From googling:
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Nominative determinism is the hypothesis that people tend to gravitate towards areas of work that fit their names. ... The idea that people are drawn to professions that fit their name was suggested by psychologist Carl Jung, citing as an example Sigmund Freud who studied pleasure and whose surname means ‘joy’.
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I didn’t know this term when I was aged 11, nor had I heard of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung at that age (only of Albert Schweitzer).
I had, however, already started thinking along the same lines, but in terms of names moulding physical features and personality. My theory specifically applied to Chinese names, because most Chinese characters mean something. (There are some that don’t mean anything. They are only ever used in a surname, a personal name, or the name of a place or geographical feature, e.g., river, mountain. And of course, the occasional ones exclusively used by the emperor.)
Chinese parents would often choose characters with a good meaning for their children. For example:
- boys might get named 國強 (国强) guó qiáng / “nation strong”, or characters that mean “brave / wise”, just to name two;
- girls might get named 美蓮 (美莲) měi lián / “pretty lotus”, or characters that mean “elegant / virtuous”, just to name two.
Some parents, however, might not go down the conventional route — for whatever reasons. A girl in my class had a boyish name (I only remember the “強 (强) qiáng / strong” bit) — she had angular features (which one would say is genetic, nothing to do with being called “strong” every day), but her body language was also masculine: the way she walked, talked, etc.
She was the one who’d first got me thinking about this link, so I started to test out my theory — by sampling the girls I knew at school. This is not very scientific, I know, as it’s my own subjective interpretation, but I found that girls with feminine names had feminine features and body language, whilst those with less feminine names (like mine) were more tomboyish (I am one).
Fast forward to when I was 23, back from two years in Taiwan. I was temping as receptionist and secretary at GPG (Guinness Plastic Group International) while waiting for my visa to the UK. One day, two portly workmen turned up to fix something. They announced themselves to me, “We’re from Chubb.” And I said, “Surprise, surprise!”
PS: For those who might not know,
- chubby = plump and rounded.
- Surprise, surprise: said ironically when one believes that something was entirely predictable.
(Singapore, 1960s / 1977)
