Personal Names and Human Resource Outcomes

Abstract

Using a sample of approximately 80 percent of California public sector employees (6,384,292 person-year observations) working in 329 occupations in 582 organizations over the 2011-2018 period, this paper proposed and found empirical support for three distinct name-related effects: (1) gender and racial signaling effect, (2) name similarity effect, and (3) name-meaning effect. First, using a proprietary analytical algorithm, we found that the name-inferred gender pay gap is approximately 3.3 percent, and the black-white pay gap is about 5.3 percent in California public sector. People with white-sounding names are consistently more likely to hold managerial or executive positions than their counterparts with minority-sounding names. Second, supporting implicit egotism theory, we found a significant name similarity effect whereby the popularities of first and last names within organizations are positively related to pay and managerial attainment. Third, we introduced McClelland’s implicit motivation theory as a theoretical framework for analyzing the meaning of first names. Our analysis of the top 5639 most popular first names in the United States shows that people with Power first names (i.e., first names with meaning connotating power) receive an average of 2.5 percent more in total compensation and are more likely to hold managerial or executive positions.