A new study has found that people tend to alter their appearance to suit their names. The researchers sought to determine whether parents choose a baby name based on what seems fitting for the baby's appearance, or if individuals' facial appearances change over the years to align with the social stereotypes associated with their names.
I’m gonna guess this is generational.
Maybe it’s an American study. Maybe Americans were more traditional 30-50 years ago than they are now.
40 years ago, maybe Americans of German origins would call their child Arnold or Frank, after their great grandparents or some jazz.
Today, they might go for Noah or Liam, because they’re popular and they think it sounds nice. Social media etc might play a role.
It could also be other factors, like people from a specific region of the country having name A instead of name B combined with other traits, or if the age span of the adults is wider than of the children making it possible to capture time trends in popular names.
If that’s the case, genetics are further removed from naming when these kids were born than when the adults were. In which case the findings make sense, completely without the self fulfilling prophesy part.
At least personally, of all the things that affect who I am as an adult, I’m pretty sure my name is pretty fucking low on the list.
And there is no mention of people using their middle name because they don’t like their first name, or how the classic William calling himself Bill plays out, or any other nickname.