Does anyone here choose their doctors looking for a name they prefer? Do you base it on "Bill" is a better doctor for me than "Fluffy"?

I don't even know the first names of many of my doctors--I have a recurring appointment with one whose surname I can't remember either.

"If you can't imagine seeing a doctor with that first name, don't give it to your kid." "Right. Sometimes that's all you have to decide between doctors, and Bill Smith is a better choice than Fluffy Watson."

I think I'd be too embarrassed to say that out loud, much less defend it.

Does anyone here choose their doctors looking for a name they prefer?

When we were still in LA and I was choosing my OB tha would deliver Em, I based it on the most Anglo-sounding name possible because I have a hard time understanding heavier accents and I get super embarrassed when I don't understand and won't ask for clarification. I figured that giving birth was one of those times when I needed to really be able to understand what my doctor was telling me. So I figured, you can't get much more Anglo than Pearson.

He was from Dublin. So, yeah. I don't so that anymore. Heh.

I have a hard time understanding heavier accents and I get super embarrassed when I don't understand and won't ask for clarification.

Hey, Aims is me!

I'm a giant bigot and avoid anyone with an Italian/Spanish sounding name, because I've found that I can end up with a GP who is geared towards Spanish speaking populations and isn't so hot on actual American English. And of course, once I get to the office, I only ever interact with the bitchy subdoctor who makes me want to never go in for a cold (like now) because she focuses on all the other shit I'm ignoring that's wrong with me. (this is a terrible thing to be bitching about, but, if I go in for a cold, I want to be treated for a cold, not whatever else you find that I'm happy to ignore for now).

I don't care about ethnicity, but I'm an education snob. I look at the schools they went to.

I have picked doctor's based on the coolness of their name. My current primary care doc is named Minerva and I did choose her because I like her name. Because what else did I have to go on? But not because it's a more competent name than the other options, because I just arbitrarily like it.

I can't imagine a name that would make me not see that doctor, though. Slash, maybe? Probably for some people Igor would be troubling, but that's my dad's name, so, different associations for me. Would Dr. Nevaeh Whatever or Dr. Apple Something worry me? Well, I wouldn't choose them over Minerva, but I'd certainly see them if that's how things shook out.

Shrift! I would love to see Othello and Macbeth at the Music Box!

I need to find a doc (and dentist) but I never would have thought about picking based on name. Unless someone has a seriously cool name.

I just go on recomendations from friends, and I'm kind of bummed, because my current doctor is no longer a preferred provider for my insurance company. I may just pay the extra and be extra vigilant on where the tests get sent, because she's the only doctor I've had where the pap smears didn't hurt (much).

I don't know that I've ever chosen a specific GP myself. My folks picked my pediatrician, in college I started going to the practice they'd switched to after their crooked GP went up the river for child molestation, and when my initial doctor in that practice decided to quit in favor of race car driving my parents' excellent GP took over his patients. Other than Pedo!Doc I've been more than happy with every doctor I've lucked into.

I am totally a name snob, and I think for a lot of people those things operate nearly subconsciously. Would you explicitly choose to see Dr. Sarah Dawson over Dr. Tiffiny Dawson? Maybe not, but you might see Sarah are more serious. (I, personally, would be judgy about Tiffiny's parents' choices.) Also a lot of first name choices have racial coding in the US; Dr. Sarah Dawson reads white and Dr. Shaniqua Dawson reads black, and no we are not post-racial yet.

Also, if your last name is Pepper, maybe consider law school instead of med school.