What do you name your kid if you want him to be a Fortune 500 CEO?
After reading in the New York Times about the 1,000 most popular baby names in the U.S., we wondered about this.
There were not enough Baby Baracks born last year to land that name on the most-popular list, the New York Times notes. The No. 1 name for newborn boys is Jacob–which, we discovered, not a single Fortune 500 CEO possesses.
There happens to be a Jacob Engineering Group , No. 241 on the 2009 list of America’s largest publicly-owned companies. And there are two Fortune 500 chief executives with the surname Jacobs: Mark Jacobs runs Rri Energy , No. 214. Paul Jacobs, son of Qualcomm co-founder Irwin, runs that tech giant, which is No. 241 on the 500 list.
But for now at least, the name most likely to cast you into a Fortune 500 CEO role is the most ordinary name of all: John.
Taking a look at the 2009 list, we found that there are 32 Johns leading Fortune 500 companies–plus one Jonathan and two Jacks. Following John on the tally of most popular Fortune 500 CEO name: James and Robert. At No. 4, a four-way tie: Michael, Richard and Steven (or Stephen) and William. Rounding out the top 10 are Gregory, Jeffrey, and Mark.
Around the year 2050, no doubt, fellows named Jacob will dominate the Fortune 500. After all, Jacob has been the No. 1 baby name in the U.S. for 11 years running.
For more about how names can affect your career, click here.
