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This article reviewed the empirically based research on given names in several areas. The preferences for personal names were discussed in terms of variables such as the frequency of occurrence of the name and characteristics of the preferee such as sex, age, race, and religion. Liking of one's own names was related to some variables, including self-esteem. Unusual names apparently do have some effect, often a negative one. Personal names tend to have certain stereotypes associated with age, intelligence, attractiveness, and other dimensions. These stereotypes may in turn yield positive or negative consequences; however, their influence may be limited by other variables. The research on self-presentation by means of personal names and titles was also discussed. Additional topics covered included the effects of nicknames, sexually ambiguous or misleading names, being named for another person, and alphabetical position of surname.

Significant positive correlations were separately observed for both 31 men and 38 women college students between measures of narcissism and need for power. Neither the narcissism nor the need for power measure correlated significantly with social interest.

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75 women and 64 men responded to the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory, the Manifest Anxiety Scale, and the Maudsley Obsessional-compulsive Inventory in addition to responding to a questionnaire on personal habits. The results indicated that more frequent hair-pullers and nervous twitchers scored lower on self-esteem and higher on anxiety. People who giggled and those who bit their fingernails more often scored higher on obsessive-compulsiveness. Self-reported gigglers were higher on manifest anxiety. If the criterion of self-assessed seriousness of the behavior problem was used, people who bit their nails, picked their noses, pulled their hair, chewed on objects, giggled, ground their teeth, twitched nervously, and picked at scabs scored lower on self-esteem. Higher manifest-anxiety scores were found among the people who regarded their nail-biting, hair-pulling, object-chewing, nervous twitching, or giggling as serious problems. Finally, people who regarded their nail-biting as more serious tended to have higher obsessive-compulsive scores. The results in general suggest that the frequency of several of these behaviors is anxiety-related and that it is the person's assessments of these behaviors as problems rather than simply their frequency that is related to higher anxiety and lower self-esteem.