Did you know that the one and only Stephenie Meyer — author of Twilight and inventor of sparkly vampires — is not a fan of the baby name Renesmee?
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly last year, Meyer was quoted as saying: “I would never name a real child Renesmee.”
Check it out:
EW: You named Bella and Edward’s daughter Renesmee, which has been a source of ridicule even among ardent Twilight fans.
SM: I am someone who strongly believes in reality, and that you don’t monkey around with people’s names. Whether they become a stripper or a lawyer has a large part to do with the name you give them. I would never name a real child Renesmee. But in fantasy, you can name your characters anything you want. I couldn’t have named [Bella and Edward’s] child Lindsay. I couldn’t have named her anything that already exists — it would have felt wrong. I had to pick a name that I felt was completely and totally unique, which opens you up to heckling. Which I’ve taken. I take all my heckling, and I totally get it!
EW: Someone is probably naming their real-life child Renesmee even as we speak.
SM: Well, that really disturbs me. [Laughs]
She isn’t even lukewarm about it — the idea of it disturbs her. That’s a strong word.
Do you agree?
Source: Vilkomerson, Sara. “Q & A: Stephenie Meyer.” EW.com 10 Aug. 2012.
Image: Adapted from Stephenie Meyer by Gage Skidmore under CC BY-SA 3.0.
This however is a bunch of bullcrap… “Whether they become a stripper or a lawyer has a large part to do with the name you give them”.
Right. You could argue that names have a small influence on life outcomes — the name-letter effect comes to mind, for instance — but that’s about it.
I agree with the author. Sounds good in a book, not so much in reality.
Having a background in the field of psychology, and actually reading studies done on this very subject, I can tell you with absolute certainty that people’s names do not affect their station in life…in any way whatsoever…Period. In fact, the opposite has proven to be true. People from different social classes tend to name their children in cycles. The cycles tend to be about 10 years and Length. For example, years ago the name Heather was very popular among the upper class. Over several generations it moved down the social classes and eventually woundup being very popular among exotic dancers (strippers). When a name is popular in any class, it tends to get stereotyped by people from the other classes not the other way around. The bottom line or conclusion, name your kids what you want. While some names do get picked on more than others there is no evidence to show that it will affect their station in life either negatively or positively.