The Bouba-Kiki effect is at it again.
Any parent who’s ever spent hours debating potential baby names can tell you the struggle is very, very real. It can be a mental minefield striking a balance between timeless and unique, authentic but not too hard to pronounce, meaningful but not the source of major embarrassment in years to come—no wonder some people pay upwards of $30K to have someone else do it for them.
Add to that the added dilemma of choosing a name that could make or break your child’s hireability? No pressure!
According to a study from Carleton University in Canada, some names do, in fact, sound more “hireable” than others.
Participants in the study were asked to choose between two job candidates using only their first names, with no other credentials. More specifically, they were asked to select which name was more likely to reflect someone with at least one of these hireable personality traits: honesty-humility, emotionality, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness (i.e., how organized or hard-working a person is), and openness to experience.
The results? Smooth, melodic names that were sonorant-heavy—think long, round vowels and softer nasal-y consonants like m’s and l’s—tended to win the job offer. Congrats to all the Joannas, Noels, Laurens, and Liams out there!
Personally, I prefer the spikey names. Is that just me? media0.giphy.com
Conversely, names containing abrupt voiceless stops (p’s, t’s, and k’s) weren’t so favorable. Sorry, Rita, Eric, Kathy, and Hector.
This study reflects principles of the well-studied “Bouba/Kiki effect,” which shows that humans automatically associate specific images with certain words. Round vowel-heavy words (bouba) seem softer, while short vowel-hard consonant words (kiki) seem more aggressive. So it stands to reason that in this experiment—where people are looking for agreeable, peaceful candidates—those with more bouba-leaning names would win.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
Of course, this doesn’t even take into account how socio-demographic cues, such as race and age, can trigger a bias. But it does show how much impact a name really has on how we are seen in the world. “The sound of a name might be one additional source of bias in hiring decisions,” said researchers David Sidhu and Penny Pexman. “When people don’t have much to go on, there really is a lot in a name.”
Without further ado, here are those names…
Names more likely to get a job:
- Anne
- Joanna
- June
- Lanah
- Laurel
- Lauren
- Lois
- Luna
- Mara
- Marla
- Megan
- Mona
- Myah
- Noelle
- Norah
- Nya
- Renee
- Rosanne
- Abel
- Allen
- Lewis
- Linus
- Lorne
- Lou
- Lyle
- Miles
- Milo
- Morris
- Moses
- Nathan
- Noam
- Noel
- Owen
- Ronin
- Warren
- Will
Names are less likely to get a job
- Rita
- Erica
- Etta
- Patty
- Christie
- Katie
- Kasey
- Petra
- Kathy
- Katia
- Kate
- Trista
- Tracy
- Pippa
- Tessa
- Tia
- Greta
- Yvette
- Eric
- Hector
- Chris
- Curtis
- Kirk
- Ted
- Titus
- Tucker
- Tate
- Terry
- Pierce
- Carter
- Kipp
- Kurt
- Jack
- Victor
- Garrett
- Zach
Thankfully, more information is usually available in actual hiring scenarios. Even within the study itself, researchers found that when participants were shown photos or videos of the candidates, the influence of the name decreased exponentially. So while there might be some benefit to having a soft, melodic name, it isn't the ultimate factor in gauging a person's potential.
Every parent wants to give their child the best start possible. So it can be compelling and wise to consider at least how a name might level the playing field for their kid in a world where bias can sneak in from the very first line of a résumé.
But perhaps the real takeaway here isn’t to pressure parents even more. Instead, it’s a reminder to employers to look past names entirely. Tracy or Zach can be just as collaborative, ambitious, and hard-working as Will or Mara.
Maybe if studies like this keep getting attention, that’s the change we’ll see next—a world where every name carries the same promise of possibility.