Researchers have found more evidence that people are moist robots. Apparently the initials in your name can influence your fate. For example, baseball players with last names that start with K, which denotes a strike-out in baseball, actually strike out more often. People who have a last name beginning with C and D get worse grades in school.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071116/lf_nm_life/initials_performance_dc
I scoffed at this report. Then I considered my own name. It starts with A, and I was a valedictorian in high school. And my full initials are SRA, which was the name of the reading system we used in grade school. I think it stood for Scholastic Reading Aptitude or something like that. Now I’m an author. Hmm…
My wife’s first name is Shelly, and she loves the seashore. My last name is Adams, and I like apples. It’s creepy.
Okay, okay, I know a few examples prove nothing. But I have always marveled at how athletes have such perfect names for athletes. You have your Joe Montana, your Tiger Woods, your Cal Ripken Jr. But you don’t have any boxers named Peter Pinkenberry.
Does your name fit your fate so far?
My name is Trish and I like to take out the trash.
My initials are TB, but I've never had Tuberculosis.
My initals backwards are BLT, but I hate BLTs.
Posted by: Trish | November 20, 2007 at 10:23 AM
My initials are KYL. I hope I don't end up a murderer.
If you just take my first and middle names, it's KY. I... don't really want to know.
My full name is an anagram for "I like a mean Chevy". But I drive a Toyota and want a Jeep, so that's not quite right.
"I like a cave hymen"? Hmm, maybe that's what the KY is for.
Ah, here we are. "I like a Mac, eh? Envy!" I do use Macs at home, and I'm Canadian.
Wow, that's creepy.
Posted by: kevin | November 20, 2007 at 09:08 AM
As far as I remeber it has also been documented that people who's last names are in the first 3rd of the alphabet are more likely to be promoted- because most personel lists are written in alphabetical order- and after all there are usually more applicants than jobs- so lets just go with the first one thats qualified...
Posted by: daloon | November 20, 2007 at 05:55 AM
Regarding sportsmen with apt names - there are exceptions to every rule. For example, there was a famous (now late) English wrestler whose real name was Shirley Crabtree. Yes, he was a guy and No - he didn't wrestle under that name - he was known as "Big Daddy".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Crabtree
Posted by: Steve Kay | November 20, 2007 at 04:47 AM
Well, my last name is O'Connor, and I'm a drunk, so that's a big thumbs up!
Posted by: Eric | November 19, 2007 at 08:38 PM
Ah, now to join the fray....
My initials are CB and I....see....a bee! Oh-my-god!
Posted by: chitrak b | November 19, 2007 at 04:15 PM
My daughter's initials are KMA, and she does have quite an attitude, and she's a straight A student, so maybe there's something to this.
Posted by: Nick | November 19, 2007 at 03:18 PM
Also... aside from my initials being NAP...
my last name is french: Paquet. which means Package.. My first name is Natalie, which means Christ's birthday...
ironically i don't celebrate christmas... but essentially my name implies that i'm a major part of the holiday.
Posted by: natalie | November 19, 2007 at 02:55 PM
My initials are NAP...
when i was a kid my sister always said i needed to take more naps because i was always cranky...
to this day that holds true. if i don't get a good nap in i'm a mess for the whole day.
Posted by: natalie | November 19, 2007 at 02:49 PM
What about a hard-hitting NFL CB named Randall Gay?
C'mon, you're an economist. You know that if you compare one statistic (initials) against a ton of possible fields you're going to get false-positives roughly 5% of the time. You can "prove" any point that way.
You're just baiting the populace here.
Posted by: Paul | November 19, 2007 at 02:38 PM
my name is kristopher, and it could stand for kri-stop-her, and alternatively kris-top-her.
that means i'm good at stopping women from whatever they happen to be doing, and then getting on top of them.
i hope you're right.
Posted by: kris | November 19, 2007 at 01:44 PM
My initials are JET and i dont fly much... does this mean i should more often? or i should buy a hot tub?
Posted by: JET | November 19, 2007 at 01:43 PM
First name is french, speak french fluently, was a french exchange student.
Last name is scottish, went to school in scotland.
And yet, amazingly, I'm american. Coincidence? I think not.
Posted by: Jeannette McIntyre | November 19, 2007 at 01:41 PM
I am.
Posted by: Randy | November 19, 2007 at 01:40 PM
My last name is Flores, and I'm male, but not gay. But come to think of it I did fail Spanish in high school. I wound up finding a delivery job for a flower shop.
Posted by: John Flores | November 19, 2007 at 12:33 PM
John Wayne's real given name was Marion. Overcompensation? Then again, Marilyn Monroe wasn't a baker.
Posted by: Mike | November 19, 2007 at 12:29 PM
I swear-to-god had a dorm-mate in college whose name was Buster Hyman. And his *parents* had given him the nickname, when he was little. He did his best to live up to the name, but then didn't we all?
Posted by: Mike | November 19, 2007 at 12:14 PM
My initials are dv and I work in digital video.
Posted by: dalas | November 19, 2007 at 11:50 AM
Gotta post again. Just a little "name" humor for those who like it--
My Mom worked at a bank, was the receptionist and also handled all the check ordering, etc. She was a school teacher when she was young and loved words, names, and was a stickler for the English language.
She came home from work one day and said she ordered checks for an American Indian lady named "Mary Top Of The Tepee." All of us little kids were amazed. She explained that American Indians name their children for the first thing they see after the child is born, at least that was what she had been told. I asked what my name would have been if I was an American Indian, and my older brother said, "Rita Stinking Thigh." All the kids laughed, but my Mom didn't think that was funny.
There's not many left in my family to laugh about that. My older siblings have gone to a better place, so thought I would share it.
Rita Mae
Posted by: rita mae | November 19, 2007 at 11:43 AM
My name is Matt and people walk all over me.
Posted by: Matt Brown | November 19, 2007 at 11:08 AM
To all those who tried and failed to meet Scott’s cut of clever and funny blurbs for his new book I salute you. Grand effort and it was great reading.
My attempts fell short but at lease in dreaming those up it helped clear away a few of the cobwebs in my brain. On now to the next challenge, figuring out how to stay clever and funny in real life.
Posted by: Arby | November 19, 2007 at 10:47 AM
Sure it fits the pattern. My last name is Wagner, a contraction of the German terms for a wagon-maker (Wagonmacher -> Wagonner -> Wagner). And strangely, for most of my career, I have unable to escape jobs that involve designing car parts (the modern version of the wagon), most recently portions of the Onstar box in GM vehicles.
Posted by: Dan Quixote | November 19, 2007 at 10:13 AM
Last initial C, but high school GPA was 3.5, college GPA 3.7, and grad school 3.8 ... not only am I a counterexample, I actually got better as the material became more advanced!
Posted by: Steve | November 19, 2007 at 10:12 AM
My wife is Brazilian.
She informed me that my last name means "to fuck" in portuguese.
Being that I'm married, I'd have to say that my name doesn't match my life. But I wish it did :(
Posted by: Pender | November 19, 2007 at 10:05 AM
Scott, sorry to say but "SRA" in Polish means shits (3rd person form of the verb)
Posted by: Radek | November 19, 2007 at 10:04 AM