Jose Jimenez

Do our names push us toward certain jobs? A BBC article presents supporting evidence, citing examples of Bakers, Barbers, Butchers, and Painters who are over represented in those professions. Flaws abound in studies about this phenomenon. Most of it is too boring even for my Blog. I only read the article because my name, Geoffrey, was used as an example of people disproportionately linked to the geosciences, although the data is in dispute. Anecdotally, I have no interest in geoscience or even learning what it is. My son Dustin has an Environmental Geoscience degree and I wanted to name him Geoffrey but my wife exercised her veto power, so maybe that cancels my dissenting statistic. I would think it more likely that surnames like Butler, Farmer, Carpenter, Foreman, Mason, Miner, and Porter were bestowed on people in those jobs. They may have carried genes that predisposed them to those very professions. Perhaps this has a residual effect on later descendants as well. But how much should we care? I think all the people studying and arguing about this issue should transfer to the laboratory where others are working on curing cancer, even if none of them are named Cancer. The BBC article was authored by S.J. Velasquez. His name must be a derivative of Velasco, so surely he would have been better suited as a Jesuit priest dressed in black like a crow or a raven. Unfortunately for me, my maternal Grandpa Blog married Grandma Drivel.

Advertisement