In 2002, a study by Brett Pelham, associate professor at SUNY University in Buffalo, New York, found people disproportionately likely to live in cities or states resembling their names, have careers resembling their names, and marry people whose surnames begin with the same letter as their own. His study emphasized positive outcomes.

In 2007, psychologists in marketing at Yale and the University of California, San Diego, say in a Psychological Science article that people prefer their own names and initials—‘name-letter effect’, and so students with names starting with C or D get lower grades on average than students whose names begin with A or B. Major league baseball players whose names begin with K are more likely to strike out. The research effect is more than coincidence but still small.