NAME PREJUDICE  

　　As odd as it sounds, people can and have suffered discrimination and bias just from the sound of their name.  Historically, individuals possessing a Hispanic sounding surname could subject them to different treatment and more recently, after 9/11, having a middle-eastern sounding name can raise an eyebrow.  But a recent study out of the University of Florida demonstrated that black students with certain exotic sounding names are often overlooked by gifted school programs because of their names.  For example, the study found that children with names like Da'Quan or Damarcus,  Laticia or Ta'Quetha, are more likely to score lower on reading and mathematics tests are less likely to meet teacher expectations and are less likely to be referred to gifted programs.  By comparison, siblings with more common names, such as Dwayne or Alicia, do better.  David Figlio, an economist who did the research, stated, "This study suggests that the names parents give their children play an important role in explaining why African American families on average do worse, because African American families are more inclined than others to give their children names that are associated with low socio-economic status."

　　Whether this is an issue of racial prejudice or socio-economic class bias, the actual impacts of this cultural phenomenon as stated in the research are very real.  David Figlio went on to say, "Such boys and girls suffer in terms of the quality of attention and instruction they get in the classroom because teachers expect less from children with names that sound like they were given by parents with lower education levels, and these lower expectations become a self-fulfilling prophecy."