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This paper is most likely complete bunk. The data is very bad, and the conclusion doesn't even match the data.

See previous comments when this was posted yesterday.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41111236 (data)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41111416 (conclusions)

Furthermore:

> Dr. Yonat Zwebner, Arison School of Business, Reichman University says

First, this isn't even a scientist who makes these conclusions, which explains why there's no scientific method. There needs to be a null hypothesis which is ruled out statistically. Why not have survey participants try to guess the name from a pool of random names drawn from within the same generation and socio-economic group, and then see if they do any better than chance.

Second, even if the data were trustworthy, the obvious explanation here is that the popularity of certain names changes over time, and those distributions correlate with social class. A middle-class woman born in 1980 will probably have one of the names typically given to middle-class girls in 1980. Survey participants are, consciously or unconsciously, weighing the probability of a name, given these factors. Facial attributes simply have nothing to do with it. The idea that facial attributes change to suit a name is preposterous, given the number of other, much simpler explanations.

That is not what the study found. The study found people are able to guess the given names of adults from four choices at slightly better than chance, ~30%. With 117 (or 116?) people guessing and 16 images.
People and their pet dogs become more and more similar years after. That people alter their appearance to suit the names - I doubt that in general, because if they're having a dog, they must become similar to the dog at some time, so they can't alter their appearance to suit their names but may be the dogs name :) haha.

But may be, some names really provoke a change in style and appearance. In the country I living in, the name Kevin is sometimes used to call people slow-brainer. So if you're a Kevin and if you're in mid school, then the possibilities are high, that you'll be laughed by others. With such young personalities, it's devastating for the self esteem. So this people find their social refuge within a similar group of people. And usually, a group of people also have similar clothes and appearance in common.

So, there's sure a correlation . The question is, how to do a study on that

Glad to finally have some evidence to support my rejection of so many baby names. My wife was not impressed with my rejection reasons that ultimately boiled down to "people become their names".
Explain in detail the different life paths of a "David" versus a "Ben". This is pure astrology.
It's probably more Daenerys and Joufhreighn (pronounced James) vs the Davids and Bens.
The "Ben" will have to endure "Ben-dover" jokes all through childhood.
Are they kidding...with sampling like this how can it be called a study? This is like a HS paper

"For Study 1: Adult Perceivers, a power analysis based on previous effects (5) indicated a desired sample size of 120 participants. We had 117 students (62% women, age range: 18 to 30 y, M 24.7, SD 2.1; participants were recruited by the online university panel...All had a similar demographic background...We discarded two data points (out of 1,872)"

Couldn’t it just be that younger kids have less distinctive features that prevent correct classification?
See also “Nominative determinism”: <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nominative_determ...>
Valentino Rossi was never going to be a farmer.
Version-specific Wikipedia URL, interesting.
Since you never know what could happen on any given Wikipedia page, and you can’t change your comments here, I usually link to version-specific articles in comments here.
I wonder if a person's whole life being a personal branding exercise is something unique to capitalist society or has been happening forever