1.6c What's in a name?
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“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet.”
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (Act 2, Scene 2) |
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In present-day English, we use the expression ‘What’s in a name?’ when we mean that what someone or something is called is arbitrary compared to their intrinsic qualities. However, science may have proved Shakespeare wrong, as it seems that when meeting someone, our name does condition their perception of us.
As Dr. Natalie C. Frank claims in this article:
“In addition to appearance, our names are associated with our personality, character, the way we act and our psychological adjustment. As far back as 1948, studies indicated that the names we are given affect how we perform later in life.
Subsequent research has shown that our given names can affect our grades in school, what profession we choose, where we live geographically, whom we marry, what we choose to invest in financially, whether we’re accepted to certain colleges or are hired for particular jobs, and how well we work in group settings. Our names can even determine whether we give money to charity, for example contributing to disaster victims.”
Taken from Natalie Frank. How Our Name Affects Our Personality, Appearance and Who We Become. Right of quotation.
Follow these steps if you want to participate in this forum:
1. Open a new discussion and answer the questions below giving your opinion and justifying it with convincing arguments:
- Do you believe our life is affected by the name we are given? Why? / Why not?
- Can our personality be modeled one way or another depending on the name our parents choose for us when we are born?
- How different would your life be if you had been given a different name?
2. Once you have published your post, reply to at least one of your partners, agreeing or disagreeing with their views.