What's in a name? Letters that offer clues to one's future decisions. Previous studies have suggested that a person's monogram may influence his life choices - where he works, whom he marries or where he lives - because of "implicit egotism". For instance, a person named Fred might be attracted to the notion of living in Fresno, working for Forever 21 or driving a Ford.

　　名字里有什么？名字能预示一个人在未来做什么决定。此前种种研究表明，一个人的姓名可影响他生命中的重大决策——在哪里工作、和谁结婚或者住在哪里，而这种影响源于“内隐自大”。举个例子，一个名为“弗雷德”的人有可能倾向于居住在“弗雷斯诺”，到Forever 21公司工作，或者开一辆福特轿车。

　　Now a new study by professor Uri Simonsohn takes another look at the so-called name-letter effect and offers other explanations for the phenomenon. Uri found that the name of a person's workplace more closely correlated with the first three letters of a person's name. But Uri suggests that the reason for the association isn't implicit egotism.

　　而如今乌里教授的一项新研究为这种“姓名字母效应”提供了新视角，并为该现象提供了多种解释。乌里发现，一个人工作单位的名字和此人姓名的前三个字母关系最为密切。但乌里指出，这种联系并非源于“内隐自大”。

　　One alternative explanation to implicit egotism for these findings is reverse causality: Rather than employees seeking out companies with similar names, people starting new companies may name them after themselves.

　　他表示，有一种解释可以替代“内隐自大”理论，即“反向因果关系”：即并非人们愿意到有与自己姓名相似名称的公司工作，事实上是，创业者更愿意用自己的姓名来命名公司。

　　
A second alternative explanation is an ethnic/language confound: VanBoven works for VanDyke Associates while LeBoeuf for LeBlanc Associates because the former lives in Dutch speaking Flanders and the latter in French speaking Wallonia; Van is a common Dutch prefix, Le a French one.

　　另外一种可行的解释便是“民族/语言混淆”：VanBoven在VanDyke Associates公司工作，而LeBoeuf在LeBlanc Associates公司工作，原因仅仅又由于前者家住荷兰，说着佛兰德斯方言，而后者住在法国，操一口瓦隆尼亚语；毕竟Van在荷兰语中通常是个前缀，而Le常在法语中起到前缀作用。

　　Whatever the explanation for the name-letter effect, no one really disputes that egotism is involved on some level. But the true importance of the effect is up for debate. "I can't imagine people don't like their own letter more than other letters," says Uri, "but the differences it makes in really big decisions are probably slim."

　　不管人们对“姓名字母效应”作何解释，没有人怀疑“自大”理论在某种程度上起到了一定作用。但是这种效应的真正价值有待商榷。“我无法想象人们会不喜欢自己姓名中的那些字母，”乌里说道，“但是姓名在人们做重大决策时所起的作用很有可能微乎其微。”