名字会以各种方式影响我们的生活

Our given names influence our lives in all sorts of strange ways, affecting everything from where we choose to live to what we do for a living. That's the takeaway of a fascinating new video from PBS Digital Studios' BrainCraft series.

我们的名字会以千奇百怪的方式影响我们的生活，从我们的住址选择到我们的工作选择等各个方面。这是PBS数码工作室的BrainCraft系列新出的一个视频里的观点。

"We write our names thousands of times throughout our lives," science reporter Vanessa Hill explains in the video. "The more we are merely exposed to something, like those letters, the more we like them."

It seems we tend to pick cities whose names sound like our own. Phils, for example, often gravitate to Philadelphia. Virginias are overrepresented in Virginia Beach.

The same works¹ for our occupations, according to the video. The ranks of dentists, for example, include more Dennises and Denises than you might expect.

Lauries, Lawrences and Laurens? Those names are especially common among -- you guessed it -- lawyers.

Scientists call this strange phenomenon "implicit² egotism." But what explains it? Most people have positive self-associations, and by extension³ anything associated with the self -- even phonetically⁴ -- is seen as positive too.

Now you know!