Relationship between Attitudes toward One's Names and Self-Esteem
First, middle, and last names were rated on 5-point scales. Self-esteem was measured on the Ziller Social Self-esteem, the Bills Index of Adjustment and Values, and the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory. Subjects were 93 male and 73 female students in first- and second-year psychology. Subjects generally liked their names, with middle names disliked most often. Males liked their last names significantly more than their middle names, while females liked their last names more than either their first or middle names. Attitudes toward first name were related to some Bills and Coopersmith scores, which reflect subjects' appraisal of their worthiness and their style of responding to themselves, but not to Ziller scores, which reflect self-evaluation within a social context. Attitudes toward middle name were not reliably related to any self-esteem scores. In the female sample, attitudes toward the last name showed a relationship to self-esteem in the social context; no other correlations with attitudes toward last name were significant.