Our name is not just a combination of letters, it is the carrier of our identity and is also related to our appearance.
You knew, that your name is more related to your appearance, what do you think? In a study published in a scientific journal Journal of personality and social psychology, scientists also found out why this is so.
They are in the study participants were shown personal photos of strangers. Then they had to to choose the one among the four names, which would be attributed to the person in the photo. Individuals from North America were shown a picture of a Caucasian woman, with names that are common in SA listed below (Claire, Deborah, Emily and Melissa). Thus, the correct name is each individual by chance I could choose in 25 %. However, they chose the right name in as many as 40 % cases, which is much more than if it was just a coincidence.
To summarize another way: there is something about Eriki, which looks like Erik, something very "unique" about Ana and something about Suzane that makes us throw them in the same drawer. The theory behind this finding is that all names are saturated with certain stereotypes, which influence behavior (and consequently appearance) of the individual. The connection between names and stereotypes depends on the social environment. This confirmed the fact that they are individuals correctly associated the name with the person's photo only then, when it came to individuals from their culture.
More information:
apa.org
