When there isn’t a photo/person attached to the name, I do the same thing.
When you have to make choices, you have to choose, and if both are qualified, then you have to find that 1 thing that makes one better than the other, and in some cases it’s the name.
I guess in most cases with the doctor thing, they could go by their last name. So even if there was a doctor named [name]Bambi[/name] or [name]Princess[/name], if their full name was say [name]Bambi[/name] [name]Thomas[/name], then Dr. [name]Thomas[/name] doesn’t sound bad at all. But if their name was [name]Princess[/name] [name]Payne[/name], well that’s a problem no matter what… so I guess I wouldn’t worry about it in my case sense I have pretty normal last name, so I think my future children will be fine.
A person’s name would not influence me one way or the other. I would have to agree that picking your doctor based on his name is insanity. A name doesn’t tell you anything about a person.
You’ve got to make that decision somehow. Right?
Seriously though I do this all the time. If all other things are basically evenly stacked it comes down to what name I prefer.
(I also do this when ordering food. First off it’s what it is then what the restaurant calls it and third if I still cant decide - because everything is listed as duck or chicken - how boring - I go by which is cheaper.)
I think it’s human nature for us to give ourselves extra criteria when we make decisions. I think that as long as we are aware of it and don’t overtly always choose a homogenous group of people then it shouldn’t make a difference.
This. I couldn’t think of any real life examples but when I’m reading a book I do judge the names that the author has given their characters. I was so disappointed in a book last year that was set in a fantasy medieval time period that had characters with uniquely spelled modern names. It didn’t feel like that they came from a medieval time period at all!
This is my point when I tell people that the name they choose for their child [name]WILL[/name] effect them when they are adults. People judge, it’s our nature - fair or not.
Well, penguin, you’re entitled to that opinion and you might even be right, but in my experience choosing based on a name is no more or less reliable than a Google rating or word-of-mouth. And I don’t think anyone but you made a correlation between name “normalcy” and level of intelligence.
I can’t think of any examples, but I’m sure I would do the same thing.
I don’t think any one on here said they “based” a medical decision on a person’s name, since the “base” of their decision consisted of other factors first.
Everyone else was saying exactly that… That having a ‘weird’ name makes them not competent at their profession, or not as good as someone with a normal name. I simply pointed out that having a normal name doesn’t mean you’re intelligent or competent. Although I tried to do so in a humorous way. All humor aside, people who judge others abilities by something as completely irrelevant as their name, the way they dress, their accents, their weight or appearance, their religion, their gender, their sexual orientation, the color of their skin… are prejudiced people. And it’s not a very smart way to make decisions. It says more about you than it does about the person you’re judging.
Everyone else was saying exactly that… That having a ‘weird’ name makes them not competent at their profession, or not as good as someone with a normal name. I simply pointed out that having a normal name doesn’t mean you’re intelligent or competent. Although I tried to do so in a humorous way. All humor aside, people who judge others abilities by something as completely irrelevant as their name, the way they dress, their accents, their weight or appearance, their religion, their gender, their sexual orientation, the color of their skin… are prejudiced people. It’s right in the title of the thread “Name Prejudice”. When is prejudice ever a good thing? Why are people defending their irrational prejudices? Your prejudices say more about you than it does about the person you’re judging. And it’s not a very smart way to make decisions.
I didn’t get that anyone is saying the person would be as competent at their profession, they’re saying as name nerds when they have no other info to go on they let their preferences in names being the final deciding factor.
No one is saying that someone with a less than desirable name is automatically less competent, it’s just that sometimes you don’t have other information to go on if you’re choosing between doctors on your insurance or at the same practice, stylists for an appt at the same salon, etc… You’ve done research to get that far, but you sometimes have to make that blink decision and that’s when things like names come into play.
It’s comparable in my opinion to seeing a staff page on a website and choosing by looking at the photos (“Oh, she looks nice, ok”) and you know people do that all the time.
Ditto! I would not touch The Hunger Games with a 10 foot pole (despite people telling me I must read it)
[name]Chick[/name] lit drives me nuts. I actually enjoy it, but reading about a girl named Chaezleigh isn’t my first choice.
And on the flip side, I recently picked up a book at [name]Indigo[/name] because of the author’s name. It was Catalan, I opened the book, saw the name [name]Nuria[/name], flipped it over and the first word on the back was ‘[name]Barcelona[/name]’, so I bought it.
I don’t think anyone is saying that it’s right or fair - but to think that people just go through life and never make any mental connections to names is just silly! It’s like when you know someone with a certain name and then go off into the rest of the world and come across someone with the same name and whether you like it or not, you get certain feelings (good or bad) from that name. For example, I have never met a [name]Melinda[/name] that I like or get along with and therefore, when I come across someone named [name]Melinda[/name], I get irrational negative feelings. Of course that isn’t the end all and be all of the judgement, but as humans, we [name]DO[/name] make those connections! My only association with [name]Edgar[/name] is an ADORABLE little blond boy so when I came across my first elderly [name]Edgar[/name] it struck me as odd - I am pretty positive these are the types of things people are talking about.
I don’t know your feelings on fantasy, but if you love books with good names, definitely check out [name]Jacqueline[/name] [name]Carey[/name]'s Kushiel series - I guess they label it as “Historical [name]Fantasy[/name]”? But her taste in names is superb.
Oh neat! Thanks for the suggestion! I read a lot of historical fiction (and historical non-fiction), so historical fantasy would probably appeal to me, too.