A child's personality is related to the name, true or false? Psychology explains to you that it is not superstition

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China has a long traditional culture, and it is often very careful when it comes to naming children. A name not only contains generations, origins, and expectations, but also a linguistic symbol and cultural identity that people communicate with each other.

As the old saying goes: children grow by name, which means: a child's growth and personality may be influenced by their name. So, is a child's personality and growth related to the name? Is the old saying true or false?

There is the expectation of parents in the name

Zi said: Seeing the virtuous and thinking together, seeing the unvirtuous and introspecting is also --- from the "Analects" in the Ren chapter. It means that when you see a virtuous and talented person, you should learn from him and look up to him, and when you see a person who is not virtuous, you should ask yourself whether I have such shortcomings.

I brought a child named Siqi, and her grandfather gave her a name, which meant that she wanted her to see Siqi. Siqi is indeed as hard as her name suggests.

Siqi's mother said: "Other people's children have no concept of exams when they first go to school, and they have to be urged by their parents to write homework and review. Before Siqi's exam, we had to urge her not to do homework or practice. Because she started going to school, she would be so anxious that she couldn't sleep before the exam, and for the exam, she could do one or two points by doing exercises by herself. ”

When I heard Siqi's mother talk about her daughter like this, my heart was surprised and jealous. For a child who has just started school, it is definitely not an accident that he can be so attentive to exams. I think that the meaning of Siqi's name also gives parents a lot of expectations for their children, and they will unconsciously cultivate in the direction of the meaning of the name.

Ren Xianqi's name also means to see Xian Siqi, not only debuted for more than 30 years without scandals, but also often devoted himself to public welfare and charity activities: helping girls with congenital heart disease through the media, donating money to deaf and mute children, donating money to disaster areas, and meeting a father looking for his son while riding, and immediately used celebrity effect to launch a search on Weibo......

In Chinese culture, names are very important, and names are often full of parents' wishes and elders' expectations for children. A child may be treated and nurtured according to the meaning and personality traits contained in the name.

In addition to this, the self-realization expectations that a name brings to a person should not be underestimated. The famous Rosenthal effect is because the teacher's expectation of the student triggers the student's self-realization expectation, and the student continues to work towards this expectation, and finally achieves the expectation.

I have seen a girl whose name is Tao Tao, and the meaning of her father's name is that he hopes that his daughter will grow up happily. The name has the father's tolerance for his daughter, so when Tao Tao was 5 years old, he dared to sit on the balcony, which frightened the neighbors and knocked on the door directly.

When Tao Tao grew up, her personality was also very easy-going, and everyone in the class liked to play with her, so that her mother was worried about whether her daughter had early love. Tao Tao said: "The class is full of my buddies, and I haven't thought about falling in love." After graduating from college, her parents were heartbroken for her work, but she didn't care.

Tao Tao, as his name suggests, has grown into what his father wants.

Names are unique and social

A person's name is not only their own unique individual characteristics, but also the linguistic symbol of addressing each other in social interactions. Most people think that names are somewhat metaphysical, but psychologists from all over the world have also done a lot of research on names using modern scientific methods.

A foreign psychologist once pointed out that "the name given to an individual after birth will become a decisive factor in the development of his personality, the acquisition of friendships, and the success of life". In 2017, the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences published a paper titled "The Effect of Name Likeness on Subjective Well-being: The Mediating Role of Self-esteem".

The results showed that individuals' satisfaction with their own names was significantly correlated with their psychological adjustment ability. Specifically, individuals with higher satisfaction with their names had higher psychological adjustment ability, higher levels of life satisfaction and higher self-esteem, while individuals with lower satisfaction with their own names also had lower psychological adjustment ability.

In another study by the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it was found that other people's evaluation of our name affects our perception and evaluation of ourselves. In other words, a person's name may affect the first impression of others on us, and then form an evaluation of the name owner, and after many feedbacks, affect the psychological state of the name owner.

For example, if a person's name is "Batian", I believe that everyone's first impression of the owner of this name is: difficult to mess with, often bullying, fond of violence, and gangsters......

If the child chooses a similar name, it may be difficult to make friends outside. According to Honey's theory of basic anxiety, the child will either become a pleaser, a withdrawn outlier, or a loner against the group.

For another example, in the previous era of poor medical conditions, the risk of child death was very high, and the common practice of ordinary people was: to give the child a bad, even lowly name, meaning "cheap name is good to feed".

A colleague of my mother, who was born with a low weight, was afraid that she would not be able to support her, so she named her milk "Maokeng", and some gave her children milk as "poop eggs" and "dog eggs".

These names were commonplace in the past, and no one would feel surprised, but if it is now, I am afraid that it is only a matter of time before this child becomes a social fear and does not want to go out to meet people.

The name should also be chosen with developmental in mind

Names have a lot to do with cultural changes, and some foreign scholars have found that if a word is very popular in the previous year, the name containing the sound of the word will also be popular in the next year.

For example, in the early days of the liberation of the mainland, names such as "liberation, patriotism, Baohua, support the army, and brave army" were very common; at the beginning of the 21 st century, the results of reform appeared, and the life of the Chinese people began to improve, and names such as "Zixuan, Zixuan, Zixuan, Zihan, and Zihan" began to become popular, and at the same time, popular milk names such as "Guoguo, Tangtang".

Some netizens once joked: "The teacher in the class named Zixuan and Zihan, and they can stand up." "But in recent years, there have been few names like this pandemic.

Therefore, when choosing a name for a child, it is necessary to consider not only developmental, but also comprehensive:

1. Consider cultural changes and don't just follow current trends

2. You can add your own expectations for your children

3. Avoid rare words and negative names, such as: Batian, Egg

4. Do not take a special personality name, such as: Jumulema Peak

5. Don't take controversial homophonic names, such as: Lai Yuejin, the boy who was hospitalized in "Heart Art".

6. Don't take a popular name, try to choose a three-character name, and avoid homonyms and duplicate names

7. Do not take transgender names, such as: boys are called Shanshan, girls are called Qiangqiang

8. The names selected in the ancient poems must not be bad, such as: Siqi, Xianqi

Conclusion: In the 40s of the last century, names entered the research scope of psychologists. But after so many years, the research on the impact of names on the psychological development of individuals is still a drop in the ocean. Despite this, judging from the results of the current research, there is also seven or eight points of truth in the old saying "children grow up with their names".

References and Citations:

Su Hong, Ren Xiaopeng, "The Psychological Effect of Names: Evidence from the Individual and Group Levels", Advances in Psychological Science, 2015

Ma Xinran, Ren Xiaopeng, Dong Xiawei, Zhu Tingshao, "The Effect of Name Likeness on Subjective Well-being: The Mediating Role of Self-esteem", Chinese Clinical Psychology, 2017

Zhang Xintong, Jiang Chongqing, Leng Haizhou, Li Dong, "The Influence of Name on Impression Formation", Psychological Research, 2020