When hip-hop royalty couple Beyoncé Knowles and Jay-Z gave birth to their new baby girl earlier this month (January 2012), only a slight few were surprised when the couple gave their daughter a “unique” princess-worthy name—Blue Ivy. While some scoffed that her name sounded like a new strain of marijuana, others congratulated the couple for choosing a name that was so personable to them. In fact, many non-celebrity parents have begun following suit and are now donning their newborns with non-traditional names too. But will straying away from the baby books potentially cause havoc on your child’s self-esteem and success rate later on in life? Some researchers believe so.
In a 2010 study, British researchers evaluated more than 3,000 parents who had either given their child a unique name, unique spelling, or gave their child a “unisex” name such as Taylor, Ashley, or Bailey. What researchers found were pretty astonishing—20% of surveyed parents wish they could change their child’s name. Why? They found out a little too late that a name is someone’s identifier and can cause several consequences for them later on in life. To learn how, continue reading below.