Reading response #3

"Trading up: Where Do Baby Names Come From?" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J.Dubner is a short, fun essay on baby names. As we all know some people chose a name from the bible or a close friend or family member. As for the other names the authors state that most start off as "high-end " names meaning that they are common among the wealthy and work their way down to become "lower-end" names. Soon after that they are no longer being used.
I can imagine that the reason for this name migration is because everyone wants their child to be successful, so we tend to look at those who we view as successful for names. This was my mothers reasoning behind my name. She met a business woman named Lauren and was so impressed by her that she decided to give me her name.
When picking out a baby name for my daughter so many factors came into play. I too wanted my daughter to have a "high-end" name. It was an agonizing decision because I wanted her name to fit her and I wanted it to be different but not so different that she would be tormented in school because of it. At the same time I didn't want it to be 5 other girls in her class with her name. I think every parent considers these things, it was a good point made by the authors.
But whats really in a name? According to Steven and Stephen "The mane itself isn't likely to make a shred of difference." I have to disagree, from my experience people with certain names tend to have similar personalities. For example Brittany's, Ashley's and Brianna's tend to be popular and/or a bit spoiled. Mary's and Karyn's are a bit conservative. And I've never met a Mikaela or Maia that I didn't like. Furthermore we tend to judge people based on their name. For example if someone were to say to you that they were going to introduce you to their friend Keisha you would probably be surprised if you later found out that Keisha was white, or to find out that Loren is a guy (I was very surprised when I found out that there were guys named Loren). This shows the importance of names and the stereotypes that come with certain names.
This essay also provided interesting facts about name's. Who would have thought that some people name their kids after careers for example there were 3 lawyers, 9 judges, 3 senators and 2 presidents. My name made the list for 2000...yay. A list of the most popular baby names in 2015 was also provided based on information gathered from educated people. Some of the names sound a bit odd to me like Clementine for a girl and Finnegan for a boy. I also found out that the name Katrina will soon join the list of nearly 5 dozen hurricane names that have been retired. When a hurricane does great damage a country can request that its name be retired by the World Meteorological Organization. A retired name cannot be used for at least 10 years...who knew.
One thing that is for certain choosing a name for a baby is fun yet agonizing. This essay gives good insight to where names really come from. I would suggest reading this even if you don't plan on having a baby anytime soon, its still a good read.