Steven Dubner - Freakonomics

And what if DeShawn had changed his name to Jake or Connor: would his situation improve? Here’s a guess: anybody who bothers to change his name in the name of economic success is—like the high-school freshmen in Chicago who entered the school-choice lottery—at least highly motivated, and motivation is probably a stronger indicator of success than, well, a name.

Just as the ECLS data answered questions about parenting that went well beyond the black-white test gap, the California names data tell a lot of stories in addition to the one about distinctively black names. Broadly speaking, the data tell us how parents see themselves—and, more significantly, what kind of expectations they have for their children.

Here’s a question to begin with: where does a name come from, anyway? Not, that is, the actual source of the name—that much is usually obvious: there’s the Bible, there’s the huge cluster of traditional English and Germanic and Italian and French names, there are princess names and hippie names, nostalgic names and place names. Increasingly, there are brand names (Lexus, Armani, Bacardi, Timber-land) and what might be called aspirational names. The California data show eight Harvards born during the 1990s (all of them black), fifteen Yales (all white), and eighteen Princetons (all black). There were no Doctors but three Lawyers (all black), nine Judges (eight of them white), three Senators (all white), and two Presidents (both black). Then there are the invented names. Roland G.

Fryer Jr., while discussing his names research on a radio show, took a call from a black woman who was upset with the name just given to her baby niece. It was pronounced shuh-TEED but was in fact spelled “Shithead.” Or consider the twin boys OrangeJello and LemonJello, also black, whose parents further dignified their choice by instituting the pronunciations a-RON-zhello and le-MON-zhello.

OrangeJello, LemonJello, and Shithead have yet to catch on among the masses, but other names do. How does a name migrate through the population, and why? Is it purely a matter of zeitgeist, or is there some sensible explanation? We all know that names rise and fall and rise—witness the return of Sophie and Max from near extinction—but is there a discernible pattern to these movements?

The answer lies in the California data, and the answer is yes.

Among the most interesting revelations in the data is the correlation between a baby’s name and the parent’s socioeconomic status. Consider the most common female names found in middle-income white households versus low-income white households. (These and other lists to follow include data from the 1990s alone, to ensure a large sample that is also current.) Most Common Middle-Income White Girl Names

1. Sarah

2. Emily

3. Jessica

4. Lauren

5. Ashley

6. Amanda

7. Megan

8. Samantha

9. Hannah

10. Rachel

11. Nicole

12. Taylor

13. Elizabeth

14. Katherine

15. Madison

16. Jennifer

17. Alexandra

18. Brittany

19. Danielle

20. Rebecca

Most Common Low-Income White Girl Names

1. Ashley

2. Jessica

3. Amanda

4. Samantha

5. Brittany

6. Sarah

7. Kayla

8. Amber

9. Megan

10. Taylor

11. Emily

12. Nicole

13. Elizabeth

14. Heather

15. Alyssa

16. Stephanie

17. Jennifer

18. Hannah

19. Courtney

20. Rebecca

There is considerable overlap, to be sure. But keep in mind that these are the most common names of all, and consider the size of the data set. The difference between consecutive positions on these lists may represent several hundred or even several thousand children. So if Brittany is number five on the low-income list and number eighteen on the middle-income list, you can be assured that Brittany is a decidedly low-end name. Other examples are even more pronounced. Five names in each category don’t appear at all in the other category’s top twenty. Here are the top five names among high-end and low-end families, in order of their relative disparity with the other category: Most Common High-End White Girl Names

1. Alexandra

2. Lauren

3. Katherine

4. Madison

5. Rachel

Most Common Low-End White Girl Names

1. Amber

2. Heather

3. Kayla

4. Stephanie

5. Alyssa

And for the boys:

Most Common High-End White Boy Names

1. Benjamin

2. Samuel

3. Jonathan

4. Alexander

5. Andrew

Most Common Low-End White Boy Names

1. Cody

2. Brandon

3. Anthony

4. Justin

5. Robert

Considering the relationship between income and names, and given the fact that income and education are strongly correlated, it is not surprising to find a similarly strong link between the parents’ level of education and the name they give their baby. Once again drawing from the pool of most common names among white children, here are the top picks of highly educated parents versus those with the least education:

Most Common White Girl Names Among High-Education Parents 1. Katherine

2. Emma

3. Alexandra

4. Julia

5. Rachel

Most Common White Girl Names Among Low-Education Parents 1. Kayla

2. Amber

3. Heather

4. Brittany

5. Brianna

Most Common White Boy Names Among High-Education Parents 1. Benjamin

2. Samuel

3. Alexander

4. John

5. William

Most Common White Boy Names Among Low-Education Parents 1. Cody

2. Travis

3. Brandon

4. Justin

5. Tyler

The effect is even more pronounced when the sample is widened beyond the most common names. Drawing from the entire California database, here are the names that signify the most poorly educated white parents.

The Twenty White Girl Names

That Best Signify Low-Education Parents*

(Average number of years of mother’s education in parentheses) 1. Angel (11.38)

2. Heaven (11.46)

3. Misty (11.61)

4. Destiny (11.66)

5. Brenda (11.71)

6. Tabatha (11.81)

7. Bobbie (11.87)

8. Brandy (11.89)

9. Destinee (11.91)

10. Cindy (11.92)

11. Jazmine (11.94)

12. Shyanne (11.96)

13. Britany (12.05)

14. Mercedes (12.06)

15. Tiffanie (12.08)

16. Ashly (12.11)

17. Tonya (12.13)

18. Crystal (12.15)

19. Brandie (12.16)

20. Brandi (12.17)

If you or someone you love is named Cindy or Brenda and is over, say, forty, and feels that those names did not formerly connote a low-education family, you are right. These names, like many others, have shifted hard and fast of late. Some of the other low-education names are obviously misspellings, whether intentional or not, of more standard names. In most cases the standard spellings of the names—Tabitha, Cheyenne, Tiffany, Brittany, and Jasmine—also signify low education. But the various spellings of even one name can reveal a strong disparity:

Ten “Jasmines” in Ascending Order of Maternal Education (Years of mother’s education in parentheses)

1. Jazmine (11.94)

2. Jazmyne (12.08)

3. Jazzmin (12.14)

4. Jazzmine (12.16)

5. Jasmyne (12.18)

6. Jasmina (12.50)

7. Jazmyn (12.77)

8. Jasmine (12.88)

9. Jasmin (13.12)

10. Jasmyn (13.23)

Here is the list of low-education white boy names. It includes the occasional misspelling (Micheal and Tylor), but more common is the nickname-as-proper-name trend.

The Twenty White Boy Names

That Best Signify Low-Education Parents*

(Years of mother’s education in parentheses)

1. Ricky (11.55)

2. Joey (11.65)

3. Jessie (11.66)

4. Jimmy (11.66)

5. Billy (11.69)

6. Bobby (11.74)

7. Johnny (11.75)