People With These First Names Are Destined To Be Rich, According To A Study
What's in a name? Riches, apparently!
Photo: malcolm garret | Design: YourTango What's in a name? Apparently wealth, according to a recent study that found certain first names are destined to be rich — or at least high-performing investors.
Myriad factors determine whether someone hits the big time, with privilege chief among them. But according to recent research, there's a high correlation between wealth and something we tend to think of as frivolous, maybe even meaningless.
Certain first names are highly correlated with wealth, according to new research.
The process of naming a baby has never been more… well, insane, frankly, with a cottage industry of "baby name consultants" cropping up to help parents-to-be "brand" their coming offspring. That's, you know, ridiculous, but a new study from financial services platform eToro shows that it might not be as silly as most of us think.
eToro combed through its userbase of 12 million investors and took a look at the ones whose investments performed the best and worst over the past year to see which first names were most common among them. Here is what they found.
Anna and Andrew were the most financially successful names.
When it came to those pulling down the highest dividends on their investments, Annas and Andrews were the leaders of the pack. Those classics showed up time and again among eToro's most successful.
However, if those are a bit too bland and boring for you, there were plenty of other standouts — but beware, parents who like unique, bespoke names, there are no Aureliuses or Bryïenlyieghs in the mix.
Giorgio Trovato | Unsplash
For males, it was Sam, Alex, Christopher, and, weirdly, Darren who rounded out the top five. When is the last time you met a Darren? I'm not sure I've EVER met a Darren, actually, but there it is. For females, it was Maria, Laura, Helen, and Sarah who showed up the most among the top five most successful investors.
eToro has been doing this analysis since 2012, and says certain names tend to endure year to year as well, even if they didn't necessarily crack the top five most recently. Among them were Olivia, Matt and Graham, three other traditional monikers.
Ali and Karen were the least successful first names on the list.
Sorry, Karens of the world, the anti-Karen stigma isn't going anywhere, including in the world of money apparently. The name was number one when it came to women whose investments performed the most poorly.
Lisa, Jennifer, and Rachel also tanked, as did Claire, which is interesting since, as anyone who's ever seen "The Breakfast Club" knows, Claire is a quintessential rich-girl name. Or at least it was 40 years ago…
For the gents, Ali was the worst performing, with Rob, Dan and Chris also taking nosedives (maybe because they're… well, kind of boring?) along with Dominic, which is also surprising because didn't we all go to high school with a rich kid named Dominic who played lacrosse and got into Brown with a 2.5 GPA because his grandfather was on the board? No offense to all the Dominics out there, but UGH.
Studies have shown that our names can have an impact on our future success.
So what's behind these correlations? Well, it's probably not magical. Certain names do tend to be more popular among certain socioeconomic levels, so a lot of these Annas and Andrews probably come from wealthy backgrounds that make them more likely to be successful investors anyway.
But privilege aside, numerous studies have shown that our names really do have an impact on our futures, in part because they have an impact on both others' perceptions of us and in how we see ourselves — with the latter also being impacted by the former.
For instance, studies have found that negative or positive perceptions of a person's name are correlated with whether or not a stranger is willing to help them. And studies have also shown that people who are uncomfortable with their name due to other people's perceptions or stigma tend to have a higher likelihood of negative life outcomes.
So theoretically, people's perceptions of you as a high-status person because you're an Anna or Andrew is likely to impact your own self-concept in ways that positively impact your success at something like investing. As eToro's Iqbal V. Gandham put it in the company's study, "it could well be that people perceive those with certain names as being good with money and others not so good — just as research shows that people with certain names are more likable or hirable."
It's like what pop icon Madonna once famously said: "How could I be anything else having been named Madonna? I would either have ended up a nun or this." But it's also true that a Madonna can just be, like, an exotically named Accounts Payable clerk if she wants. None of these are actual rules! You can just decide people's perceptions are untrue! So take heart, Karens and Dominics, and go stack those Anna and Andrew dollars.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.