You Are Your Name

LiveScience had the results of a research project that should raise some interesting debate somewhere:

Boys in the United States with common names like Michael and David are less likely to commit crimes than those named Ernest or Ivan.

David E. Kalist and Daniel Y. Lee of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania compared the first names of male juvenile delinquents to the first names of male juveniles in the population. The researchers constructed a popularity-name index (PNI) for each name. For example, the PNI for Michael is 100, the most frequently given name during the period. The PNI for David is 50, a name given half as frequently as Michael. The PNI is approximately 1 for names such as Alec, Ernest, Ivan, Kareem, and Malcolm.

Results show that, regardless of race, juveniles with unpopular names are more likely to engage in criminal activity. The least popular names were associated with juvenile delinquency among both blacks and whites.

What is more interesting than the study itself are the reactions to the article. General opinion is that it is "BS" and a "load of crap" masquerading as science. One comment likened it to a form of profiling. One of those commenting said:

Everyone knows that names more often than not reflect one's ethnic / racial background - which also what frequently stands behind "disadvantaged home environment, residence in a county with low socioeconomic status, and households run by one parent". Of the five "unpopular" names on this list, Kareem is almost exclusively used by Arabs and Turks, Malcolm is popular among blacks because of Malcolm X, Ivan is Russian for John, Alec is a frequent Russian/Jewish abbreviation of Alexander, and Ernest is an old Central European name with fancy literary associations.

When you think about it, not many Euro-Americans would name their son "Jesus." But many Latin Americans would. What is "popular." Not to mention that historically the top American names were English versions of Saints names and popularity does change.

Of course the two researchers have such wildly popular names of David and Daniel. Who says they don't have a personal interest.