Carl Bialik (the Numbers guy from WSJ) wrote about a Freakonomic-esque study that links our names to surprising trends (read his print article). A few tidbits:
- Children with names that start with ‘A’ or ‘B’ get better grades than children whose names start with ‘C’ or ‘D’
- Baseball players with ‘K’ initials are more likely to strike out.
- Libras are bad drivers.
This is particularly interesting to me since I am 8.5 months pregnant and still deciding on baby names. We will likely choose a a ‘C’ name (!)
This baby name wizard is a nifty tool for tracking baby name rates over time (It works best on Internet Explorer). It is addictive, so don’t say I didn’t warn you! You can also browse the top 100 baby names in 2006.
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December 16th, 2007 at 12:23 am
The name thing is probably due to the fact that students early on are sorted by their first names alphabetically. The A’s and B’s sit at the front and are usually the most populous of names. Everyone else is doomed to an existence of distractions, mediocre grades, and the backs of heads of the A/B kids.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:56 pm
hey, very nice blog. just wondering what baby name you finally picked? Did the study influence your decision?