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Originally published on Finder, 19 November 2015
The Block: Do contestants with “bogan” names do better?
It certainly helps if your name starts with a J or a D.
Kingi. Caro. Karstan. Waz. Lysandra. It sometimes feels like the best way to get onto The Block is to have a first name that’s tinged with a whiff of bogan. But do names actually impact anyone’s chances on the show?
Having already compared every season of The Block to identify if winning room reveals leads to winning the show, whether auction order makes any difference to the results and what happens to Block properties when they get resold, now we’re tackling the big question: are your chances of getting on and winning The Block better if you have a ludicrous name like Karstan, a classic Ocker abbreviation like Chez or just a bland everyday moniker like Andrew? And do people with names beginning with certain letters really have better odds?
We’ve analysed the first names of every contestant across The Block‘s 11 seasons. (Returning contestants get counted twice — after all, their names potentially had an impact both times.)
Sounding like a bogan doesn’t lead to winning
Firstly, we’ve got bad news for Kingi and Caro, Season 11’s most oddly-named contestants. That whiff of bogan isn’t particularly likely to result in a victory. Check out the full list of Block winners:
- Season 1 (2003): Adam & Fiona
- Season 2 (2004): Jamie & Andrew
- Season 3 (2010): Neisha & John
- Season 4 (2011): Polly & Waz
- Season 5 (2012): Brad & Lara
- Season 6 (2013): Alisa & Lysandra
- Season 7 (2013): Phil & Amity
- Season 8 (2014): Steve & Chantelle
- Season 9 (2014): Shannon & Simon
- Season 10 (2015): Deanne & Darren
Only two of the people on our shortlist of “most bogan Block contestant names” from the first 10 seasons are in there. For the record, here’s that list, an assessment based on a combination of Ocker abbreviations, odd spellings and a general air of “who chose that name?”:
- Chez, Season 3 (2010)
- Waz, Season 4 (2011)
- Dani, Season 5 (2012)/Season 7 (2013)
- Lysandra, Season 6 (2013)/Season 8 (2014)
- Johnno, Season 6 (2013)
- Kyal, Season 8 (2014)
- Kara, Season 8 (2014)
- Karstan, Season 9 (2014)
- Carlene, Season 9 (2014)
So Waz and Lysandra prove that having a bogan name doesn’t stop you winning the show. But it doesn’t appear to make it much more likely.
Your first name plays a part in getting on the show
While the bogans might be punching below their weight as winners, names do have an impact on your chance of getting selected for the renovation reality show. Of the 94 contestants to date over 11 seasons, more than 50% (54 of them) have a first name starting with one of just five letters: J, D, A, K and M. While some of those letters do show up in lists of the most common first letters for first names, the concentration is still pretty remarkable.
Conversely, there has never been a contestant on The Block with a name starting with H, I, O, Q, U, X, Y or Z. While some of these are extremely uncommon (sorry Xavier), if you’re called Helen, Ian, Owen or Zoe you can feel hard done by.
The other evident trend? The shorter your name, the better. The average length of a Block contestant’s first name is 5 letters, and the longest so far is 9 (Charlotte and Anastasia from Season 10, and Chantelle from Season 8).
Fewer syllables also helps. 84 of the contestants have had either one or two-syllable names. Only one four-syllable name made the list: Anastasia (four in normal pronunciation, five syllables if you really want to stretch the friendship).
First names generally are short, so we can’t assume that this is entirely a deliberate choice on the part of Block producers. Nonetheless, if you’ve been weighing up auditioning for next year’s version and your names are Jodie and Marc, the odds do seem stacked a little more in your favour.
The story behind the story
With The Block returning to our screens this week, I was reminded of the brief couple of years when we were running a lot of coverage of the show on Finder.
A lot of it was episode recaps, and the rare occasions I had to write one of those represented the only times I ever watched the show – it was just never my thing.
So unsurprisingly my favourite Block angle was this one, where I did a pseudo-scientific analysis of contestant names to see if any patterns emerged. Fun times for all, and I didn’t have to watch idiots mangling product placement. Despite that, I’m not going to redo the analysis with another decade of data.
For more Channel 9 archive madness, check out what it once did to Days Of Our Lives.
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