Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

So, what’s in a name? Would you think a cardiovascular surgeon named Oleta Picklesimer would have instant credibility? No? What about Dr. Billy Paul Loughridge? Oleta was one of my college friends; I have no idea what happened to her, but she was scary smart, at OU on a “creme de la creme” academic scholarship. Billy Paul? He is a cardiovascular surgeon, with a national reputation. Of course, both of these folks hail from Oklahoma, which has a very Southern culture. Names like Oleta are common and we just love them double names. It’s one thing to stand out, it’s another to stand out for the right reasons. Seth Godin talks about this in his Justin & Ashley post. According to the latest government data, those are the two most common names given to children of Hispanic parents in NY last year. For Asian parents the story is different: name number one is Emily.

As Seth reports, “A recent study (sorry, I’m linkless here) by the government found that distinctly ethnic first names got fewer callbacks on otherwise identical resumes. Fair? Of course not. Not surprising, though, either.”

No, I’m not saying we should all have boring names like - ahem - Mary Schmidt. But it’s worth noting that labeling (or branding, if you will) happens whether we like or not, and it’s not fully in our control.