Palms sweating. Face red with embarrassment. There are few things more embarrassing than forgetting somebody's name.

So imagine being friends with Hubert Blaine Wolfe­schlegel­stein­hausen­berger­dorff Sr (abbreviated), a German-American typesetter with 27 names, including a 666-letter surname.¹

It is hard to envy such a mouthful of a name. But according to the Malaysian National Registration Department, it could be worse.

The government department has had to warn parents against giving their children names with negative connotations, such as "Evil", or Gen-Alpha slang, like "Skibidi". "Bodoh" and "Busuk" - which translate as smelly and stupid respectively - were also cautioned against.

Some research suggests our names can guide us down particular paths, a phenomenon known as "nominative determinism".

For example, studies have shown that people living in the city of St Louis are more likely than average to be called "Louis". Others have found we are more likely to end up in a job which resembles our own name: dentists are disproportionately called Dennis or Denise.²

Scientists call this "implicit egoism": a tendency to feel positively about things that resemble our own names. But others are not so convinced.

They argue what really matters is how other people perceive our names. Research has found when presented with two identical CVs under two different names, one stereotypically White and the other stereotypically Black, employers are 50% more likely to call back the candidates with the White names.³

Similar work has found teachers treat children differently depending on their names.⁴ So rather than names influencing our path in life, they say, the real problem is that other people's attitudes towards our names can dictate the opportunities we get. 

Many ask: what is in a name? They say we should be able to call our children what we want. If we want to ensure people are not cursed by their name then we need to address the root problems of racism and classism.

Do names change your character?

Yes: Studies suggest that our names decide where we go to university, what profession we pick and what friends we make.

No: Our character is determined by socioeconomic circumstances, ethnic background, and other social factors. These things also influence what name our parents give us: it is correlation, not causation.

Or... This is a chicken and egg question. Our start in life may be decided by our background above all else, but our names will continue to influence what opportunities we do and do not get.