Are You More Likely to Be a Baker If You’re Named “Baker”? | Hacker News Reader

Are You More Likely to Be a Baker If You’re Named “Baker”?

nautil.us

31 pointsdnetesn28 comments

This is the worst of science. Two people, each convinced the other is wrong, doing various arbitrary experiments until they get ones that kind-of support their claim, and then publishing ten of those to say they have "evidence".

[also: the conclusion that everything in the article is hogwash kind of agrees with the person arguing against the phenomena, but that doesn't mean I agree with him either]

That's the second worst. The worst is a hundred people, all convinced of the same thing, doing various arbitrary experiments until they get ones that kind-of support their claim, and then publishing ten of those to say they have "evidence".

Perhaps correlation but not causation

... I wonder if historically "Baker" was used for people who were of the profession baker? It is well known that certain genetic characteristics may pre-dispose people to go to certain professions.

So having the name "Baker" would imply you are descended or contain the genes of people who historically baked.

This factor alone may pre-dispose you to becoming a baker moreso than any psychological effects.

It's a lot easier to see when you look at the children of painters, musicians etc tending to go towards the arts.

Yes, the surname "Baker" would've originally been a baker. There are a variety of occupational surnames that you can quickly recognise: Potter, Cooper, Cook, Miller, Fisher, Carter, Tailor, Smith. As well as a few -smith specific ones: Green, Silver, Gold, White, Black, Brown - all having origins in things like working with tin (whitesmith), copper (greensmith) or silver, etc.

I doubt that genetic disposition would be a strong factor given that the skills for these various physical lines of work would be fairly similar.

Exactly. Trade related surnames weren't forged over generations, they were given to, or forced upon, one person in a specific time and location.

* Farmer was a tax collector (fermier), where Franklin was a successful farmer who owned land.

* Brewster and Baxter were women brewers, not much opportunity for a long line of those.

* Fuller had an ancestor who pounded wool and clay with a hammer, they took the place of people who did it with their feet, the Walkers.

It's fun to think about, especially for those who have a name like Faulkner. But, many of these trades/technologies were a flash-in-the-pan that lasted just a few generations (e.g. Parsons, Warner, Stoddard), during a time when western civilization was incredibly unstable.

Not to mention variations on spelling! Tailor->Taylor, Cook->Cooke, Fisher->Phisher.

[Name] of [Father/Town/Clan] were also all common.

"John of Connor" (John, fathered by Connor)

German: Hans von Duisburg (Hans from the city of Duisburg)

(Feudal) Japanese: 藤原鎌足 (Fujiwara of the Kamatari clan)

Then, as mentioned by another user, some names were given based on characteristics or parents' wishes of the future.

Russian: Неулыба (One who does not smile)

Or even the location of where your family lived ("place names"):

Japanese (again): 田中 (center/middle field), 中村 (center of village), 山本 (base of the mountain).

> (Feudal) Japanese: 藤原鎌足 (Fujiwara of the Kamatari clan)

Another neat thing about Japanese surnames is that you can typically tell which families were retainers etc. for the Fujiwara by the presence of the character 藤 (the "Fuji" in Fujiwara, often read "toh" in other names) in names like the very common 佐藤 (Satoh).

Yes, names come in 4 major varieties. Places, professions, ancestors, and qualities.

Baxter as well designated people who prepared baked goods. Shoemaker and cobbler. Sometimes there were multiple words for a given occupation.

>That you might unconsciously be drawn to Georgia if your name is George, or choose a career in baking if your last name is Baker, or be more likely to get worse grades if your name begins with the letters C or D, goes against the belief that you’re responsible for—or are the authors of—your choices.

Of course, merely knowing that Bakers are more likely to become bakers is not enough to determine that it's because of unconscious choices. Nothing in this article supports that conclusion.

My favorite example of nominative determinism: modern temporal logic was developed by a man named Arthur Prior.

If that's the case, I really feel bad for the person with the last name: ServeAsATerribleExampleForOthers. Talk about being born into the wrong family.

Mine is Cable. Anytime the network goes down I have to put on headphones because I know I'm about to be inundated with 'Someone go get the cable!' and 'Why don't you check the cable?', and 'The cable is down!' and get briefly confused. The network's gone down more often than you'd expect.

And I haven't worked for Cable TV, but I have worked on things you play on TVs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_T._Krebs

This guy was into alternative oncology and his name is the German for cancer.

I'd wonder if people get complimented/noticed more if their name matches their occupation..

[Mordor]

FRODO: Do you believe in nominative determinism?

SAM: [chuckling] That your name can affect your future?

SHAGRAT: Stop it guys

Here to answer any questions you may have.

- Baker

Thanks! What's great about HN is that we often get great comments from relevant experts and, as a community, we know how to differentiate between anecdotes and statistically relevant data. It's why the quality of comments is so high.

So to put the question to rest once and for all and to verify the claims from Pelham studies, here are a few questions:

- Do you bake?

- Is that your job?

- If not, would there be reasons for it to contradict Pelham's rigorous studies? did you maybe marry into your name?

Thank you for advancing science! You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar!

Thanks for your questions! It's very rewarding to be able to draw on the experiences I've worked so hard to build over a lifetime. To your questions:

- Do pancakes qualify as baked goods? If so, then yes.

- No, it's not my job. However, I do work with fintech and hence with banks and, on occasion, bankers...

- Baker is my first name, actually. Will need to contact Mr. Pelham to see how the first name / last name distinction is reflected in his analyses.

You have beautifully captured the kind of intellectual emulation that drives people to HN. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that many great research projects started in the comment section. Maybe we should maintain a database of such good stories? MathOverflow has such a thread so why not HN?

Which? You're one who bakes or one whose surname is "Baker"?

Option 3 -- first name Baker.

You are an important piece of the puzzle. You must name your child Baker Baker. If he becomes Baker Baker the baker, we will finally have the answer if freewill truly exists or not.

Would this child be equilateral?

This could be a totally random of a dive at the piece written but do you think if the person is named "Baker", that they will have a more prominence to bake certain things over other things? I guess that would depend on their preferences as well

Do you like baking?

I do appreciate baking -- I wouldn't claim to be a practitioner, aside from the pancake example above, but I have tremendous respect for the craft.

For those of us in San Francisco, I recently learned that Josey Baker Bread is from a guy named Josey Baker who only started baking bread in 2010: http://www.joseybakerbread.com/about/ .

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