Baby Name Report Card: Beneficial and Harmful Baby Names 
 
 by Albert Mehrabian, Ph.D. 
 
 Part One: Preliminaries 
 
 Preface 
 
 Chapter 1: What is in a Name? 
 
 Chapter 2: What Impressions are Made by Names? 
 
 Chapter 3: Names: Lifetime advantage versus handicap 
 
 Chapter 4: How to change a name 
 
 Chapter 5: Common issues in name selection 
 
 Chapter 6: General guidelines for selecting names 
 
 Chapter 7: Name scores explained 
 
 Part Two: Girls' Names 
 
 Chapter 8: Girls' names that connote an ethical-caring person, or its opposite 
 
 Chapter 9: Girls' names that connote a popular-fun person, or its opposite 
 
 Chapter 10: Girls' names that connote a successful person, or its opposite 
 
 Chapter 11: Girls' names that connote femininity, or its opposite 
 
 Chapter 12: Girls' names that connote a generally attractive person, or its opposite 
 
 Chapter 13: Alphabetical list of girls' names 
 
 Part Three: Boys' Names 
 
 Chapter 14: Boys' names that connote an ethical-caring person, or its opposite 
 
 Chapter 15: Boys' names that connote a popular-fun person, or its opposite 
 
 Chapter 16: Boys' names that connote a successful person, or its opposite 
 
 Chapter 17: Boys' names that connote masculinity, or its opposite 
 
 Chapter 18: Boys' names that connote a generally attractive person, or its opposite 
 
 Chapter 19: Alphabetical list of boys' names 
 
 References 
 
 Experimental findings show that people with desirable or attractive names are treated more favorably by others than are those with undesirable or unattractive names. Also, persons with undesirable or unattractive names tend to be handicapped in their personal, social, and work-related activities. Accordingly, it behooves parents to discover the impressions that will be generated by the names they select for their children. 
 
 Our large-scale surveys conducted for more than a decade identified desirable, attractive and beneficial names versus undesirable, unattractive, and harmful ones. Positive-negative impressions created by various types of names (e.g., given names vs. nicknames) are reported in the publications referenced below. In addition, "Baby Name Report Card" provides summary descriptions of impressions created by most commonly used names. In effect, the volume provides scientifically-based information for choosing baby names. It supplies guidelines for selecting names that will impart positive and beneficial, rather than negative and harmful, impressions to others; that is, names that will be assets rather than liabilities throughout a lifetime. It also includes useful information for adults who are dissatisfied with their first or last names and would like to assume new names. 
 
 Ethical-Caring (e.g., trustworthy, loyal, sincere, kind, generous, respectful, warm, patient, responsible) 
 
 Popular-Fun (e.g., playful, humorous, cheerful, outgoing, good-looking, adventurous, athletic, healthy) 
 
 Successful (e.g., ambitious, intelligent, independent, confident, assertive, creative) 
 
 Masculine-Feminine 
 
 Overall Attractiveness (a statistical combination of the first three dimensions) 
 
 Average ratings from all respondents who rated a given name are summarized using scores that range from zero to 100, with 50 being an average score. For example, "John" received an average Success score of 98 (extremely high) whereas "Knut" received a Success score of 11 (extremely low). These two names differ substantially in terms of the impression of Success (which includes connotations of intelligence, creativity, ambition) they impart. 
 
 Mehrabian, A. (1992). Interrelationships among name desirability, name uniqueness, emotion characteristics connoted by names, and temperament. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22, 1797-1808. 
 
 Mehrabian, A. (1994). The Name Connotation Profile. (Available from Albert Mehrabian, 1130 Alta Mesa Road, Monterey, CA, USA 93940) 
 
 Mehrabian, A. (1997). Impressions created by given names. Names, 45, 19-33. 
 
 Mehrabian, A. (2001). Characteristics attributed to individuals on the basis of their first names. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 127, 59-88. 
 
 Mehrabian, A., & Piercy, M. (1993). Positive or negative connotations of unconventionally and conventionally spelled names. The Journal of Social Psychology, 133, 445- 451. 
 
 Mehrabian, A., & Piercy, M. (1993). Differences in positive and negative connotations of nicknames and given names. The Journal of Social Psychology, 133, 737-739. 
 
 Mehrabian, A., & Piercy, M. (1993). Affective and personality characteristics inferred from length of first names. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 755-758. 
 
 Mehrabian, A., & Valdez, P. (1990). Basic name connotations and related sex stereotyping. Psychological Reports, 66, 1-2. ||||| Photo Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 When Frank Hudock, 35, a restaurant manager in the Chicago area, first told his wife, Jennifer Hudock, 30, an executive assistant, that his grandparents wanted them to name their son Frank, per generations of family tradition, her response was, “That’s never going to happen.” 
 
 They had just decided on a name they both agreed on — Max — after arguing about dozens of others, and that had been a big relief. 
 
 But then the grandparents threw in a sweetener: an offer of $10,000 in exchange for choosing Frank. 
 
 Ms. Hudock’s company didn’t have a maternity leave policy, and she wasn’t going to get paid for several months. She agreed to think it over. 
 
 This may seem like an unusual proposal, but several professional baby-name watchers report seeing others along those lines. Maryanna Korwitts, a naming consultant also based near Chicago, said one client’s grandfather offered a family business if a baby could be named for him. Another’s in-laws, she said, suggested a dream wedding the mother never had and could not afford on her own — the price being the right to name the firstborn. 
 
 Linda Murray, the editor in chief of the website BabyCenter, which maintains a database of 40,000 possible names, believes such offers are a salvo from the old guard fired against a general millennial disregard for tradition when christening their children. 
 
 “For thousands of years, choosing a family name was really how it was done,” Ms. Murray said. “Now parents are really trying to choose a name that is unique, that suits their child and that says something about their personality.” 
 
 They are paying consultants such as Ms. Korwitts to choose a name, testing ideas as if they were marketing slogans with college admissions officers, and creating new monikers just because they like the sound. 
 
 But older relatives have some leverage against such flights of fancy — in part because now, living longer, they can actually see themselves memorialized with the next generation. One of Ms. Korwitts’s clients faced pressure to give her son her grandfather’s name, she said, because they wanted him to die in peace. 
 
 And “this generation of young parents are more likely to live with their parents or take financial support,” Ms. Murray said. “So if you are living in their house or they are helping with your rent or a down payment on a house, you may feel beholden to their wishes.” 
 
 A 35-year-old graphic designer in Great Neck, N.Y., who didn’t want to be named for fear of ruffling relatives’ feathers, said she was conflicted when her mother-in-law asked how much money it would take to name her daughter after her side of the family. 
 
 “If I really believed I could have gotten her to pay for college, it really seems foolish of me not to put my discomfort aside,” she said. “I would probably always resent that person, but to be able to take care of that anxiety, that would be nice.” 
 
 The graphic designer ultimately said no — “you only get to do this once,” she said — but other parents are coming up with creative solutions. 
 
 Julia Wang, site director of another baby website, The Bump, said she sees parents using part of a name of family members and combining it with something else to make it unique. Others let family members choose middle names, Chinese names or Hebrew names. Still others give their child one official name and then call him or her something else. “You might be able to have your cake and eat it too,” Ms. Murray said. 
 
 The Hudocks, though, stuck with Max. In their case, they chose to honor another grandparent: Jennifer Hudock’s father, also named Max, who died when she was 7. 
 
 “It was a decision we made together as husband and wife,” she said.
– Crib, car seat, baby wipe warmer—there are so many things expectant parents need to buy. Here's something else for the shopping list: a baby-naming consultant. And "the ultimate exercise in personal branding," as Quartz puts it, is not cheap. Swiss branding firm Erfolgswelle, for instance, charges more than $29,000 to choose the perfect moniker for a soon-to-arrive bundle of joy, Bloomberg reports. Agency head Marc Hauser says his team spends about 100 hours coming up with the perfect name, which includes verifying there's no trademark on the name and consulting historians to determine whether a potential name has "an aggravating past." He uses his own name—Marc—as an example, saying his firm wouldn't suggest it because it's linked to an ancient Roman god of war. If you'd rather squirrel away that 30 grand, say for a college fund, New York-based My Name for Life will help you name junior starting at several hundred dollars. If a baby namer knows what they're doing, "it's worth every penny," Albert Mehrabian, who wrote The Baby Name Report Card, tells Bloomberg's Polly Mosendz. (He gave her name a B-, and here he explains why "Chad" scores a 98 but "Bud" scores a 2.) Quartz quips that instead of paying, you could just turn to your in-laws, who "will probably be happy to provide you with loads of advice for free." Or maybe for something sweeter: In October the New York Times reported on cases in which would-be grandparents have given their own kids everything from $10,000 to the promise of a family business in exchange for the right to name their grandchild. (Here are some free suggestions for unusual baby names.)