vogues in first names and certain other cultural objects. IN SPITE OF THEIR importance in everyday life, personal names have been largely neglected as objects of investigation by psychologists. L This neglect is difficult to account for, but it may be partly due to the fact that we tend in our culture to take personal names for granted. There are other cultures in which the social significance of names as tokens for representing human beings is more evident. The powerful effects which names can have on behavior are vividly illustrated for example among the Ashanti people of West Africa. At birth, every Ashanti child receives a name corresponding to the day of the week on which he or she was born. There is widespread consensus among the Ashanti that Monday boys are quiet and well-behaved, while Wednes-