Think about your full name for a moment. Say it out loud. Is it hard to pronounce—especially for other people?
If it is, you might want to consider either giving yourself a nickname or making sure that everyone knows exactly how to pronounce your first and last name—especially in the workplace or any other place where you want to “get ahead.”
According to new studies from New York University in New York City and University of Melbourne in Australia, which were published this past November in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, how easy your name is to say can make a big difference in your work life—even determining whether or not you get promoted!
EASIER TO SAY, EASIER TO PROMOTE
In one of the studies, when 35 Australian adults, ages 18 to 52, were asked to rate how much they liked easy-to-pronounce (or so-called fluent) surnames, such as Stevenson and Dunlop, and difficult-to-pronounce (disfluent) surnames, such as Leszczynska, Nafpliotis and MacEochagan, researchers found that the more disfluent the names were, the less favorably the participants felt about the surname—and the person attached to it. And when the researchers looked at promotion practices within 10 different US law firms, they found that employees with fluent last names had been 7% to 8% more likely to be promoted to partner within 15 years of graduating from law school.
HOW WE PROCESS NAMES
Are we really so shallow? Actually, no, we’re not, said Adam Alter, PhD, assistant professor of marketing at NYU and one of the study’s lead researchers. It has more to do with the way our brains work, he said. “When we can process a piece of information more simply, when it’s easier to comprehend, we like it more because we don’t have to work so hard. If we are anxious about pronouncing a name and getting it right, then we may favor the person with a more fluent name because it’s less mentally taxing and less likely to provoke social awkwardness,” said Dr. Alter. “There’s no fear of embarrassing ourselves or insulting anyone.”
You might suspect that a little bit of anti-foreign bias is at the root of this or that the length of the name is the real problem, Alter said. “Those factors can make a difference, but even when we controlled for the origin of the name and the length of the name, ease of pronunciation still influenced people.”
Look at President Barack Obama: His name sounded different to American ears at first, but it is essentially a very easy name to pronounce, so it did not hold him back. Also, once a name that is initially disfluent (such as, say, that of former presidential candidate Michael Dukakis) becomes well-known enough that our brains can more easily process it, the negative stigma is decreased.
GIVE YOURSELF A LEG UP
So how might this knowledge help us? Well, there are two things to keep in mind, said Dr. Alter—how you’re perceiving the names of others and how others are perceiving your name. Here’s what he suggests…
1. Step up your awareness. Even when not ethnically charged, names can be an unconscious source of a subtle bias. If you are in a position to hire, promote or manage, ask yourself whether you would be making the same choices if Ms. Tverdokhleb were named Ms. Todd.
2. Reduce your colleagues’ anxiety. Some of the research looked only at last names, but in their other studies, the researchers found that the same theory holds true for first names. So if you have a disfluent first or last name and you like it, you certainly shouldn’t feel the need change it legally—after all, your name is your identity and it often provides meaningful hints about who you are culturally or spiritually. But what you can do is create a nickname for your résumé that can be used in the workplace. Your family and friends can refer to you by your real name, but ask your colleagues and bosses to call you an alternative name that’s easy to pronounce. For example, if your first name is Demosthenes, you might encourage people to call you Demos. Or if your full name is Katherine Leszczynska, ask to be called simply Katherine L. If you are offended by the idea of using a nickname, cheerfully (and slowly) tell people the correct pronunciation until they get it. “It’s a difficult, sensitive issue,” said Dr. Alter, “but the ultimate goal is to make people comfortable around you to make sure that you are given your best shot at success.”
