I generally subscribe to the “resume factor” in terms of naming children. . .that being said, my husband has his heart set on [name_f]Clementine[/name_f] for our first daughter, so I don’t know if I can really have an opinion on that anymore hahaha.
I worked in a job where I called people in for interviews and I remember the panic/struggle of having to call someone who’s name I could not pronounce or was spelled in a perplexing manner. I always wondered why people did that to their children and what purpose it served. We had a girl come in whose name was Chellsee and, though the name itself is a nice enough name, I just found the spelling so repugnant.
I try to imagine what the names of my children will look printed on business cards, printed on the side of a bus, printed on their wedding invitations, etc.
I am posting before reading the previous comments. I’ve mentioned before on similar threads that my own name probably fails most people’s version of the resume test. It is [name_f]Amity[/name_f] difficult-to-pronounce-Lastname. Yet I’ve had no problem building a successful career, successful enough for my husband to be a SAHD without causing us financial stress. My own experience is a big reason why I don’t worry about using unusual names.
Although I am not yet thinking about having children, as a Nameberry… I constantly analyze people’s names. Yes, it is something that is important out in the real world. It is the first thing that a potential employer sees. Thanks for pointing this out and bringing it to everyone’s attention as a criteria or forethought!
I might be biased, but I can picture a [name_u]MacKenzie[/name_u] in almost any job. Its not a [name_f]Margaret[/name_f] or [name_m]John[/name_m], but it’s not a [name_f]Wednesday[/name_f] or [name_f]Princess[/name_f] either. I feel like the name walks the line between professional and fit for a child well, but again I might be biased.
This is a great conversation to have! Its not something I thought about naming my kids, but my tastes run more classical. I do however look at some names and wonder just how that child will be perceived in the future. [name_u]Unique[/name_u] names are fun, and different, but i wonder if say [name_u]Blue[/name_u] [name_f]Ivy[/name_f] was not the child of a famous couple if she’d ever be a department head at a major corporation. Sure it works if you work in the service industry, or as an entrepreneur but to me it just doesn’t sound very professional.
If you have two people named [name_f]Mary[/name_f] and Belladonna(random examples) who want the same job and have the same experience etc, you would pick [name_f]Mary[/name_f] just because she has a normal name?!
I think that the most important “resume factor” is spelling and pronunciation. If what’s on paper and what’s said aloud make sense together, then that’s “good enough”.
I don’t think it’s ridiculous to have a professional name that’s different from what your full, given first name is. Either a nickname or a middle.
If you have two people named Mary and Belladonna(random examples) who want the same job and have the same experience etc, you would pick Mary just because she has a normal name?!
Unfortunately this happens all the time - two people of equal value apply for the same job and are both amazing candidates, so who gets the job?
Well, if the hiring manager loves [name_u]Stevie[/name_u] Nicks and there are already three [name_f]Marys[/name_f] working there, it goes to Belladonna. If the manager associates Belladonna with poison and their sweet beloved grandma was a [name_f]Mary[/name_f], then [name_f]Mary[/name_f] gets the job. Usually, though, (and I’m not saying I agree with this) it goes in the favor of the more ‘familiar’ name.
So now we’ve heard one story in which the name DID matter in getting the job (in favor of the more common name,) and one in which it didn’t.
It got me thinking and I wonder, if it perhaps depends on the type of job one applies for? [name_m]Say[/name_m] you’re applying for a waitress job - one important criterion is your personality. You’ll need to be friendly and approachable, so [name_f]Mary[/name_f] gets the call back and not Belladonna - because of the hiring manager’s bias in wanting an average girl that will fit right in.
But if you’re looking to hire a brain surgeon, it might not matter whether your name is common or not. The qualifications are much less personality-dependent (I would assume) and therefore there is less room for a bias towards a common vs unusual name. I’ve started looking at first names of doctors and there’s really no pattern that I can make out.
Another point to consider is that highly skilled or specialized positions often hire internationally. In my area, this leads to a real anything-goes naming world where you will find people named Journey, Ximera, Nghia, Okezie and Rain all working equally great jobs at great pay.
I named my rat [name_f]Sharon[/name_f] so she’d be taken seriously in the business world.
Sorry I’m overtired that seemed really funny to me it probably isn’t.
My mom works in HR and my dad hires for his company, and they’ve both hired some people with really odd names. Sometimes they’ll come home and say “guess what name I heard today?” but it never influences their hiring decisions.
I don’t care about the resume factor when it comes to picking my favourite names. At the end of the day, I don’t want my children working for shallow minded people if they pick [name_f]Marie[/name_f] over [name_u]Shiloh[/name_u] anyway, and I hope they’d think the same.
I haven’t had any kids yet, but the resume factor is definitely something to consider.
Amusingly, in one of the many studies that have been done demonstrating that resumes with “white” sounding names are more likely to get interviews, a “white” name they used was my brother’s exact name! And we are definitely brown. It has always made me wonder if our parents gave us a bit of a leg up in choosing our names, which feels a bit weird.
I worked in college admissions, and saw a wide variety of names come across my desk. For the most part, I thought it was awesome to see so many different backgrounds represented in applicants’ names. However, to be totally honest, the extremely creatively spelled ones would give me pause (though of course it wouldn’t impact my decision.)
We make a lot of instantaneous assumptions about a person from their name-- for a resume or application, it’s a bit like the outfit you wear to an interview. Naming your kid something like Ahnnesty or Brieyana is a bit like sending them into a job interview with a leopard print suit-- sure they may still get the job, but it probably won’t help.
Is that fair? Of course not. But it’s something to consider.
I think with the increasing globalization and diversity in the world, names that were once considered to be GP due to them being too childish, strange, or ethnic will not be considered such. So on a resume, I think that while name might have a small impact, employers are looking more at the substance and experience of the person on the resume. Of course if you walk in with a name like RainbowMoonflower Hotfudge [name_m]Smith[/name_m], the person reading the resume will probably not take you seriously. Balance. I don’t think about resume too often, but I do imagine how other people would see the name (more so family and friends than employers). If I think that they would find it too strange or too hard to pronounce (which is saying something, as I come from a Greek family with names like [name_m]Socrates[/name_m] in the mix) I won’t add it too the list. So not quite resume. I like the example @sparkleninja18 gave about graduation ceremonies. If you would be embarrassed to hear the name at a ceremony or to shout it across the playground, it’s probably not a good idea.
I’ve never really thought about this but my own name wasn’t used much before the 1980’s, it’s a word name and it has racial connotations in the US, I can imagine if I were in the US people might assume I was to be a different race just from reading off a resume which I don’t see as a negative. I find it awful that finding western sounding names is still something people feel they need to do, I’m Scottish/English so I don’t have to worry about it for my own children (though I do love the very Scottish [name_f]Eilidh[/name_f]) if I married someone of a non-English background I would try to find a name that worked well in both languages.
I never gave it much thought as I think your love of a name is more important and also the meaning behind it. I mean, if my kids grow to dislike their names at age 18 they can change it to whatever they want, that’s their choice. Of course I have some criteria for choosing their names - nothing with a creative spelling or specifically religious, ethnic etc, nothing too difficult to pronounce… because although I believe in God and go to church once in a while (and they were all baptized) nothing guarantees that they will grow to be religious. Also no presidential, politician, political names. I’m a democrat (leaning towards independents and grassroots) but my kids shivers might grow not to be. Resume? For all I care Larkspur can go by [name_f]Cynthia[/name_f] or whichever name she chooses.
Agreed. A company or business that would choose their employees based on names will not have a company or business for long or it will be full of malfunction. Thriving companies and businesses will want to hire qualified employees.
I will not have control over many things in my child’s life, they’re their own person making their own decisions, I’m there to guide them not direct them yet pick them up when they fall, make it all go away, give them all the love in the world; I’m not there to make life more difficult for them so the times I do have control over which direction their lives will go, I’ll try to make it as simple as possible for them, life’s tough enough already.
Naming them is one of those rare occasions I can and need to decide something for them so instead of only thinking how beautiful this or that name sounds, I’m going to think about how it might affect their life; will it make things more complicated, will it seem childish on an adult (try to picture a friend or a random person on the street with the name), is it difficult to spell or pronounce, will my child always have to explain it, will their mail be send to Mr. instead of Miss. and vice versa, does it restrict my child in any way, is it too outlandish, will it put them in a box they might not agree with (very religious, very comic-ish, etc.) does it reflect poor on me as a parent (misspelled names always do to me, I don’t blame the child but if you as a parent received a good education, please spell your child’s name properly), etc.
If I’m still sure on the choice after giving answers to all these questions, the name gets the green light.
In the end, it’s a bit like choosing a school for your kid - you’re not going to pick the one whose uniform looks the best but the one that has the most to offer.