Freakonomics

Anyone read this? I've been skimming through it when I go over my friend Sonya's every week. I found the part about income and popular names to be interesting.

So, if you have read it, what do you think of that? And if you haven't read it, do you think that names make a big difference in how a person is treated? They used the example that Jake Williams and DeShawn Williams could have the same resume and Jake would get called back for an interview. They had 10 different ways to spell Jasmine based on income. Some of the high-end names were ones I rarely hear: Flannery, Lucienne... and the predict that by 2015, the high end names will be the low-end names. The trend is for a name to catch in in the wealthy category and then move down the economic ladder.

It's amazing how many of the low-end names are names of kids I have tested that really are in the low-end financially (Deja, Precious, Tiara, Kiara, Diamond, Darius, Willie, etc.).

Given that this was a sample taken California, I'd love to know what name trends you see in your own area.