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Girls with `feminine' names steer clear of math and science classes

Parents are being warned to think long and hard when choosing names for their babies as research has discovered that girls who are given what researchers say are very feminine names, such as Anna, Emma or Elizabeth, are less likely to study math or science after the age of 16, a study has found.

Both subjects, which are traditionally seen as predominantly male, are far more popular among girls with names such as Abigail, Lauren and Ashley, which were judged as less feminine in a linguistic test.

The effect is so strong that parents can set twin daughters off on completely different career paths simply by calling them Isabella and Alex, names at either end of the spectrum, the study said.

A study of 1,000 pairs of sisters in the US found that Alex was twice as likely as her twin to take math or science at a higher level.

Part of the reason is that names provide a powerful image of a person and influence people's reactions to them. An Isabella is less likely to study math, the study said, because people would not expect her to.

"There are plenty of exceptions but, on average, people treat Isabellas differently to Alexes," said David Figlio, professor of economics at the University of Florida and the author of the report. "Girls with feminine names were often typecast."

Figlio pointed to the controversy that arose over the first talking Barbie's phrase, "math is hard."

"It is a stereotype, and girls with particularly feminine names may feel more pressure to avoid technical subjects," he said.

Not that they were any less capable. When the Isabellas, Annas and Elizabeths took on their tougher-named peers in science, they performed just as well.

To carry out the study, to be published in the Journal of Human Resources, Figlio calculated a linguistic "femininity" score for each name. It was determined by using 1,700 letter and sound combinations that could be associated as either female or male and matching them against the names on 1.4 million birth certificates.
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