What's in a name? Well, quite a lot as it happens...

Revealed: the first names you're most likely to encounter in the workplace. 

The question of whether our name influences our career path is an interesting one. 

Proponents of nominative determinism certainly believe it can play a big part in pushing some people towards their chosen role and industry. Could Usain Bolt – the fastest man in the world for many years – have been anything other than a record-breaking sprinter?  

While the scientific basis of nominative determinism is dubious at best, we know from our own anecdotal experiences that there are people whose name just seems to ‘fit’ their role. 

Rather than their name literally reflecting their profession or trade (baker, butcher etc), many people have preconceived ideas of what an accountant, a marketeer, a factory worker or a doctor looks like.

Whether we’re conscious of it or not, it’s sometimes difficult to shake off the connotations around age, class, gender and ethnicity associated with many jobs.

Children of the ‘80s and ‘90s

If you grew up in the ‘80s or ‘90s, chances are you’d have a few Davids, Jameses, Daniels, Louises, Claires and Sarahs in your year at school (and perhaps the odd Kylie if their parents were fans).

You might have one of these names yourself. It was a time before unusual first names had really taken off, when fitting in was generally more important than standing out. 

A generation or two later and these people are now well into their careers – so it’s no surprise that their names now dominate some sectors and roles too. 

But which ones come out on top?

According to our research, you’re most likely to meet a David and a Sarah in your workplace.

Taking the 25 most common first male and female names of adults in the UK, we used LinkedIn data to calculate the proportion of people nationally who share a name and job title.

We found that nearly 8% of men in the workforce are called David, while 11% of women in the dataset are called Sarah.

The results are based on a sample of 20 roles across 20 sectors (400 job titles in total), and just over a million (1,014,872) LinkedIn profiles.

Top male and female names in the workplace 2024

Looking at the most popular names per industry, there is very little variation. David is the most common male name in half of the ones we analysed, followed by James at 45%. 

Sarah is the most common female name in 12 out of 20 industries, then Samantha at seven.

The high proportion of Samanthas in automotive, electronics, manufacturing and construction could be down to the fact that these industries are traditionally male-dominated, so there are fewer women working in them overall.

Top male names in the workplace by industry

Top female names in the workplace by industry

Delving into the figures further, we found that Davids are well-represented in senior and/or professional finance roles such as CFO, director of finance, accountant, and financial advisor.

Only 1% of them are in a more modestly-paid payroll administrator role, which commands an average salary of £20-27,000 per year. 

Sarah is the most prevalent name in finance – and while there are relatively healthy numbers in senior roles, they are also five times more likely to be in an administrative finance role compared to Davids. 

It’s notable too that business leaders (CEO, managing director etc) are seven times more likely to be called David than Samantha, the most prevalent female name in this category. 

What’s in a name?

It’ll be interesting to see how the lists change in the coming years.

We’ll no doubt see Noahs and Olivias, currently the most popular baby names, replacing Davids and Sarahs, while Susan, the eighth most common name in the workplace according to our research, could disappear completely after falling out of favour. 

Commenting on the findings, Ifty Nasir, CEO of Vestd, said:

“Our exercise might have been light-hearted but the results reflect wider social trends. Lack of representation in some roles and industries demonstrate how persistent some stereotypes are, including ones relating to the types of jobs men and women have.

“Many organisations recognise the value of diversity in the workplace, both ethically and commercially. It’s led some of them, including the Civil Service, to adopt blind recruitment tactics, where candidates omit information such as their name, gender, age and ethnicity. 

“Another way to improve diversity is through employee share schemes or enterprise management incentives (EMI schemes) – which quite literally create equity for people in a business, whatever their role or background. It’s also a powerful incentive for staff to work their way up the ranks which could improve representation at a senior level in the future.”