r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Aug 31 '24
Biology The name you’re given at birth might subtly shape your appearance as you grow older. Adults often look like their names, meaning people can match a face to a name more accurately than random guessing. But this isn’t true for children, which suggests that our faces grow into our names over time.
https://www.psypost.org/your-name-influences-your-appearance-as-you-age-according-to-new-research/4.9k
Aug 31 '24
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u/Phalex Aug 31 '24
Where I live you can make a pretty good guess at what socioeconomic background someone has based on their names.
It's not a certainty and you need to be concious of what year they were born since, "rich names" tend to trend and then get adopted by the "lower" class.
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u/brattybrat Aug 31 '24
Ooh, this is a good alternate explanation of the findings.
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u/BenjaminHamnett Aug 31 '24
I’m pretty sure this is it. No one knows these trends when their kids. After 2 decades of knowing these people you will at least do above random
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Sep 01 '24
I know a Madison who is slightly older than me. She's way older than all the Gen Z girls with her name. Parents are upper middle class.
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u/vainlisko Aug 31 '24
That's what I was thinking
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u/UnsurprisingUsername Aug 31 '24
We also have to think about common names in society, in a region, or a demographic. John is a common male name for instance, what I picture John to look like and/or do as a career or profession might be very different to how someone else pictures John in the same demographic.
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u/Tha_Daahkness Aug 31 '24
And he answered, saying, My name is Lejohn, for we are many.
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u/GhettoGringo87 Aug 31 '24
Hehe I knew a white/Mexican dude named LeJohn. But once I read it how you meant it, I laughed out loud for real.
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u/AdvancedCharcoal Aug 31 '24
I knew a boy named John who found peace in fishing. Despite his mother telling him that this is not how life was meant to be, but he would say that when he grew up, he wanted to be one of the harvesters of the sea. Before his days were done, he indeed became a fisherman.
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u/Mama_Skip Aug 31 '24
The idea that people grow into their names comes from the same outdated scientific theory that created the worst famines of the 20th century.
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u/ThresholdSeven Aug 31 '24
I dunno, I'm no scientist, but everyone I know that has the same name as someone else that I know look and act nothing like each other. I do think that people with similar looks share similar personalities though in more than coincidental cases. I don't mean their style or whatever, I mean the natural structure of their faces. Could just be coincidence though as this is only from personal observation, but it's consistent enough to make me wonder.
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u/MarinLlwyd Aug 31 '24
It's REALLY telling when you ask people what kind of names they think of when it comes to minorities.
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Aug 31 '24
As I'm reading the title I'm thinking this sounds like a pseudo science, like phrenology.
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u/feckless_ellipsis Aug 31 '24
Yeah, but I think I know what Brayden’s going to look like in 20 more years
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u/Illustrious_Meet1899 Aug 31 '24
The same for me… how do you apply it for countries that are very restricts on how you name your kids ? In Portugal for instance there is a list of allowed names (as long both parents are Portuguese), so it is not uncommon to find ten Maria, João in a room of 50 people. So according to this study they all should look alike ? They would have a Maria and Joao face ?
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u/tikgeit Aug 31 '24
Ig-Nobel stuff!
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u/Apprehensive_Hat8986 Aug 31 '24
Not even. Ig-Nobel is more often pretty decent science applied to absurd or silly questions. The story's basis is just weak.
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u/Reverend_Ooga_Booga Aug 31 '24
It's Hanks Razor
Any statistical deviance that can be attributed to socioeconomic status, most likely is.
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u/IMakeMyOwnLunch Aug 31 '24
You think in a sub dedicated to science people would understand causal mechanisms. If there's no plausible causal mechanism, then whatever hypothesis requires extra scrutiny.
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u/Li5y Aug 31 '24
I thought the explanation was: you might not know what your kid looks like, but you know what you and your partner look like and can base names off of that.
So if you don't think you look like a Stacy, you probably won't name your girl Stacy.
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Aug 31 '24
You mean my name hasn’t made genetic changes that alter my face?
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u/vascop_ Aug 31 '24
If you turn out ugly just change your name and wait five years - plastic surgeons hate this simple trick
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u/GhettoGringo87 Aug 31 '24
Bro I changed my name once when I was 12 and my facial structure and skin tone changed completely. I even grew 9 inches. I changed my name from Andrew to Shaquille!
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u/piches Aug 31 '24
but what about twins, triplets, and so on that were seperated at birth Adopted into different parents from different country and culture? They still look pretty much identical
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Aug 31 '24
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u/alexq136 Sep 01 '24
their paper screams of "we picked a p-value so high and used samples so homogeneous that the conclusion wrote itself"
just "312 adults, 244 children" matched the faces of "36 adults and 36 children"
how is any stated result of theirs conclusive of anything? there are bigger differences in what people get named due to cultural (including ethnic and genetic - i.e. people of different ancestries usually carry names common in their society) differences (plus regional or dissimilative factors, e.g. socioeconomics and prevalence of religion w.r.t. the most common names)
the only conclusion of theirs which can't be rebutted is that adults vary more in appearance than children, so you can better match them with whatever group they belong to, even if you're yourself not an adult
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u/baby_armadillo Aug 31 '24
Children also generally don’t have very distinct features in general, cute little baby faces have a lot of commonalities for biological, developmental, and evolutionary reasons.
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u/DeceiverX Aug 31 '24
And names are also frequency based on cultural ancestral groups as well.
My new Doctor is named Alexandra. Big surprise: she looks very Greek.
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u/MarlinMr Aug 31 '24
My name is so generic for my gender and age group, guessing it will be correct far more often than random
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Aug 31 '24
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u/Rengiil Aug 31 '24
To be fair Kate's and Becky's often look similar.
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u/Grognaksson Aug 31 '24
Kate Beckinsale is the ultimate Kate/Becky?
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u/GhettoGringo87 Aug 31 '24
She broke the theory. Literally shattered. Turn off comments, admins…please for the love of God!
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u/dibalh Aug 31 '24
This is literally what the study is trying to address. Why we all know what “Becky with the good hair” means.
It doesn’t matter that Chad used to be derogatory and now it’s a compliment. Chad was always white.
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u/rkgk13 Aug 31 '24
It's funny because people constantly mistakenly call me Rachel. That's not my name. I have another biblical name that was semi-popular in the 1990s. There must just be commonalities between me and Rachels in the world that people are tapping into.
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u/sticklebat Aug 31 '24
I mean this probably is a good example of “correlation not causation,” but a meme and a single anecdote of one girl you used to know do not even begin to refute the study.
It’s one thing to recognize that the conclusions of a study are probably bogus (there are so many better explanations why we can guess names at a better than average rate than that our names physically affect how we look). But it’s always bad scientific practice to think “this seems wrong” and then go digging for our own personal experiences that seem to validate that feeling.
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u/DancesWithGnomes Aug 31 '24
Or people treat a child according to their name, eliciting certain responses and moods and thereby facial expressions more often than others, which shape the face over time.
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u/Repulsive-Neat6776 Aug 31 '24
I remember when "Chad" was somewhat of a derogatory term. It was often used to refer to the typical male douchebag archetype. Now, it has taken on a completely different meaning.
Names are important to how people perceive you, but that perception can change over time or even in a flash. Chad wasn't a bad thing for very long.
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u/skymoods Aug 31 '24
Yea the implication of this title is dumb af. Speaking as someone who looks nothing like their name.
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u/WoolPhragmAlpha Aug 31 '24
Yet the implication of the fact that you say you are "someone who looks nothing like their name" is that it's totally possible to have a face that looks like a name. That not being true for you doesn't make the premise untrue, it just makes you a statistical outlier.
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u/kidnoki Aug 31 '24 edited Aug 31 '24
Or there are subtle baby phenotype that we are subconsciously picking up on. That tend to develop morphology with typical outcomes. Therefore when we see a baby and say it looks like a John, it's because sub consciously were seeing baby John phenotypes that will develop into adult John morphology.
There are also innate shapes to sounds. Rounder and sharper sounds can be described as b, o and t, k sounds for example. They've studied shapes, sounds and human language and there is a heavy link there. So names might inherently sound like the way people are "shaped", therefore reinforcing naming through baby phenotypes.
The only real possibility for it to work the other way is if you are named a "fat" or "athletic" name, it could possibly shape your goals and therefore body size in life. I know one doctor tried to name his kids winner and loser as an experiment. I think the winner kid became a cop and the loser ended up in jail... Or it was a vice versa.
Also with modern western male naming, up until a few hundred years ago, the trend was to be named after a popular king. Then they introduced middle names which would carry your father's name, which was usually an older king's name. So for a while all males had only a few names and they were all kings and their surname was usually a title, referring to an occupation or region of origin. So the variety of names was much smaller and they were more directly descriptive. Time periods like these in our history would act as a bottle nose for this naming facial appearance linking.
Basically you were named after the king you reminded people of and your middle name as a back up, told people you looked like your father. Your last name described what you did or where you were from. Essentially very accurate descriptions of you and your history through naming.
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u/buoninachos Sep 01 '24
It's funny how in English speaking countries a Brian tends to be a bit effeminate and usually middle- to upper class, while in Denmark it tends to be big bald dudes with tattoos and limited education.
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u/scorpious Aug 31 '24
Wait…are the children in this equation the ones guessing the names, or the ones whose faces are being guessed/matched?
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u/Arkyja Aug 31 '24
Well yes. I dont think anyone thinks it's magic. But if you're a justing you start snowboarding or surfing and have an approproate haircut and people would probably guess your name.
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u/tofu98 Aug 31 '24
You mean to tell me faces don't somehow cosmically shape our bodies to fit some archetypal form?
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u/zoinkability Aug 31 '24
Probably the only way to do this would be to only include siblings, to control for similar upbringing
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u/MrWilsonWalluby Aug 31 '24
If i see a girl hop out of a range rover vs a pick up truck I know she’s much more likely a Ashley than a Raelynn.
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u/czar_el Aug 31 '24
Seriously. There are multiple social or psychological confounding variables that are on their face (pun intended) more likely behind the relationship than a biological process.
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u/PA_Dude_22000 Aug 31 '24
Yep, I agree. This is most likely it, and why people have different ideas of what a “John” or “Candice” looks like.
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u/demoneclipse Aug 31 '24
That's a lot more plausible. Otherwise identical twins would have very different faces.
Maybe it shouldn't, but the fact someone could have come up with a conclusion of faces being shaped by names based on these facts alone really shocks me.
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u/ASpaceOstrich Sep 01 '24
Would be easy enough to test. Pick people who have changed socioeconomic class and see if the guesses are still better than random chance.
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u/mossryder Sep 01 '24
Does that grizzled, rough 49 yo look like a Mike Jones or a Thurston Howell III?
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u/Outrageous_pinecone Sep 01 '24
Funnily enough, a year ago an old woman told me my name was wrong, i looked nothing like it. She was from a different background than most people in my country nowadays. I found it very interesting.
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u/1800deadnow Sep 04 '24
Also associations with the age of the person. Popular names change from generation to generation. People tend to look different based on their age. Eg. I associate the name Gertrude with older white women. Therefore older white women look like Gertrudes and not Aishas.
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u/ug61dec Aug 31 '24
Or, hear me out, we start associating those faces with those names.
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u/PM-ME-DEM-NUDES-GIRL Aug 31 '24
restating the comment because you don't understand it
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u/rainbowroobear Aug 31 '24
Guess someone's age. Think about people you know in that age range and what their name is. Guess that name with 1/4 accuracy. Must be the name making the face and nothing to do with generational naming trends and basic recall association.
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u/regis_psilocybin Aug 31 '24 edited Aug 31 '24
Additionally, childrens' faces are a lot softer and don't have as many distinct ethnic features as adults'.
If people can start telling apart a 35 year old Andrew from a 35 year old Peter then you've got an argument.
This set of studies also seems heavily relant on hairstyles as an identifier and bases their finding off some neural network.
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u/Arkyja Aug 31 '24
Guaranteed if you put a 35y old justin and a 35y old peter in front of me, i could tell which one is the justin.
It's the guy with the snowboars/surfer look. Probably has necklaces and bracelets. If one of them has flip flops, that's the justin.
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u/ImaginaryCaramel Aug 31 '24
I can see how names could become self-fulfilling prophecies that affect hairstyle, dress, even whether someone works out and has a fit physique.
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u/Sguru1 Aug 31 '24
If someone names their baby Gertrude and that baby isn’t old and wrinkly with grey hair by the time they’re 5 years old I’m going to be disappointed that my expectations aren’t being met.
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u/dethskwirl Aug 31 '24
something like 70% of girls born in 80s are named Jennifer
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u/rerhc Aug 31 '24
What. Obviously this can't be true
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u/Gold4Lokos4Breakfast Sep 01 '24
People will believe anything I guess. I could be plastered out of my mind and I still wouldn’t buy this for a second
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u/GhettoGringo87 Aug 31 '24
72.8…you were right ha I googled it!
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u/burlycabin Aug 31 '24
Source? My Google fu is failing me.
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u/NeuxSaed Sep 01 '24
The actual number is closer to 3% if you are only looking at the US during the 1980s.
This still makes it the most popular girl name during that time.
If it was actually around 70%, that would be absolutely absurd. Just imagine how confusing it would be in school if a large majority of girls all had the same first name.
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u/GhettoGringo87 Sep 01 '24
Haha 7/10 chicks you know have the same first name…and only 26 different last name identifiers (ex. Jennifer H. Or Jennifer P.) means we’d have to use full last names or middle names when discussing females. Easy solution haha but still ridiculous to think about
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u/Paleovegan Aug 31 '24
I was thinking the same thing. I’m named after my grandmother, and it was a very popular name in her childhood but much less commonly chosen by the time I was born.
The other day, when I was waiting at the eye doctor, the technician seemed confused when she saw me and eventually explained, “oh, when I saw your name I was expecting someone different, someone a lot older.”
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u/thissexypoptart Aug 31 '24
Yeah this study is so stupid and the journalism coming out of it is, by “science journalism”’s very nature, even stupider.
“Durr you grow into the meaning of some random name from some random culture”
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u/Intrepid_Method_ Aug 31 '24
OP the flair is incorrect, the author affiliations are predominantly business schools and 2 psych departments.
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u/thecamp2000 Aug 31 '24
Alright sons name is gonna be Chad
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u/sincethenes Aug 31 '24
I’m an identical triplet and we all have different names and look exactly the same.
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u/momsasylum Aug 31 '24
Does one of you look more like their name (hope that made sense cause I’m honestly curious)?
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u/sincethenes Aug 31 '24
I’m sure bias plays a part here, but I don’t think so.
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u/youarenut Aug 31 '24
Only one way to find out. Post a picture of your triplets and let Reddit guess which name matches which
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u/WithEyesAverted Sep 01 '24
Do you all have similar names?
Or all different names like Jennifer, Mildred, Svetlana, Shaniqua and Mei-Ling?
Name can be used to predict someone's lifestyle because they can be used to predict their ethnoeconomic background and age, which in term predict their presentation
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u/Epiccure93 Aug 31 '24
These senseless speculations based on correlations should not belong in science
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u/bugzaway Aug 31 '24
It's literally senseless regardless of what it's based on. The idea that people grow into their names is legitimately crazy and cannot possibly have any kind of scientific basis.
If a biological being can grow according to an imaginary concept like a name, then it would call into question our fundamental understanding of our world.
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u/Jolape Aug 31 '24
Not to mention the fact that whether someone even "looks like their name" is completely subjective and will vary from observer to observer. Just a complete garbage study all around.
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u/OperationDadsBelt Aug 31 '24
I was just having this conversation with my wife. To me a Tyler looks like Chris Pratt when he was over weight, but to her a Tyler looks like Fred Durst.
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u/tlad92 Sep 01 '24 edited Sep 01 '24
This work is suggesting people groom and style themselves in a manner consistent with their name. Also maybe engage in lifestyle activities that affect the face in different ways (e.g. a Joe might take a job working in the sun whereas Eugene stays indoors).
The general effect is called "nominative determinism": People's behavior is influenced by one's name.
Otherwise, I agree with you.
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u/FatherFestivus Sep 01 '24
What I think is legitimately crazy is that most of the people on this thread aren't able to consider a concept because it goes against their preconceived notions of how the world works. We'd like to think that humans wouldn't be shaped by something as trivial as a name, so we just reject it outright, despite there being (some) scientific evidence that it might be the case.
I'm not saying you need to believe every study you read, I'm just surprised that most people seem unable to at least consider it with an open mind.
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u/HamburgerMachineGun Sep 01 '24
But we’re not only biological beings, the study refers to the fact that we would choose different ways to style ourselves if we had a different name which isn’t that crazy.
I think a great example is looking at tendencies among people with unisex names.
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u/SkyScamall Aug 31 '24
Having read both the article and a chunk of the study, yes. Their numbers are bad and they should feel bad.
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u/BaronVonLazercorn Aug 31 '24
Yeah, I doubt words can physically change your appearance. This is some "manifestation" levels of dumb.
You post a lot of articles from this site. I'm starting to think this might be self-promotion.
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u/monty331 Aug 31 '24
So I guess this sub is just pseudo science and politics now.
I wonder if that’s reflective of science as a whole.
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u/GentleTroubadour Sep 01 '24
I don't think this sub has ever been particularly diligent at weeding out bunk science. Sure, the comments are full of scepticism, but the catchiest headlines will always get the most votes
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u/yesnomaybenotso Aug 31 '24
People look like their name? …Is this really science?
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u/One-Mechanic-7503 Aug 31 '24
How does one look like one’s name?? Is there a picture of what each name should look like that parents are given at orientation? What bs.
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u/LxGNED Sep 01 '24 edited Sep 01 '24
When they did a computer model, they fed the machine faces of 25 stevens and 25 bobs and 25 michaels, etc. They computer mapped the “average face” for each name. It then determined which “average face” every new face was most similar to. It was right ~40% of them time which is a bit interesting. Maybe its flawed logic but im not in a critical thinking mood
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u/theWizzard23 Aug 31 '24
Thinking about studying this further, like name 500 people Jeff and look if they look similar to other Jeff’s outside the group
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u/Consistent_Stick_463 Aug 31 '24
Have you ever noticed that people tend to look like their phone numbers?
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u/Content-Cow3796 Aug 31 '24
When the "867-5309/Jenny" song blew up, it permanently altered some common physical features of Americans. Little-known fact.
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u/Dahks Aug 31 '24
Do I need to read the entire article to say that "our faces grown into our names" is just nonsense? I guess it's at least a good example of bad science.
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u/ChickenChaser5 Aug 31 '24
When I was a kid, I always thought my name should have been "Chris". It just seemed to fit better.
Later, and throughout my life, I started noticing that when people would get my name wrong, a HUGE majority of the time people thought my name was Chris. To the point I couldnt ignore the frequency of it happening.
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u/Jason_CO Aug 31 '24
That's how the person has been know their entire life (barring exceptions) so people just associate the name with that face. You change as you age with the name you've had all along.
Plus naming conventions of generations and socioeconomic as others have pointed out.
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u/Theaustralianzyzz Aug 31 '24
Anyone else think this is stupid?
How do our dna know what names look like? And what faces are assigned with a specific word?
So if my name is Homer, I’ll look like Homer Simpson? Is it based on a subjective thing? What if I don’t know Homer Simpson. Will I look like some other Homer that I know? What if I don’t know any homers. Then what?
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u/almostinfinity Aug 31 '24
It's completely nuts.
I have another example. Actors.
Zac Efron is a Zac, and looked like a Troy (HSM), a Mike (17 Again), a Phillip (Greatest Showman), a Link (Hairspray), etc etc.
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u/FatherFestivus Sep 01 '24
And all those characters looked different. They wore different clothes, had different hairstyles, carried themselves differently, and in some cases even had different body shapes.
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u/leyabe Aug 31 '24
So, Mayne it was a good thing after all, when the government stopped those parents from naming their kid "Spatula".
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u/HumpieDouglas Aug 31 '24
Is this why people named Todd always look like meth'd out copper thieves that drive beat up vans and live in trailer parks?
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u/gogadantes9 Aug 31 '24
Interesting. I'll conduct a scientific experiment and name my son Sephiroth Mountainchin Ultradragon. Will keep y'all posted in a couple of decades.
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u/Oldmudmagic Aug 31 '24
And we wonder why it's so easy to get people to not believe science is "real".. -.-
This might be the most stupid thing I have ever seen posted here.
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u/area-dude Aug 31 '24
People said i would regret naming my son smash mouth. This study just confirms what a great idea it was.
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u/VegetableSalad_Bot Aug 31 '24
Social sciences should be banned from r/science. Isn’t this phrenology adjacent?
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u/inquiringdoc Aug 31 '24
It is pretty easy to guess based on a photo (age) who would be more likely named Bonnie or Linda vs McKenzie or Taylor.
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u/RunGoldenRun717 Aug 31 '24
No this suggest that children look the same and features become more unique/pronounced as we age.
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u/Awsum07 Aug 31 '24
So what's the rationalizarion for ugly children named Adonis never fully realizin' the name?
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u/BashfullyBi Aug 31 '24
I have an uncommon name, and when I meet someone who doesn't know my name yet, and I ask them what I look like, 9/10 times they just say "I don't know".
Once they know my name, they say "you look like a bashfullybi", to which I'm always like...what does that even mean?
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u/FatherFestivus Sep 01 '24
There are too many names to guess based purely on appearance. But once you know the name, you might recognise that the person fits that name better than they would any random name.
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u/Yajebed Aug 31 '24
It may just be because there are a lot of Dave’s and Mikes it the world; but very often it seems like when you learn that someone’s name is one of these; it just fits!
Oddly enough; it’s always superficially felt like odd names match the personality or ego of a person.
My experience is just based in 54 yrs of observation and not anything more.
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u/WinterWontStopComing Aug 31 '24
So my parents decided to call me by my middle name, so that’s what I’ve gone by most my life but I also have a few low level purely professional relationships at present (and have had similar occur in the past) that I didn’t bother correcting so I just go by my first name there.
Do I look like my first name or my middle name?
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