What Profession is Your Name?

Thursday, 28 April 2011 | by Pat's Picks

If you want your child to be a CEO one day, name them Deborah. Or Debra. Both spellings appear on a fascinating list compiled by LinkedIn about the most popular names for several different professions. Male CEOs tend to have short names or shortened versions of longer names: Bob is high on the list. So is Jack. Female executives, on the other hand, tend to have long names and shy away from nicknames. Salesmen also tend to have short names—Chip and Todd are popular—perhaps because “shortened versions of given names are often used to denote a sense of friendliness and openness.”

The sector with the longest names? That would be the restaurant industry.—Thierry, Philippe and Laurent top the most common list. Other discoveries: Engineers also have long names—Rajesh comes in at number one; aspiring athletes should consider names like Ryan, Matt or Jessica; and those with law enforcement aspirations are likely to be named Billy, Darrell, Pete or Rodney. Despite the many findings, LinkedIn doesn’t make a peep about Pat as an acceptable news-anchor name—maybe I’m just ahead of the curve.

I came across the list in today’s Chicago Tribune, the source the great info-graphic above. Below, LinkedIn breaks down its findings further. Click on the image for a larger view.