I was at my local American Marketing Association Chapter luncheon and, naturally, had to wear a name tag. It was one of those clip-on ones. Being in a dress, I didn’t have lapels, though I was able to clip mine onto a frill. A gentleman I know didn’t have a pocket to clip his on to and so decided to clip it to his belt and rock what I’ll call “corporate chic.” This all gave rise to the question:

Where do you wear the dang name tag?

It’s not a fashionable accessory, so most people want to clip it on and get done with it. I know more than a few folk who dislike name tags in general, but they are necessary. If we have to wear them, we might as well wear them correctly.

So, I promised my conversational group I would research this question and answer via blog post. Here it is:

Wear your name tag on the upper right portion of your chest.

At the luncheon we all had ours on the upper left portions of our chests. Not very correct of us, I know. This was probably because company name tags get worn on the upper left while a meeting sticky or other type of name tag goes on the right. We were wrong, but only slightly. Perhaps it is better to say we were just well trained by our corporate bosses?

Anyway, the reason for this placement is two-fold:

1. When shaking hands, a person’s eye naturally travels up his or her partner’s arm to the shoulder/chest area. They see the name and then the eye travels up to the face.
2. It can be embarassing for a woman to have her hand-shaking partner look awkwardly at her chest area. This motion is not as apparent if the tag is on the upper right side since that, as just explained, is where the eye goes, anyway.

Of course, I did see another suggestion in my research. I like this one better, too: the forehead. That way no one will forget your name, have to look at your chest, and you wont have to worry about no lapels on your clothing. Granted, you would look silly.