The social psychology
department at Indiana University-Bloomington recently released the results of a
twenty-year study of the effects different first names have on the psychological
development of human males. The results were published in the December edition
of Psychology Today, a leading magazine in the field.
In 1983, IU psychologists
began studying eight year-old boys in Indiana of the same race, religion, family
structure, and socio-economic status in their attempt to determine if a person’s
name was a major factor in their psychological growth and development. The
study ended in February. All the boys observed as part of the study are now 28
years old.
After several months of
looking at data from the study, researchers say evidence shows that certain
names almost always doom a child to mediocrity.
Dr. Ethan K. Shireman,
leader of the study, said that one name caused children and young adults the
most psychological damage. “The worst name you can give a child is ‘David’ due
to the negative nicknames derived from it,” said Shireman.
It seems that “David” is
not a bad name if one can keep it from being shortened to the shorter “Dave”
version.
“Our research has shown
that the friends of young men named ‘Dave’ add an insulting adjective prior to
the name over 98% of the time. This has made our state, and I imagine the
country as a whole, full of boys named ‘Crazy Dave’, ‘Dirty Dave’, ‘Drunk Dave’
or ‘Dumb Dave’. These boys, all of normal intelligence and good family
backgrounds, unconsciously live up to these destructive monikers,” said Shireman.
People named “Dave” had
more traffic accidents, drinking problems, arrests, and exhibited juvenile
behavior more often than boys of any other name during the twenty-year study.
Daves also performed poorly in school and on standardized tests, limiting their
choice of colleges and their future earning potential.
Shireman encourages all
parents to think long and hard before choosing a name for their babies. “Avoid
the name David at all costs unless you want to set your child up for failure.”
Other names Shireman warns against are Darryl, Dirk, Donnie, and Bruce.
