Easy-to-pronounce name may win you favour in workplace
Baku, February 11 (AZERTAC). People having simple and easy- to-pronounce names are more likely to be considered for job promotions and also special treatment by teachers, a new study has revealed.
Whereas, people with difficult and tongue-twisting names like MacEochagan, face a tougher time getting ahead in life.
Melbourne researchers looked at dozens of surnames from different nationalities and discovered that the "name pronunciation effect" plays a major role in determining how people are perceived by others.
Lead author Dr Simon Laham, from Melbourne University`s School of Psychological Sciences, said easy-to-pronounce names were generally judged more positively.
The secret is not necessarily in having a common name, but one that your friends and peers won`t stagger over.
"The effect is not due merely to the length of a name, or how foreign-sounding or unusual it is, but rather how easy it is to pronounce," the Herald Sun quoted Dr Laham, as saying.
Sherman, O`Sullivan and Philippidis ranked highest among the easiest to pronounce, while Farquharson and Loughnane lacked fluency.
Melbourne software expert and translator Oksana Katorjevskaya, whose surname was judged the second-most difficult, said colleagues and clients have long struggled with her surname.
But her first name has proven to be even bigger hurdle.
"You get a bit insulted when people don`t make an effort to pronounce or spell your name correctly," said Katorjevskaya, who has done masters in linguistics and moved from Russia a decade ago.
She revealed that she did not notice any advantage when she took the surname Smith during a previous marriage.
The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
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