How Much is Your Name Worth?
In the past year, I’ve been busy with my final project for the master’s program of design at Shenkar: Israshem, an interface for purchasing names.
When I started brainstorming ideas for the project, I realized that the impact of a person’s name on their course of life fascinated me. I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do yet, but I knew there was something there.
I started reading articles about names, mainly to understand what types are there: traditional names, international names, names without meaning, monosyllabic names, and more.
There were interesting connections between social and cultural periods or events and the names given at that time. For example, an increase in the number of children named Itay following the publication of Keren Peles’s song ‘Itay’, and, during the Yom Kippur War, an increase in the name Golan.
At this point, I realized that I needed to go out and talk to people.
And that’s what I did. I wrote a short message to people with unique names, as well as people with very common names, through Facebook. I wasn’t sure they would reply, because after all, it’s not for everyone to participate in such a project. I was delighted to find out that it sparked the interest of many, which happily cooperated.
From the interviews, I gathered interesting quotes and divided them into groups. For example, uniqueness: Tamuz told me that she thinks a person with a name like Tamuz can’t be boring. Or the opposite, Shira (with a common name) told me she felt a need to be unique: “To create my own Shira, something that is not like all others”.
Several of the participants recalled a sense of shame related to their given name, in particular during their childhood. Many of those with unique names didn’t want to stand out. For example, Eshhar said she was ashamed to say her name as a child.
And last, the expectation: maybe because the name is unique, they had to behave in a certain way, maybe the environment expects them to do things differently. And sometimes the opposite, since there is (almost) no one else like them, they felt that they could choose their own path with confidence.
These interviews made me think about how much our name affects us. Does it bother us that there are other people around us with the same name as ours? How much do we feel ownership of our name? Is there such a thing as a high or low value name?
Suddenly, all this led me to an even bigger question: what will happen if in the future we have to buy our name?
The project Israshem presents a speculative name pricing scenario. In 2026, the state will publish the Israshem initiative. The idea is to charge a fee for registering a first name with the Ministry of the Interior.
Names are ranked in a quality index, which predicts the probability of success a person bearing that name has in a particular field. The higher the rating, the more expensive the name is.
After purchasing a name, the buyer will get an ownership certificate card with a QR code. Scanning the code leads to a website with the current value of the purchased name.
In the design process, it was important for me to mimic existing government systems, in order to produce a realistic image. Systems such as the Ministry of Health, National Digital Agency, National Insurance, and National Emergency Portal.
The following video demonstrates the Israshem system:
In summary, the project conceptualizes the dissonance between how names are given today, a private matter subject only to the judgment of the parents, and a possible future where an economic system managed by the government controls the name of a person. The intention is to stimulate discussions on the different consequences such a system for purchasing names may have on society. For example, it could lead to a dystopian situation of class differences and discrimination based on names.
Finally, I would like to thank the mentors who helped me during the preparation of the project: Alon Chitayat who accompanied me along the way, Prof. Jonathan Ventura and Dr. Alik Pelman for their kind assistance, Prof. Deganit Schocken, Itzik Rennert, and Galit Gaon who challenged me and asked difficult questions, and Dr. Maya Shmailov who gave me the freedom to work on the project.
