name_discrimination raze while i would never base my interactions with (or first impressions of) people on past experiences with other people with whom they share their first name, i've noticed some recurring themes over the years and worked out a bit of a farcical system i would never actually use. it goes something like this: some adams are good. some adams are bad. one adam is one of the better friends i've had. steven with a v = good. very good. stephen with a ph = bad. very bad. deans will come and deans will go, but petes are forever. two out of three times, you can't go wrong with a josh. as for that other time, well … a 66% success rate is nothing to be ashamed of. it's best to stay away from stefs with an f and jons with no h. there are, of course, exceptions to this rule. if someone has a name that starts and ends in an a, run. run as far away from them as your legs will take you. ashleys, emilys, and jackies are human kinder surprise eggs. sometimes you take a bite out of them and get gooey goodness. sometimes you get a tiny plastic toy sword that pokes a painful hole through your cheek, and the hole never heals completely, and it makes an embarrassing whistling noise in windy weather. you never know what's coming with them. the jury's still out on uncommon names. 140331 ... e_o_i Interesting concept - I thought of this years ago when I realized I was slightly prejudiced against the name James. People named James are likely to dislike me. But I like James Joyce. Also, wherever I go, I'll meet someone named Sara(h). She'll be smart, and not a best friend or a worst enemy. Sometimes a mentor type. Alex, male and female, is also everywhere. Mostly he/she ignores me. Julias are innovative and fun. Amandas and Priyankas are surprisingly common. Amandas are typically talkative; Priyankas are shy, and I'll name characters that aren't them after them. Dereck/Derek/Derrick is always a kid with a slightly bizarre sense of humour. Georges are aloof, especially when disguised in different languages. Lauras seem imbued with suburbia. I live in suburbia now, though, so what am I saying? 140402 ... epitome of incomprehensibility At the tutoring centre, sometimes we'd get students who'd ask how well a potential tutor spoke English. This was asked of names that sounded Indian, East Asian, Arabic, or Persian...but never, at least in my memory, of Swedish/Danish "Kirsten." (I'm not Swedish or Danish, but my name can be either.) Sociolinguistics class, later: when the topic came up about language discrimination hiding racism, I had a ready-made example. But maybe I shouldn't blame B. by reacting to that by shifting the tutor's website nicknames to "sound more English." He's an immigrant and I'm not. But I found it a little funny, Shayan becoming Shane Hossein becoming Hoss Elnaz becoming Ella Elaheh becoming Elly (though that WAS her nickname in real life) "Jane" had a Chinese name that sounded completely different "Winnie" was Tejaswinee Even one Ahmed had to drop the H in his name, though that was more because there were multiple Ahmeds 240119 ... e_o_i "Emi" was Emimal "Trevor" was Tresor 240122 what's it to you? who go blather from