"Unusual Spellings of Baby Names Out of Control"

[expat]

OK, I'm making back to back replies but I saw that a few more popped in whilst I was putting my son down for the night. Lady Z, you reminded me of an article I read on a study showing the tracking of given names in criminality. It was found that proportionate to the name's representation in society, people with unusual names were more likely to be involved in violent crime both as victims and perpetrators. Now the question is which came 1st? Did the kid get a certain upbringing and exposure because of the name, or did the kid get the name because of the upbringing and exposure of the parents?

[Phteven]

OK, I'm making back to back replies but I saw that a few more popped in whilst I was putting my son down for the night. Lady Z, you reminded me of an article I read on a study showing the tracking of given names in criminality. It was found that proportionate to the name's representation in society, people with unusual names were more likely to be involved in violent crime both as victims and perpetrators. Now the question is which came 1st? Did the kid get a certain upbringing and exposure because of the name, or did the kid get the name because of the upbringing and exposure of the parents?

I'd also wonder how the study defined an unusual name. Lots of people from minority groups have names that are popular within their culture but rare in the broader community. Cultural, social and economic exclusion tend to push people into crime so it may also be a result of broader social forces as well as upbringing and parenting.

[Roryrory]

On the topic of baby names and socioeconomic status, here is quote some of you might be interested in following up

In their book ?Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores The Hidden Side Of Everything,? authors Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner claim that baby names ?migrate? through the population from a higher socioeconomic level to a lower one. In their book, they predict the most popular baby names of 2015. (See list below).

So the names that are popular in "The Age" will soon be appearing in the "Herald-Sun"??

[{sarah}]

You know what I think is really silly... The fact that people think someone will be given a lesser chance at a job because of something that was beyond their control. It's essentially the same discrimination as for race or sex, you don't choose those & you don't choose you're name either (that is unless you change it later in life).

[Phteven]

On the topic of baby names and socioeconomic status, here is quote some of you might be interested in following up



So the names that are popular in "The Age" will soon be appearing in the "Herald-Sun"??

Not really familiar with the Melbourne papers but if The Age is the broadsheet and the Herald-Sun is the tabloid I think that yes, that is the general gist of their argument.
More than that, the point that they are also making is that many of the factors that influence one's life outcomes are in place long before you are conceived so if you come from a socio-economic group that is likely to call you Cordelia then the chance is that you will have a similar outcome even if your parents do have a fit and cal you Eboniiiiie Raiiiigh instead.

OMG Divvy you totally cracked me up
Thank-you

You know what I think is really silly... The fact that people think someone will be given a lesser chance at a job because of something that was beyond their control. It's essentially the same discrimination as for race or sex, you don't choose those & you don't choose you're name either (that is unless you change it later in life).

I have to fess up here. When I was hiring a while ago I chucked out a bunch of resumes based on names. I didn't want to hire another staff member who was going to be 'one of the boys' so I chucked all the people who looked like they came from a similar background to the rest of our staff in the no pile. I'm aware that it's not a really nice thing to do but the truth is that when you have over 100 job applications for 1 job you can afford to chuck out resumes based on totally inane and unfair reasons.