Tarot, crystal balls and palmistry can all go in the bin. If you really want to know your fate, your name may harbour more important clues to your work and life prospects than all the tea leaves in China.

The labels we are given at birth don’t just give other people important (if often misleading) clues about us. They can also shape the way we see ourselves and, thus, our fates. We might think our most important decisions are based on rational judgments, but they are open to all sorts of odd influences.

Not least of these are our names. A review of previous psychological research at the State University of New York found that forenames play a significant role in determining where people live and what job they do. People named Louis, for example, are more likely to live in St Louis.

And people disproportionately choose careers with labels that resemble their names — so those named Dennis or Denise are over-represented among dentists. Likewise, George and Geoffrey are more likely to be published in geoscientific journals, says a 2002 report in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Watch out if your initials spell out something nasty as it could shorten your life, according to a 1999 study of Californian death certificates posted between 1969 and 1995, in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research. Researchers compared 2,287 men with negative-sounding initials, such as D.I.E. and P.I.G., with 1,200 guys with positive-sounding initials, such as A.C.E. and V.I.P. Men with negative initials died 2.8 years younger than average — largely due to suicides and accidents. Those with positive names lived 4.5 years longer than average, a disparity of more than seven years.

Some researchers claim the existence of a phenomenon called alphabetism. A baby named Andrew Aardvark has better prospects than a Zena Zynowitz. The bias begins at school, where pupils with names starting with A will be nearest the teacher. There, they will get more attention than Ws and the Vs at the back.

Alphabets determine the name at the top of a ballot paper and, thus, who is more likely to be elected. The proof? Nine of the 23 members of the British Cabinet have names with the initials A or B.

Applicants for jobs also tend to be interviewed in alphabetical order. As the day goes on, interviewers lose interest, says Pam Woodall of The Economist. So all the last interviewee gets is zzzzzs.

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