Most of those names for high-educated parents seem like foreign names. So, I guess it is true that Americans come from uneducated indentured servants or peasants?! What do we have to live for anymore. We should turn our country over to the world and hope that in time we can become more intelligent. I need to become more edju-ma-caded myself. HELP! Damn my parents and grandparents and great grandparents and great, great grandparents for not picking the right names. I will now not recognize my family as my family. Instead, I will look for a european family to adopt me and my wife. Then maybe we will get new names and our kids will have a change in life. ;P

those high end educated names are bogus! especially the guy names- Akiva and Florian?

i am relieved to see my name nowhere on any of these lists but saddened to see my sister's name on the low end white girl name. so sad!

I'm glad my name wasn't on those lists. I suppose "Eleanora" is kinda close but no cigar!

Man, that is messed up. Don't these parents realize that their kids have to LIVE with these stupid names their whole lives? You might as well just name your kid Apple or Scout or Bammalammadingdong. I did know a Phillipa when I was little. And I guess there's Ansel Adams. Otherwise, I don't know anyone with those names. Hell, most of them I've never heard of.

I noticed while I was reading the "high end" names that I went "yuck" to all of them, as if they were all snobby people. And the "low end" folks...those are the ones I want to know. Weird, huh?

So I'm low-end? Does the "i" instead of the "y" make any difference?

Oh wonderful! Both of my kids are on the low end list of names. We ARE WHITE TRASH and I just can't escape it!!!ACtually, we live in the midwest though so perhaps these names are on the middle or high end in the midwest.

I am planning on checking out that book soon. Thanks for the reccomendation!

PS... Alissa, I like how you spell your name. That's my daughters name. Maybe with an I brings you out of low end. Well at least we have Karl wanting to know us.

Hey Kevin,

I really like the name "Charlotte." I don't think that is on any list.
I liked "Freakonomics." I thought it had some interesting view points that I hadn't considered.

There is another I have recently read that is better. Has an intro about Starbucks...I'll think of the title.
Cool post.

Hahaha, all of you with your names/kids names on there are killing me. At least my kids, Roscoe and Trixie, aren't on the list. Suckers!

Damn, well neither my nor my SE's name are on any lists. Nor is our son Nicholas. Good solid name. Except apparently appart from the Saint they make good dictators. ha!

There is a kid in Nick's class called Cleopatra... wtf were they thinking?

Adair... sounds like the name of new air freshner or someting...

N.

How in the world did I end up #3? What's the full deal on how that list was compiled? From what you say later it sounds like they're looking at names of kids born per decade in CA. But whitest names... Is prevalence of the name a factor? There must be a bunch of Claires growing up out there.

Anyway, as for the others, I had acquaintances named Phillippa and Sacha (female), and I have a friend who's naming her daughter Harper. I know a fair number of people with unusual names, but they're not anywhere close to what's on those lists.

Karl, that is the problem... parents don't think when giving some names to their kids. I feel sorry for Moses Martin (son of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin). If he's not some kind of sexual dynamo, then the jokes regarding Moses parting something are just going to be straight-up CRUEL.

Dustin, yeah, you don't really see your name outside the caucasian race, do ya?

Alissa, I was worried about that one as well. And, yes, spelling does affect it. Levitt and Dubner actually showed how something like 15-20 different variants of the name Jasmine were indicative of the education level of their mother. Heck, in the twenty whitest girls names list alone, there are four variants of Kaitlyn.

You're safe. You're the high-end Alissa!

Jacquie, we're all white trash. Yes, the "I" makes a difference in Alissa's name. Are you sure that Karl wanting to know you is a good thing? (Karl, if you're reading these comments... nya nya nya!)

Sandra, it might mean you're lucky!

Jackie, definitely let me know what the book is when you find it.

Nicole, yeah, it can be a weird title when interpreted that way. Katie did the same thing. When I was replying to a comment via e-mail, she saw the title and thought I was flirting. Alas, it's just a Lynyrd Skynyrd song. BTW, there are more than a dozen different name analyses in the book. I only reproduced a couple of them.

MrJerz, Damn! Those were going to be my kids names now that I read this book!

Kilax, Katie read that comment and declared, "hell no!"

Nat, Adair does sound like an air freshener. Good call.

Xtine, do read it! It's good.

Claire, prevalence was definitely a factor. And they were comparing how many times the name appears amongst the different commonly accepted "races." I'm not sure what the time period was on this. They made it sound as though they got the birth records of everyone from the 60s on until the point in time when they were working on the book. They weren't breaking this down by decade. That was just a whole other statistic they listed.

SJ, you can still write one. I prefer multiple reviews of a book. I found that theory intriguing, too. The way they explained it made perfect sense, though, didn't it?

Odds are that Susan was on at least one of the many lists in the book. However, I returned the book to the library yesterday, so I can't check it for you. Sorry.

Aren't you proud, though? ;-)

I definitely would not show them the book. ;-)

Good to see people can break through the stigma! ;-)

And we've got Hollywood leading the way with the weird naming. Gotta hate it.

I feel horrible for those kids as they grow up.