The Impact of Your Name

“Why do we discriminate based on names? It may not be about race but instead what some names signal about a person’s background.

“A distinctively black name tells us that a person typically comes from a neighborhood that has higher poverty, lower income, more likely to have teen mothers, et cetera,” Fryer said.

“There’s new research that shows names may even tell us about more than just social background; a name may affect future decisions about marriage and career.”

“My cousin Dinky - not going to become the CEO of a major corporation,” he said.

So should parents steer away from being clever when naming their children?

“Advice to parents: It might seem cool to give your kid a unique name. But there are many, many more disadvantages to doing that than advantages,” Pelham said.

TheStateOf . . . Black Names. I just wish folks would stop naming their sons “Aiden.” I can’t stand that name! Black men and women need strong, distinguished names. What the writer is saying seems true in a general sense, but there are always exceptions. I know a very powerful female CEO named “Cookie.”