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Shoulda named her Emma

Here’s something scary, for those of us who steadfastly refuse to name our children to match the current lame trends.

A study by David Kalist (also registered at IDEAS) and Daniel Lee of Shippensburg University seems to indicate that unusual or uncommon names are correlated with increases in juvenile delinquency.

Eek. I ain’t wanna be visitin’ my kids in Juvie, yo! There’s even a graph:



“Josephine” was only the 208th most popular girl name last year! I’m in trouble. Charles was 63rd; maybe he’ll keep her out of trouble.

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  1. Kyle
    July 13th, 2009 at 14:24 | #1

    Our baby names book said the following names were given to real children born in the US since 1995:

    (Boys) – Buckshot, Cartel, Craven, Furious, Hades, Lucifer, Rope
    (Girls) – Density, Jealousy, Mirage, Passion, Sanity, Secret, Tyranny, YerFancy

    So, um, I think the report is probably talking more about those names and not anything in the top 208.

  2. July 13th, 2009 at 15:32 | #2

    Linus isn’t a very popular name in the US, so you can see why I posted about the link between unpopular names and juvenile delinquency. It is not in the top 1000 in the US but it is a top twenty in Sweden (no I am not Swedish). I guess when he runs from the law he has a place to go.

  3. Matt G
    July 13th, 2009 at 17:47 | #3

    Wait. You have another kid?

  4. Matt G
    July 13th, 2009 at 17:48 | #4

    AWWWWWW MODERATED COMMENTS?! Just like elementary school!

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