Our columnist Jason Godfrey has played a character named James on Singaporean TV show 'Kin' for so long people have been calling him by that name. — Filepic
I’ve played a character named James for years on Singapore TV. The result of that is there is a director of photography who, even on a new show where my character name is not James, calls me James for everything.
“James, can you shift to your right?”
“Try not to block that light, James.”
“Stand in, James, please?”
And I respond to it every time.
It got me thinking, what’s in a name? Research has shown that names can influence how people perceive us because we associate certain names with personality traits. People like Emma or Liam rate as more friendly or trustworthy, it seems. Names like Hunter or Blaze reportedly make people think of strength or impulsiveness.
With Emma and Liam it is partially the familiarity of these names. They’re common and safe. And their pronunciation is soft and gentle.
Yes, even how a name sounds can change how people perceive it. “Hard” consonants like K in Kevin or G in Glenn can lead to people feeling that the owners of these names are more assertive than those with softer sounding names like Ella or Milo.
As for Hunter or Blaze being associated with more dynamic traits, it’s pretty self-explanatory. These names are pretty dynamic.
One study showed that teachers rated Christophers as more intelligent than Rickys before they even spoke. And to be fair, when I hear those names, I too just assume Christopher is more likely to understand quantum physics than Ricky.
Which could be totally unfair.
But with expectation can also come realisation.
Let’s take Christopher.
If people named Christopher are perceived as more intelligent off the bat, that might become a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. Teachers look to you for answers in class. You get them right, you feel good, you are smart, see? Meanwhile, poor Ricky....
There is even something called implicit egotism that states people are drawn to a thing that resemble themselves, even their names. For instance, one study found there were statistically higher numbers of people named Dennis working as dentists.
People with similar names might even display similar traits. For instance, I’m very into investing and baseball. I love the statistics of baseball and that translates easily into looking at quarterly reports for investing. And I’ve noticed a lot of investors online named Jason also are big fans of baseball. This trend was also noticed on a podcast I listened to.
Just another reason for us to understand that we are not all unique snowflakes – as much as we’d like that to be true.
In any case, names do play some role in shaping personality. But what if your parents were super artistic and named you Grape or Mountain or Jaxen, or whatever other crazy names are going around?
Kids with more unusual names might develop stronger independence as they’re used to being different. Or it might work the other way, where being different makes them feel terrible and they become defensive. On the flip side of that, kids with popular names may lean towards social conformity.
It’s a strange thing to think, that your fate could be determined by your name. But in reality our personalities depend on a plethora of factors all interwoven to make you, you. A name can have some effect but it isn’t going to be the defining factor.
But back to that director of photography: the entire time I’ve been shooting with him, literally years, he’s been calling me by my character name from that old show, James.
Today, for some reason, he said, “Can you take a step to your left, Jason. Jason, can you go to the left.”
I didn’t even clock that he was talking to me. He said “Jason”.
I finally realised and said, “Are you talking to me?” He nodded. I shook my head. “Jason sounds weird when you say it. Go back to calling me James.”
And we ended the day with him back to calling me James and order was restored in the universe.
Sometimes, I guess, a name is just what you’re comfortable with in any given situation.
Avid writer Jason Godfrey – a model who once was told to give the camera a ‘big smile, no teeth’ – has worked internationally for two decades in fashion and continues to work in dramas, documentaries and lifestyle programming. Write to him at lifestyle@thestar.com.my and follow him on Instagram @bigsmilenoteeth and facebook.com/bigsmilenoteeth. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.
