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I used to help our hiring managers with candidates' writing tests, and I always was harder on applicants with made-up sounding names because I assumed they couldn't write as well as other people.

Same goes with candidates who had more common names with an added -y or -gh ... I always felt shocked when people with goofy (in my opinion) names had solid tests and stellar interviews. It's awful, I know!

@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: Me too!!

The "white sounding" comment made sense to me.

DH is AA, but has what I guess is a "white sounding" name (I would call it "traditional" instead of labeling it with a color, but whatever)

He's a manager and has had people come in to his place of business who he's spoken to on the phone previously. They'll ask for him by name, and he'll say "Yes, I'm First Name, Last Name," and they'll say, "No, I mean the manager" (assuming that it isn't him).

It's an interesting article and I think a lot of it rings true for our generation. However, I think in 15-30 years "common" names like Mary, John, Bob etc are going to be few and far between, and more "unique/unusual" names will be more common.

@blackbird: my alma mater is cited in that article. Funny.

We are having the hardest time naming this baby girl. My husband keeps trying to pick out names that end in -eigh or -ie or -y and while I don't mind them as nicknames, I really don't like them for full names. I always introduce myself as my full name even though most people call me by my nickname.

@MaryM: Wow, that's awful!

Not shocking that "white sounding" names are more often interviewed, nor am I shocked that masculine or unisex names do better for women in some industries.

Regarding unique/made-up sounding names being associated with delinquency-- I think it was freakonomics that examined that and found that it wasn't so much that a made-up sounding name caused delinquency as it was that the type of parents who give that sort of name are more likely to have parenting skills (or lack thereof) that would lead a child to delinquency.

Although for the boys with feminine names getting into fights thing-- you have to wonder if they are just bullied (think-- a boy named Sue).

@blackbird: @Mae: @mrsjazz: @NovBaby1112: even when it comes to unique names, there are some names that are more associated with one race or another. I don't know if people will be sheltered by that part of it just because uncommon names are gaining in popularity.

Here's an example of a classic, Biblical name that is associated with black people- Isaiah. Whereas David and Joseph could be any race.

Unique names such as DeShawn and Keysean and the like are growing in popularity yet are strongly associated with black people.

I found it interesting in the article that the examples of black vs white names used very common black surnames. Just the way ethnic surnames whether it's Polish, Korean, Jewish are immediately identifiable so are black surnames. Pair a Jennifer with a Jones and the person reading the resume may still pass her over. It doesn't always have to be a Jamika that gets stonewalled.

The alphabet thing was interesting. LO's name starts with a V. Oops.

Well, I guess C is going to be pretty successful in life. lol. Her name fits all the "good" criteria.

Interesting article, I have to believe that in some senses it is true. I've reviewed resumes before and I tended to be more focused on their name than the credentials when it was a unique or difficult to pronounce name.

Hmm, I have to wonder about this though: "Those with last names such as Kaiser ("emperor") or König ("king") were in more managerial positions than those with last names that referred to common occupations, such as Koch ("cook") or Bauer ("farmer")."

Tell that to the Koch brothers, who are among the richest in the world.

@MaryM: My husband has had similar experiences growing up (Hispanic with a "white" sounding name). People are often surprised when they meet him. He's always said he thinks it's helped him with jobs and was one of the reasons we chose a "classic" name for our LO.