Emily Chan
Our names are much more than labels we answer to—they are an incredibly important part of our identities. They are deeply woven into our sense of self and connect us with our families, cultures, and communities.
Names don’t just have an impact on our psychological and emotional states, though. Believe it or not, they affect our physical beings, too. That’s just how much power they truly hold.
New research has revealed that as people get older, their faces change to match the names their parents assigned them at birth.
In a study from New Reichman University, researchers sought to determine whether parents chose a baby name to suit the baby’s appearance or if the individual’s appearance evolved to match the name.
They asked adults and children between the ages of nine and 10 to match pictures of adult faces to names.
Both groups of participants were able to correctly guess the names of adult faces with a rate of success that was significantly higher than chance.
But, when it came to children’s faces and names, none of the participants could make accurate associations.
According to the authors of the study, this suggests that people begin to look more like their names as they mature.
“Children do not look like their names yet, but adults who have lived with their name longer do tend to look like their names,” wrote the researchers.
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