Study claims people with these 10 first names are most successful in business. Only 1 is female.

Cecily Knobler
Sat, 21 Jun 2025 18:44:49 +0000
Business sector, Corporate leadership, Linkedin profiles, Resumeio study, Workplace, Freakonomics study, Reddit, Names, 70s, Popular names

Are you a Travis, a Taylor, or a Michael Scott? How important is a name, anyway? According to a recent study conducted by Resume.io, the answer is — very. They looked at thousands of LinkedIn profiles to find the most common names of people listing themselves in top business positions.

Steve Carell winks as Michael Scott. Giphy NBC, Peacock

They claim, "For this study, we collected and analyzed 3,046 LinkedIn profiles from the U.S., specifically focusing on individuals in leadership roles. By examining the data in detail, we identified patterns in names commonly associated with executive and presidential positions within companies."

What do high positions mean to them? "Our methodology involved reviewing profiles with titles such as “CEO,” “COO,” “CTO,” “CFO,” “President,” “Vice President,” “Director,” and “Manager.” We also categorized the results by gender to evaluate disparities in leadership representation."

Taking the number one spot on the list? John. In fact, John dominates on many of the "leadership" positions, including CEO, COO, and CTO, technology leadership. (Somewhere John Stamos is doing a happy dance.) But hold on, Michaels are most commonly named as presidents, with Davids, our trusty managers.

John Stamos in Full House credits Giphy

And the only female name on this particular list is Kimberly, who is commonly listed as a director. In fact, the study notes, "Our research revealed that overall, only one-third (36%) of the profiles analyzed are women. Therefore, a staggering 64% of those in positions of power in America are men. This once again underlines the gender representation imbalance of corporate leadership."

According to Entrepreneur.com, they analyzed the study further and found that overall, the top most successful names in the business sector are: John, Michael, David (as mentioned). Followed by: Robert, Mark, Jennifer, Brian, Steve, Joseph, and Scott.

Again, worth noting that only one female name (Jennifer) makes the overall list. If one were to just list the women in the top spots, Jennifer is followed by: Lisa, Mary, Julie, Karen, Michelle, Kimberly, Emily, Kelly, and Diana.

Female boss at the workplace . free-vectors.net

What seems to be clear is the names on these lists are the most common among the age group that would most likely be in a "boss-spot" currently. Right? In fact, let's take a look at the most popular (American) names in the 1970s, according to the SSA government website. Look at that! John, Michael, and David are all in the top 5. (Though so are Christopher and James, so what are THEY doing with their lives?)

For women, same thing. Jennifer, Kimberly, and Michelle are among the most popular.

Obviously, Reddit has some opinions. On the subreddit r/Leadership, Entrepreneur Magazine themselves posted the link to the study and many pointed out that correlation does not imply causation, as the saying goes. One snarks, "Go figure that the most common names for those over 40 match most common leader names. Did you also know that 100% of people who drink water end up dying??? True for breathing air too."

One top commenter added this interesting insight: "Freakonomics did a study on income and names — higher income households tend to follow certain naming trends while lower income households tend to follow different naming trends. The majority of those with major professional success tend to come from higher income households." They add, "Your name doesn't determine where you end up, but it usually is an indicator of where you begin."

Someone named Jeff points out how sad it is for all the Jeffs out there. "My name is Jeff. So I’m disqualified immediately."

A Karen peaks out from behind a tree. Giphy

And this Redditor nails it with: "So when Karen demands to see a manager, she’s asking to see herself most of the time?"