Does Your First Name Influence Criminal Behaviour?

It’s a simple question with a simple answer: what’s your first name?

But according to a new study, there are implications that come with your response and it’s causing lots of controversy.

According to research published in the journal Social Science Quarterly, what’s in a name can be the difference between a straight life and one that winds up on a twisted path to a criminal record and jail.

Two scientists looked at the first names of male juvenile delinquents and compared them to the names of young men in the general population. They ranked the most frequent or common names and then tried to figure out how often they occurred in teens who break the law.

Their conclusion: adolescents with monikers that are popular are less likely to get into trouble than kids with appellations that aren’t heard of that often.

The most common names of all include Michael and David, while given names like Alec, Ernest, Ivan, Kareem, Preston, Tyrell or Malcolm were on the low end of the scale.

According to the duo, David E. Kalist and Daniel Y. Lee of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, it’s not the name per se that leads to the criminality. They believe those from poor or disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to give their kids less frequently used identifiers and that may explain the results.

They also maintain teens with less common names may be treated differently than their peers, leaving them feeling isolated and more prone to act out. 

And it doesn’t matter what ethnic origin or race the people come from – their findings were the same across the board.

It’s a tough conclusion to buy but the experts believe it’s more socio-economic than statistical. And they say things change when a name suddenly becomes more frequent, thanks to a shift in popular culture.

“A 10 percent increase in the popularity of a name is associated with a 3.7 percent decrease in the number of juvenile delinquents who have that name,” they assert.

“Because unpopular names may signal an increased propensity to commit crime, this study provides additional insight (beyond that of a discrimination motive on the part of employers) as to why job applicants with unpopular names may be disadvantaged.”

Why do this kind of research? The duo believes it may help to identify people at high risk of committing a crime or re-offending and can allow authorities to better plan ways to reduce those incidents.

So does what you’re called really have any influence on how you act? Draw your own conclusions by reading the study here.