What’s in a name?
Which over-the-counter drug would you rather take, all other things being equal, Allotoneline or Cytrigmcmium?
And, if you knew little else about them, which company would you rather invest in, Barnings or Ulymnius?
If you’d be popping Allotonelines while buying Barnings, you’re not alone.
These two are the more easily pronounced of each pair of names. And, as we’ll explore today, the fluency of names makes a difference for people’s perceptions of products, companies, and other people.
Pronunciation and risk
Products with harder-to-pronounce names are seen as riskier. In one study, people imagined they were reading food labels and predicted how safe or harmful the food additives on the label likely were. Some of the supposed additives had easier-to-pronounce names like Magnalroxate, while others had names that were hard-to-pronounce, like Hnegripitrom. People predicted the additives with the hard-to-pronounce names to be more harmful.
A subset of the study participants also rated the novelty of each of the food additives. On the plus side, people rated the hard-to-pronounce additives to be more novel. However, these increased ratings of novelty partially explained the relationship between ease of pronunciation and perceived harmfulness. Novelty often comes with risk, which isn’t great when it comes to food.
Unlike food additives, though, some things should be novel and risky. Like rollercoasters. In another experiment, a different group of participants imagined they were visiting an amusement park and checked out a brochure of the park’s rides. They were asked to identify which ones would be “very exciting and adventurous,” so they didn’t waste their time riding snoozers. Half of the rides had easy-to-pronounce names, like Chunta, and half had hard-to-pronounce names, like Vaiveahtoishi. Here, riskiness and novelty were good, and the hard-to-pronounce rides won out: they were rated as more adventurous.
Image source. You can tell this kid’s riding a Vaiveahtoishi.
Similarly, another study found that people believed drugs with harder-to-pronounce names to be more hazardous and to have more side effects than those with easier-to-pronounce names. Further, they were more willing to buy the easy-to-pronounce drugs.
The trouble is what could happen as a result of easy-to-pronounce names – perceiving drugs to be safer than they really are. One study asked people to dose out drugs to test this possible consequence. Study participants were asked to imagine they had gastric flu. They were presented with six bottles of different liquid drugs that they were told could treat their illness, each presented one at a time. The recommended dose for each drug was 10-20 mL per day, and they were asked to measure out how much of each one they would take over the course of a week. Here’s the key difference: half of the bottles were labeled with an easy-to-pronounce drug name, and half with a hard-to-pronounce name.
I love when studies use measures that approximate real-life actions! Here, the key measure was the drug dose that participants poured out for themselves. Drug names had an effect on dosage: people ended up pouring approximately 10mL more of the easy-to-pronounce drugs than the hard-to-pronounce drugs.
People were also asked to rate how hazardous they believed each drug to be and how dangerous an overdose would be. Easy-to-pronounce drugs were judged to be safer, and this perceived safety partially explained the relationship between drug pronounceability and higher dosage. In other words, people believed the easy-to-pronounce drugs to be safer, which led them to pour out higher doses.
Positives of a pronounceable name
The effects of easy-to-pronounce names aren’t limited to products. For one, fluent names seem to help people get ahead. A series of experiments found that people with easy-to-pronounce last names are viewed more positively than people with ones that are difficult-to-pronounce.
In one of these experiments, which hits close to this person-with-a-Polish-last-name’s home, Australian-born participants read newspaper articles about candidates for a local council position. They learned either about a candidate with an easy-to-pronounce or hard-to-pronounce Greek or Polish name (the name nationality was also varied between participants but didn’t have an effect on the key outcome). After reading the article, people rated how well-suited the candidate was for the position. Candidates with easy-to-pronounce last names (e.g., Paradowska) were rated as better-suited for the position than candidates with hard-to-pronounce names (e.g., Leszczynska).
Another experiment tested whether these positive last name effects could be picked up in a real-world setting: law firm hierarchies. Here’s the logic. If people with easy-to-pronounce last names are perceived more positively, then they should rise up the ranks faster than people with hard-to-pronounce last names, all else being equal.
To test this prediction, the researchers extracted 50 names from each of ten of the 178 largest law firms in the U.S. They extracted each lawyer’s ranking and other relevant variables, like the lawyer’s graduation year, law school ranking, and the firm’s average salary. A set of participants rated the extracted names on how easy each one was to pronounce and whether it seemed foreign (Anglo-American vs. foreign).
After controlling for the other relevant variables, the study found that lawyers with easier-to-pronounce names occupy higher positions in their firms’ hierarchies than those with hard-to-pronounce the names. This effect held both for the lawyers with Anglo-American names as well as those with foreign names.
So, in sum, an easy-to-pronounce name might help you get ahead, whether you’re trying to make partner or win a local political race. While I haven’t seen any research on this, the practice of making names shorter and easy-to-pronounce seems especially prominent in show business. Margaret Hyra became Meg Ryan, Nikolina Dobreva became Nina Dobrev, Thomas Mapother IV became Tom Cruise, Neta-Lee Hershlag became Natalie Portman. Of course, some of these changes are likely in part due to employment prejudices against people with foreign-sounding last names, but easier pronunciation seems to play a part here, too (e.g., Thomas -> Tom, Margaret -> Meg).
Names and co.
Companies with easy-to-pronounce names also get ahead. In one study, people were asked to predict the future performance of 30 (fictional) stocks of companies with easy-to-pronounce and hard-to-pronounce names. They predicted the stocks of companies with easy-to-pronounce names, like Barnings or Hillard, to gain 3.9% in value over the next year. Meanwhile, they predicted stocks of hard-to-pronounce companies, like Ulymnius or Creaumy to lose 3.9% of their value over the next year. To be fair, Creumy is a pretty crummy name for a company.
This task might seem far-fetched, but it’s not so different from the one faced by not-super-informed investors reacting to a company’s initial private offering (IPO). To see whether this effect holds up in the real world, the researchers randomly selected 89 shares that began trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) between 1990 and 2004 and assessed their performance after a day, a week, 6 months, and one year. They predicted the pronounceability of a company name to have the largest effect early on in trading, when people have less other information to rely on.
Study participants rated how easy each company’s name was to pronounce. And here's the finding: stocks of companies with easy-to-pronounce names performed better than those with hard-to-pronounce names on the first day, but this effect weakened over time.
Even cooler, I think, is that even the pronounceability of stock ticker made a difference. In another analysis, the researchers selected the 665 stocks that began trading on the NYSE between 1990 and 2004 and continued trading for at least a year. Two brave coders independently rated whether each ticker could be pronounced according to the laws of English pronunciation. Companies with pronounceable tickers (e.g., KAR) performed better than those with unpronounceable tickers (e.g., RDO) on the first day of trading, even after controlling for the pronounceability of the name itself.
Image source, annotations added. The pronounceability of a company’s ticker predicts performance on the first day of trading.
Outside of IPOs, people are still eager to put their money into companies with easy-to-pronounce names. Another study, which analyzed market data on nearly 15,000 companies, found that those with short, easy-to-pronounce names had a larger number of shareholders, increased trading volume, and higher perceived value (market value vs. actual worth). Compare some easy-to-pronounce names like Goldfield, Caterpillar, and Apple against these mouthfuls: Helios & Matheson NA, El Du Pont De Nemours, or Freeport McMorRan Copper & Gold. Unsurprisingly then, the study also found that when companies did change their names, they typically picked names that were easier to pronounce, and that these changes were followed by increased interest from investors.
There’s a lot we can’t control. But we can control what we name things. And, generally, easier-to-pronounce names come with built-in positive associations and lower perceived risk. Which is a good thing, unless you’re naming an amusement park ride or firework, starting an adventure company, or picking a stage name as a freestyle motocross rider.