Most Popular Names for CEOs

April 28, 2011— -- Business networking website LinkedIn has answered the eternal question: "What's in a name?"

Your name could be the difference between being the CEO of a company and working in a restaurant, according to a survey of the most popular names for different professionals culled from the site's 100 million users.

Looking at user profiles from around the world, LinkedIn compared names of CEOs against all the site's users to determine the most popular names for chief executives.

The most popular name for a male CEO is Peter, followed by Bob, Jack, Bruce and Fred.

Three of the five names Bob, Jack and Fred -- think Disney's Bob Iger, GE's Jack Welch and FedEx's Fred Smith -- are all single-syllable diminutive versions of longer names.

LinkedIn attributes men's use of nicknames to "denote a sense of friendliness and openness."

But when it comes to women chief executives, they use their full names to "project a more professional image."

The most popular CEO names for women are: Deborah, Sally, Debra, Cynthia and Carolyn.

Long names don't denote a future in the boardroom, but rather in a restaurant, particularly if those names sound French.

Long names of seven or more letters, Thierry, Philippe and Laurent were popular in the food-service industry.

Engineers also typically have longer names of six or more letters. Topping the list for engineers were Rajesh, Jeremy and Andrew.

The top name for a pro athlete: Ryan. For a cop: Billy. And for human resources manager: Emma.