What names make the most money

Harry or Leo: which name is more financially successful? (Images: Getty)

New research has revealed the baby names that are most likely to be high-earners and low-earners later in life.

It's an unfortunate fact of life that people, including job applicants, are judged based on meaningless things like their names or looks.

But now new UK-based research from online CV tool resume.io has actually quantified the prejudice, analysing the names that end up with the highest and lowest incomes later in life.

"A first name can influence personality, how we are perceived, even physical appearance according to social scientists," said resume.io writer Rolf Bax.

"So, it stands to reason it can shape our career too."

Highest and lowest-earning boys’ names

Among boys, Leo is set for a wealthy life, averaging a salary of $75,000. Arthur, with $73,000, and Oscar, with $68,000, came in second and third.

The least financially successful male names were Muhammed ($57,000) and Harry ($57,500).

The study seems to match with 2013 research at the Australian National University, which found applications from Anglo-Saxon names landed far more interviews and jobs than those with Indigenous, Italian, Chinese and Middle Eastern-sounding monikers.

The ANU study submitted more than 4,000 resumés with exactly the same education and work experience, but with different names to come up with the disturbing conclusion.

Highest and lowest-earning girls’ names

Isabella was the big winner among girl names, earning an average of $52,000 in the resumé.io study. Ella, with $51,400, and Sophia, with $50,000, came not far behind.

The lowest-earning female name was Olivia, raking in a salary of $46,800. Grace ($47,500) and Mia ($48,500) were only just above poor Liv.

Bax said that a middle initial also had a bearing on success.

"Psychologists note people perceive strangers with a middle initial as smarter, more eloquent and more qualified than those without," he wrote.

"This is perhaps because 'middle-name initials often appear in formal contexts, especially when people refer to intellectual achievements'."

Women are more likely to leave their first name in full on the resumé to sound more formal and "professional", whereas men abbreviate their given name to seem more friendly and approachable.

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New data reveals the boys and girls names with the highest earning potential as Leo and Rose rank highest out of the UK’s most popular names.

With the most popular baby names of 2019 recently being unveiled, job search engine Adzuna has analysed data from 1.5 million CVs to reveal the kids names with the highest earning potential.

Working with Nameberry data and ValueMyName, which combines AI technology with algorithms to gauge earning potential, Adzuna was able to identify the most valuable names.

Boys names are still showing at a higher value than girls names, with the most popular boys’ name, Leo, (41,722) earning £11,000 more than Rose (£30,099). Guess there’s still work to be done concerning the gender pay gap.

Top 5 most popular boys names and their earning potentials

Leo

Potential earnings: £41,722

Oscar

Potential earnings: £37,786

George

Potential earnings: £37,342

Oliver

Potential earnings: £35,536

Charlie

Potential earnings: £33,298

Top 5 most popular girls names and their earning potentials 

Rose

Potential earnings: £30,099

Eleanor

Potential earnings: £28,413

Alice

Potential earnings: £28,396

Amelia

Potential earnings: £27,645

Lucy

Potential earnings: £27,445

Although these names were listed the most popular as names with highest earning potential, the names set to rake in the most do not actually appear in the most popular list for 2019.

Below are the monikers which will reportedly make the most money.

Top 10 names with the highest earning potential for men

Top 10 names with the highest earning potential for women

One interesting outcome from the study is that the most successful workers typically use nicknames in their professional lives.

Both male and female names achieved a higher earning potential with a shortened version of their full name. Whilst Liz ranked highest for women, Elizabeth is valued £9,000 less – coming in at £29,882. Similarly, for men, Edward came in at £37,754 which is £23,608 less than those named Ed.

Doug Monro, co-founder of Adzuna, suggested that they are able to climb the ‘career tree’ faster because of their informality and approachability. Therefore, to help secure the highest pay,  job seekers may want to adopt a nickname.

Doug also commented on the gender pay gap, as the highest-earning names are typically seen as ‘male’ names. He suggests that companies should adopt blind recruitment practices in order to help to correct this imbalance and eliminate discrimination. In the future he expects the weighting towards traditional male names to become less pronounced as workplaces become more diverse and gender-neutral.

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What to name your baby is one of the biggest decisions you will make as a parent. Will you go for something classic, something trendy, something a bit left-field or maybe even something a bit … bogan?

And most importantly, what impact will the name you choose have on your little one’s life? When it comes to future career success, does it come down to hard work, determination and skill or does the name they get landed with have anything at all to do with it?

According to the folks at Resume.io, it definitely does.

Highest Earning Baby Names

These resume experts sought to find out just how much impact your name has on the amount of money you can expect to earn in your career. They looked at the most popular baby names from the year 2000 and used a ‘ValueMyName’ tool which calculates the average salary of a person with that name. With that combined, they were able to determine what today’s graduates might potentially earn as they enter the workforce.

Highest earning baby names: Could this little one’s name be holding them back? | Image: iStock

What’s in a name?

When it comes to earning potential, there may be a lot. But if you’re raising a David, you’re in luck. According to Resume.io, uni grads named David are the highest earners, bringing home on average, £41,617 ($AU75,000). Other circa-2000 boys names heading for the high roller’s room? Charles, Alex, Robert, Michael and James.

When it comes to the girls, your best bet is with a daughter named Lily, but your little girl could also fare pretty well if her name was Anna, Sarah, Rachel, or Alexandra.

Interestingly, however, the earning power of the top girls’ name was significantly lower than the fellas – at just £30,821 ($AU55,800), proving the gender pay gap is definitely alive and well.

As for those names to avoid? Connor and Reece for the boys and Chelsea and Paige for the girls, with those names lingering towards the bottom of the list.

Switch up those hearts for dollar signs, cos you’re going places, Lily. | Image: iStock

Where do today’s names fit?

But while this data is all well and good if you’re planning on choosing a name for your kid from Generation Z, if you’re going with TODAY’S name trends, you’re going to want to know where they fall when it comes to their monetary potential.

The experts looked at the UK’s most popular baby names (which are pretty much the same as ours in Australia) and analysed first name and salary data for them from multiple sources. This gave them an average salary pool of over 1000 names to draw from.

Looking at the top 10, Olivia might be the most popular name in the country (and across much of the world) but she comes last when it comes to earning potential. You’d have better luck with Isabella, Ella or Sophia.

As for the boys, Leo isn’t just King of the Jungle, he’s potentially King of the boardroom too, with the name the sixth most popular name in the country but the one with the greatest earning potential. Popular names that don’t equal big bucks? Harry, Muhammad and Jack, apparently.

You can read the full list here.

This post was first published on KidSpot and was republished on theAsianparent with permission.

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