What's in a name?

NEW ORLEANS, March 28 (UPI) Perhaps an earlier death, especially if a person's initials stand for the bad or the ugly.

In a study of nearly 3,500 death certificates in the state between 1969 and 1995, scientists from the University of California, San Diego, found that men whose initials spelled words like ACE, VIP or WIN live an average of 4.48 years longer that men with initials that spell a neutral word or no word at all.

But, men with humiliating monograms, like PIG, RAT or BUM, died about 2.8 years younger than the men with neutral names.

Psychologist Nicholas Christenfeld says, ``One hurts, the other helps.''

Christenfeld says that negative initials were associated with higher rates of suicide and accidents, causes of death that have clear psychological components.

The scientists say they found a similar, but weaker, association in women. Those with positive initials lived about 3.36 years longer, but there were no years lost among women with negative initials.

Christenfeld presented his research Friday at the meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in New Orleans. He says he doesn't know exactly why people with embarrassing initials have shorter lives, but he speculates it may have something to do with accumulated stresses -- like the kind of teasing endured by a child whose initials spell ASS -- over a lifetime.

He says while parents take the naming of their children very seriously, they often overlook the impact of initials.

Christenfeld, whose own initials spell a neutral NJSC, has one piece of advice for parents: ``Don't name your kid PIG.''

(Written by Mara Bovsun in New York)