My sons Donatello and Michelangelo

Did you know people named Dennis are more likely to become dentists?

I first heard about this in a Malcolm Gladwell or Stephen Dubner book. One of those PopSci titles that I probably didn’t finish. There was a real study that looked at the names of dentists. Its data seemed to suggest that, because of the familiarity of their own name, Dennises go to dental school at higher rates than people with other names.

(The study has since been debunked—it turns out the study compared names that have become less popular, so the pattern tracked across industries)

Dennis the Dentist came to mind Monday night as I was dozens of tabs deep into a Wikipedia binge. At some point, I blacked out and woke up browsing the personal details of American Revolution-era painter Charles Willson Peale. He’s best known for painting George Washington:

The names of Peale’s children jumped out at me:

• Rembrandt
• Raphaelle
• Rubens

I don’t need an art history class to recognize Renaissance painters.

What surprised me most was what came in the next three tabs (I couldn’t resist clicking those names). Rembrandt, Raphaelle, and Rubens Peale all became painters themselves. His eldest daughter did, as well. She was named after Swiss painter Angelica Kauffman, who co-founded the Royal Academy of Art in London.

(As for Donatello and Michelangelo, both Peale and I have missed the opportunity to name our children after Ninja Turtles)

That’s four children named after artists who all became artists themselves. This might be more impressive than dentally determined Dennises.

Surely, Papa Peale surrounded his children with artwork and they were encouraged to practice the craft. But the name had to mean something, too.

(It turns out we nearly have an academic study of our own, because Peale had 16 children—all the others appear to have chosen other professions, including three more named after painters)

Now, I know times were different, but as a father I also know you can only control your children so much (seriously, you picked that shirt for picture day!?). Charles Willson Peale could not force his offspring to become artists, but he did create the right environment for them to pursue painting. Right down to the names he gave them.

Have you sensed this might have something to do with developers? Good on you, here it comes...

You can’t compel a developer to use your product. But you can create the right environment for them: Understand the types of problems they want to solve, make it easy to adopt your product with their tools, and be careful that your words don’t give off a marketing smell.

Words and labels are powerful. Looking at eight months of LLM Rank data, I’ve noticed how word choice impacts what the models return. How you describe your product and what it can do decides whether you’re visible. How AI currently recommends you or your competitors is data you can use to be ready for the next model’s training cutoff.

The LLM Rank Report is now available for every category I’ve tracked, including AI coding, CI/CD, and vector databases.

Check out the sample report so you know what to expect. Then get a copy for your product category to share within your organization.

Be the one who, like many in the Peale family, can paint a compelling, accurate picture. It starts with data that shows what they care about.