Your name says a lot about your personality

Little confession time: I really have a &$^*( dislike for my name. In place of the symbols, you can insert a curse word of your choice, as long as it's intense, because that's how much I dislike my name. I felt that way when I was younger too, and I always wanted to change it. My parents allowed me to change it when I turned twelve. But I went to high school when I was eleven and was in the second grade when I turned twelve... How weird would it be if I suddenly had a different name? That I had gone for Sophie or Laura or something? That didn't seem like a solid plan either.

And I kept telling myself that I am more than just my name (because I'm not exactly thrilled about my last name either). But tough luck for me, because according to a German study published by the BBC , it turns out that your name does say something about you. In 2000, psychologist Jean Twenge already stated that people who did not like their own name had more difficulty adjusting psychologically, and because they did not like their own name, their insecurity grew. ‘The name becomes a symbol of the person,’ Twenge said about this.

But well, a German study showed even more. For example, in the realm of dating: we are quicker to reject someone with a name that is no longer in fashion, like the name Thea. But also when it comes to how we generally interact with others, we are less likely to offer help to people who have a name with a bad association. A Tokkie name, for example.

Okay, let's take it a step further. This same study showed that people with such a name (which is less likely to be accepted for reasons like the above) had a greater chance of going down a criminal path.

Don't worry: unique names are not bad. It's mainly the names we associate with a Tokkie-like environment (for lack of a better term, I'll just call it that) and names that we prefer to have left behind in the ’80s. In fact: unique names might actually be very positive.

Because people with unique names would encourage others to find the uniqueness in themselves, and that would also be the reason why people with unique names often end up in creative professions: they are more creative and also more open-minded.

My god, it's quite a task to choose a name, because there is so much to consider. I can't help you further with that, I can only give one tip: don't name your child Wieke. She will definitely never be happy with that.