Names are odd. So is the fact that I think names are odd, but so it goes. Well, perhaps not odd, but certainly interesting - a lot of stories, from folklore to published novels, hold that names have power. In my favourite series of novels, everyone in the world in which the books are set has a true name which they only tell to their closest friends, relatives and lovers.
Though best used in this series, it's a pretty common thread, and real life experience seems, to a degree, to bear it out. People get tetchy about their names, even, or especially, the weird ones. I'm fine with any variation on Christopher - Kit, Cat, Chris, etc - but heaven forbid you misspell Ashlygh, who says her name just like Ashley. Furthermore, certain names seem to go with certain sorts of people. My fiancee informed me about seven months ago that she and her brother use Chad as a synonym for "douchebag." Having not really met a Chad, but seen lots and lots of references to Chad as a dipstick guido name, I agreed with her.
Since then I've met three Chads. They've all been quite good company and thoroughly decent human beings, and not one of them wore orange skin or a popped collar. Stranger yet, I've also met a Brian whose mere presence doesn't remind me why German has a word translating to "a face in need of punching." As a matter of fact, I actually like the guy, and not just because he has a dog named Boo who looks almost exactly like George Harrison, except four-footed, somewhat hairier, and not dead. Every other Brian/Bryan/Ryan I've met has redefined "pain in the butt." Same goes for Angelas/Angelicas/Angies - right up until a friend of my mum's.
Many other people I've talked with have similar name associations, sometimes but not always with the same names and personality trends I do. Some are really different; I've never met an Aaron who wasn't sweet, but I have a friend who's never known an Aaron whom they didn't want to stab repeatedly with a rusty fork.
At root, it's an example of the difference between correlation and causality. Certain names might crop up a lot on people with certain traits in certain places; however, this has jack-all to do with either the names or the people and far more with context. Chad seems to be a mostly middle- to upper-class white guy name. The frat boy crowd is primarily middle- to upper-class white guys, and almost entirely douchebags, so that's where the stereotype of Douchebag Chads comes from. However, not all well-off white guys belong to the douchebag persuasion, so by no means are all Chads jerks.
Furthermore, naming goes in trends. Angie and Ashley and so on enjoyed a spike in popularity twenty-something years ago, resulting in swarms of them in my cohort. At this point, it's worth pointing out that I was and am an introverted nerd, which goes over pretty well on the Northwest coast but not so much in a rich, sports-focused high school in Albuquerque, so it would be fair to say I didn't exactly get along with all those Angies and Ashleys.
Aaron, on the other hand, is a nice, classic name, quite literally around since biblical times. Ravening hoardes of Aarons do not throng the halls of the US educational system, but there's always a healthy number of them, so it makes sense that the Likable Human Beings vs. Punchable Little Twerps ratio pretty well evens out. I guess I've just had good luck with Aarons.
This could go on and on, but I'll spare you. Tempting though it is to let someone's name bias you as to their personality, don't let it. Books, covers, judging by, etc etc, so on and so forth.
Except with Brians, Bryans and Ryans. I have no idea what's up with those guys.
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