Do People Really Look Like Their Names? A New Israeli Study Reveals

A new study suggests that people's names reflect their faces. Does this mean that if your name is Abraham you really do look like Abraham?

The study, which is titled We Look Like Our Names: The manifestation of Name Stereotypes in Facial Appearance, was printed in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. It was led by researchers from the University of Jerusalem, according to Mashable.

In the study, the researchers discovered that when a person was asked to identify the name of a stranger by looking at his face, they chose the correct name out of five choices in about 35 percent of the time. The participants also matched up faces with the right names done in a series of other tests with different conditions, according to Yonat Zwebner, the lead author of the study.

Thus, the researchers theorize that there is an association between human's name and what he looks like. The team stated that these studies indicate that facial appearance signifies the social expectation of how a person with his name looks like.

"In this way, a social tag may influence one's facial appearance," the team added. The researchers also suggest that names not only tie to the past but also influence the human's look and indicates the significant role of social structuring.

Breaking Israel News reports that names are significant in the Bible. One example of this is when the Israelites were saved from Egypt because they kept their Hebrew names. The Israelites were also distinguishable in Egypt through their names as well as their clothing and language.

Roni Segal, an academic adviser for the Israel Institute of Biblical Studies, said that the new study is interesting. "The Bible is replete with stories and information about the significance of names." He further said that it takes 2,000 years for science to draw near with the Bible.