naming

I've always theorized (with only sparse anecdotal evidence) that one's name has a significant effect on who one becomes. Now I've found an article that more solidly analyzes the idea that our names determine or affect our behavior in some way, and affect how we are perceived and treated. Some effects are clearly disturbing:

When resumes were mailed out in response to job postings, with typical black and white names randomly assigned to resumes of various sorts, the black-named applicants got 33 per cent fewer responses, even from self-described equal opportunity employers (Bertrand & Mullainathan, 2004). In order to achieve the same interest as would be generated simply by changing the name to a white one, a black-named applicant needs an additional eight years of job experience. So far, then, it would seem that, whatever gains there may be in pride and group identity, there is a serious cost in employment prospects.

...but other qualities are more whimsical:

Moving to whole names, it appears that Louis will tend to live in St. Louis, and Mary in Marysville, and that this effect, applying also to surnames, is not likely to be due entirely to parents naming children after their location, but to implicit preferences for one’s own name, and variants of it (Pelham et al., 2003).

Fascinating. Those poor French people.