Freakonomics Page #3

Mariah, Mary

Billy

Beckys, Johns

Tadd

Joe, Mike

Ryan, Sam

Chester

My brother and I were talking about how we have white sounding names

He's Abner, I'm Harper

Stone, Stone Phillips, that's like perfectly sutited for a white guy

that's the best white guy name you can have.

We live in different cultures and your name is largely determined by your culture

and the difference in the incident of LaKeysha among African Americans vs. white

might be a good way to understand how truely there are

different culutures African American inhabit and white inhabit

Today, there is more evidence than ever that the cultures we come from

influence the names we choose

Just ask the baby naming expert

More and more today,

you see parents choosing a namealmost as if launching a product

that you're tryint to position a child

for the best chance of success in the global market place

So in an oversaturated market place

which names garner the most attention?

Are some names destined for the top self,

while the others are headed for the bargain basement?

Let's take a look at the two product lines

Turns out, there is a such a thing as a knock off name

The top 5 middle class white girls names from Fryer's studies are:

(in order of popularity)

Ashley, Lauren, Jessica, Emily and Sarah

While the top 5 lower income white girls names are:

Brittney, Samantha, Amanda, Jessica and Ashley

So what happens to Ashleys?!

She's fast loosing popularity in the middle class list

But she's no.1 in the WalMart crowd

As those wealthier folks see their names popping up everywhere

they quickly discard them in favor of less merchandise

And just like that,

Today's high end Ashley, becomes tomorrow's low rent Trashley

On the lower strung of the ladder,

are the names that most signify lower class parents.

Like Misty, Destiny, Bobbi, Brandy or Cyndi

Now if you are over 40

and actually remember a time these names did't belong up here on stage

You're right!

Years ago, these names wouldn't be caught dead in a place like this

But the years have not been kind to a name like Bobbi

And even though she once was at the top of the social-economic ladder

Today, she's just clinging to her former glory

Please don't name your kid Barbie or Bambi or

anything like that, they might end up being a dancer one day because of it

And if you do end up with a name that's bound for stripperdom

at least you can change it

I mean, hey, it works in Hollywood

Think about it, would John Wayne has been as tough if his name is Marion Morrison?

Would we think Marilyn Monroe as beautiful if her name was still Norma Jean?

And would we think as Ice Cube rocking the crowd if his name is still O'Shea Jackson

Actually, I always wanted to change my names to Max Powers

cuz it seems like a name that everybody like once they hear that they're like

this guy must be really cool

I want to change my name when I was younger, I never liked it

If my name was, um, Henry O'Barma

You know what I mean?

I think that would mean something to people

and I would have more doors opened for me

I did want to change it but now I'm sort of cool with it

You just sort of like

jumps on your back and rides along with you through life you know

As much as you may hate your name, at least your dad isn't this guy

Meet Robert Lane

He has two sons. He named his first son Winner.

So Winner and Loser Lane set off in the world to claim their destinies

And what happened?

Well, Loser went to prep school on a scholarship

Graduated from college, joined the NYPD

and eventually became a detective. And then, a sergeant

He goes by Lou now

And his brother?

Well, the most note worthy achievement of Winner Lane is

the sheer length of his criminal record

Nearly 3 dozen arrests for burglary,

domestic violence, trespassing and other mayhem

Is there one name that you can give a kid that

guaranteer that won't become screwed up?

No

Sorry, there's not one name that you can give a kid that

guaranteer they won't become a screw up

And there's not one name that you can give a kid that

guaranteer they will become a success

You know, it is a crab-shoot when it comes to names

I don't think there's any name

that can guaranteer success, at least none that we found

The world is full of ...

... excellent people and terrible people with all sorts of names

The vast majority of the reason people choose is left unexplained

It's like, why did you choose your child's name?

Sounded nice

Who really knows what parents are thinking when they choose a name

Maybe your parents went with something traditional

Or something bohemian

Something unique

Or something perfectly trendy

And maybe your parents didn't have the best taste

and you can't stand your names

Or maybe, they got it just right

Actually, my name means intelligent hero

So, that describes me to the fullest

I was actually named after a horse . My dad is a horse trainer.

My middle name is comfort, because an angel came down to comfort my mother

and told her she's gonna have a daughter with dark hair

and blue eyes who would be a great comfort to her

The prophet Mohammed

My name says that I'm named after my grand father

who was named after his great grandfather

that was it says

In the end, most parents just want the best for their children

and if they believe a particular name they give can give their kid the extra edge

Then why not?!

I mean who konws?

It just might work

CHEATING:

As W.C. Fields once said, "A thing worth having,

is worth cheating for."

Or as Mark Grace of the Chicago Cubs once said

"If you ain't cheating, you aint trying."

Everybody understands why a kid would want to cheat on SATs right?

They have huge gains of ...

get into Harvard and have a good life as a result of cheating on a test

What's hard to think is why would a teacher cheat?

for a kid on a test

And, when you go to Chicago and goes back a few years ago

We find that lots and lots of teachers were cheating

Why would they cheat?

Well, because there was tremendous pressures on the teachers

to produce high test scores so their schools wouldn't get into troubles

First of all, to a very expedient ... to go to the end of the test

Cuz at the end of the test, a lot of the kids've left them blank

So instead of having to erase something and fill it back in,

you can just fill in the answers

It might look kind offunny

cuz how often would kids take a test

and they answered the first 20 questions,

leave 17 questions blank, and then fill in the last 8 questions

maybe be even a little funnier when

they fill out the last 8 questions and they all all the questions right

and those happens to be the hardest quesitons on the exam

THE EVIDENCE:

When I got the data from this guy from public school

I mean we are talking about millions and millions of answers

thousands of kids, over years and years

and I looked at the data, I couldn't see anything.

How can you see anything?!

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