You might want to name your daughter Deborah to help her with her career
Mon 25 July 2011
, Maurice Eykman, blog.linkedin.com
Are some names more successful than others? Yes they are. Top 5 names for female CEO’s are Deborah, Sally, Debra, Cynthia and Carolyn. The cold, hard data to prove it come from LinkedIn. Monica Rogati examined the correlations between people’s first names and their career choices.
LinkedIn started by contrasting CEOs across the globe with the average LinkedIn professional to find the top names that are over-represented among CEOs. At first glance, the top CEO names are a reflection of the CEO demographics. Looking more closely, however, we observe a different trend: over-indexed male CEO names tend to be either short or shortened versions of popular first names. The explanation for this is given by onomastics specialist Dr. Frank Nuessel who suggests that shortened versions of given male names are often used to denote a sense of friendliness and openness. Female CEOs, on the other hand, more often use their full name, maybe to project a more professional image. That must be why Deborah is higher on the list than Debra.
Interesting finding. But before you name your daughter you might want to take into account one of the comments on the research. Killashandra Falta says LinkedIn might have missed one very important piece of information that will throw all their math and graphs out the window: “Did you, by any chance, cross reference the list of the CEOs with the Top Baby Names of say, the decade of 1950 to 1959, and 1960 to 1969? I did. What is interesting is of the women’s names (cause, of course, women have to work hard, and longer with less pay to get higher on the ladder of success, the 1950′s decade names were all (but one) in the top 25. Deborah and Debra being number 5 and 7. The men’s names were more scattered on the list, with 2 not on it at all on the 50′s list and 3 missing on the 60′s list. But, when doing research on something simple, like names, don’t forget the obvious.
Read more: http://blog.linkedin.com/2011/04/27/top-ceo-names/
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