Last week, the world learned that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West named their newborn, North West. What had been rumored as one of the choices for their baby’s moniker was indeed true. North, or Nori as she is being called, will have the honorable distinction of having a name that will probably be fodder for late night jokes for many years to come.
Parents are entitled to name their children anything they want, but some don’t think of the long-term ramifications of such. Sure, North has parents who are millionaires, so getting a job probably won’t be a problem for her. But for most of us, our names can make or break our professional careers.
I have silently thanked both of my parents many times for giving me a name that can be easily pronounced. The spelling of it, however, has given me trouble in the past, since my mother had the best intentions when she changed the traditional spelling of Danielle to Danyelle. My maiden name Smith, replaced later by my married name Little made me potentially viable to recruiters and employers that were looking for a professional candidate. No matter how we’d like to think names don’t matter when it comes to finding a job, they actually do matter. Before a person is able to walk in for an interview, it is the name on a resume in which the employer first sees. If the recruiter sees that you have a strange, yet unpronounceable name, it can cause them to look the other way.
As a HR professional, I don’t think that is the right thing to do—the job should be based on qualifications, work history, past job performance, and of course, your skill set. In professional corporate environments, surface counts. A name can make or break whether you will get called in for an interview. Too many hyphens, apostrophes, etc. can land your resume at the bottom of the pile. And I can tell you firsthand that I didn’t call some candidates because their names were hard to pronounce and/or spell.
And it’s not just “professional” career in the corporate world. I’ve seen it in blogging too, where the name of the blogger has given some problems with working with brands. Your name, along with your brand, website URL, and overall presence means a lot.
When I named both of my children, I took in consideration their futures. I wanted them to be able to have a name that could be easily pronounced and spelled. Knowing that the name wasn’t just for the moment; it wasn’t a fad or a trend. It would be their life, and how others could potentially identify with them.
People do make judgements based off of names—this is sad, but true. While I think that having unique and personable names is important, so is having one that will transition to a professional work environment, should that be an option.
North West aka Nori undoubtedly won’t have a problem when seeking employment, since her parents are both richer than most of you reading this blog post. But for those not so “fortunate”, names matter.
Celebrity baby names like Blue Ivy, Tennessee James, Rainbow Aurora, etc. are all unique, trendy, and to some, an affront to the status quo. But for regular folk, names are important to your career. Whether you’ve got the skills or not.
What’s say you? Weigh in on names. Do you think they are important in order to have a successful working career?
Photo credit: US Weekly
I absolutely think names are important. People may get offended but it is true , when I was in the work place I watched my supervisor struggle to pronounce a potential employee’s name , finally resorting to asking me how to spell it. I assumed because I was of the same race it was thought would know how to say it. That is why when my son was born I gave him simple name. People do judge whether we like it or not. I will never forget the day I went to take my son to his doctors appt and the receptionist asked me my sons name. She then proceeded to god bless you chile finally a name I can pronounce. You won’t believe some of the names that come through here lol!
Sorry about all the grammar typos, I was doing this on my phone lol!
Krystel, I knew when I wrote this that it was going to cause some people to be upset. And while it isn’t true in all cases (i.e, our President, et al), most recruiters don’t want to butcher someone’s name. So if it can’t be easily pronounced, then yes, we move onto the next. And I have also been the one colleagues went to to pronounce those hard to pronounce names. And I would be like, I have no idea. We all aren’t born with a phonetic dictionary of names. LOL. The thing I most wanted to do was create a dialog while discussing the issue. I know it is not right, but it does happen, and that is what I want people to know. Thanks for commenting. And you did it all on your phone? You are a beast! 🙂
My name, though 4 letters…has been mispronounced all my life, yet it’s a simple name. Only in the past 10 or so years has my name caught fire in the baby name realm, allowing people to simply say Kali. My sister’s name is Yoruba. Monifa…was rarely pronounced properly until after Monifah the singer hit the scene. The truth is that I’d be less concerned with pronunciation than with the meaning of the name. While it’s favorable to name a child something the world won’t muck up in school or at jobs, it’s not probable that people will name their children what the world will take to easiest. What I DO agree with is that names that start out simple enough (like Latonya) and end up crazy like, “Lah’TawnYe’ ” need to stop. Also, as much as their overall future as a businessperson is important, their building years are more so. I’d be more concerned that I’m naming them something that in the NEARER future will make them the butt of all jokes and therefore hurting their self-esteem. No one wants to be teased in the schoolyard about their name relentlessly. One thing I DO remember is having my name turned into “Kaliflower”, “Kal-Kan”, “Kaltrate”, “Kalcium”, “Kali from the Valley”, “Kalifornia”…yea…lol The difference is, that my mom took the time to reinforce the meaning of my name, it’s beauty and the time she took to name me that. She didn’t do it as a personal homage to her baby daddy, or a punchline (which is what North West seems like). At 40, I love my name and most people who meet me do as well. As for people at the job…well, ask me how to pronounce it and I shall. I’ve run into having to call someone back with a difficult name and I chose to use their last name. Once I got their attention I nicely asked them how to pronounce it and that was it. Living in a multi-cultural country, everyone’s name can’t and won’t be “simple”, but my hope is that what it ISN’T is a damn embarrassment.
Kween, thank you for commenting. Of course, the world would be a pretty boring place if everyone was named Bob and Susie. I think there can be a happy medium. As I mentioned on FB, putting the phonetic spelling on your resume under your name can really help if you have a name that is difficult to pronounce. I actually had prospects get mad that I didn’t pronounce their name right. How am I supposed to know if you don’t tell me? Again, I wish it weren’t that way, but it is. And you are right; these names that are spelled way off than what they sound like make it even harder to deal.
Yea, I think being sensitive about when you know your name isn’t “Anne”…not cool. lol
I have said it many times after i spent some time working in HR at a University, the name on top of your resume dictated is someone will bother to continue to read. There are been multiple studies where they show with no names and with names there’s a bias. Add to the fact that there was a extremely popular blog at the beginning of 2000 called babies named a bad, bad thing. All these names were submitted by actual teachers and hospital nurses. When your parents are filthy rich they can name you anything they want. when you are not rich your name can predispose you to career options. Barack is the exception not the rule as there are many bizarre spellings of Ashley, children named King, thousands of Nevaeh and other odd names who work low paying jobs. Look at the names of the people you work with.
Kia, I was at a local discount chain and the young cashier’s name badge said Rose. So I was like Rose, was that detergent on sale? She rolled her eyes at me and said with contempt, “It’s not Rose. It’s Ros-ay. Like the drink. Like Rick Ross. Ro-say. I was like..oh. Where do they do that at? Naming your kids after a drink or a rapper? Not cool.
I feel sorry for some children because of what their parents name them. In this case, however, I feel sorry for the child solely based on who her parents are.
Amen! I think bad names and bad tattoos are a nasty business, especially in the business world. I have endless trouble with my name – my parents gave me a masculine spelling, and called me by my middle name, causing me to have to struggle with forms and gender confusion my whole life. Then I had the misfortune to marry a wonderful man with a long and unusual name. I do treasure the uniqueness of it – I doubt if there is another person with my name in the entire world, but that can be quite a hazard in this Google-linked world. It’s kind of horrifying how much information is available in a three second search when you have a very unique name. I thought about my children’s names VERY carefully and I think they are just perfect. Not too common, but not too unique either.