Laura Wattenberg on Ledasha, Legends, and Race [Part Two | Part Three] "Why does it matter? We tell funny stories all the time without believing them. (Does anybody really think that a priest, a rabbi and a chicken walked into a bar?) I believe it matters in the case of urban legend names because they're not merely humor...and they're not random. They exist in a complex social setting, and they serve a subtle and consequential purpose. They are proxies for talking about race."
posted by ocherdraco on Nov 1, 2009 - 109 comments

Job Voyager: a data visualization tool for US occupations as a percentage of the labor pool, 1850-2000. (Stream graphs previously)
posted by OmieWise on Sep 22, 2009 - 17 comments

A new US study, recently published in Social Science Quarterly, has shown that the more uncommon or feminine a boy's first name is, the greater the likelihood that he will end up in prison. [more inside]
posted by acb on Jul 14, 2009 - 103 comments

"It's a secret to everybody" -- an unbelievably comprehensive blog post about the etymologies of the names of famous (and not-so-famous) video game characters.
posted by empath on Jun 20, 2009 - 26 comments

A message from baby Emily. Most popular baby names + Medicare advice + awful Elvis impersonation = EPIC FAIL. A single link video post from the Social Security Administration. You will laugh. Until you remember we (USians) paid for this. (via Andrew Sullivan)
posted by fourcheesemac on May 17, 2009 - 309 comments

Andrew Gelman recently posted this strange trend in baby naming originally posted on Laura Wattenberg's blog in 2007. Why do so many boys' names now end with the letter "n"?
posted by srs on May 14, 2009 - 156 comments

Without much fanfare, the Global War on Terror has ended. The new name for these military interventions is the Overseas Contingency Operation. Press Q&A. Some Republican representatives discuss. (SPOILER: They are not pleased.) Military blogs discuss. Similarly, the War on Drugs also looks to be on the way out, though no new name for the project has been announced at this time.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim on May 14, 2009 - 53 comments

What leads cultural tastes and practices to be abandoned? (.pdf) A new PNAS paper by marketing professor Jonah Berger and organizational psychologist Gael Le Mens argues that the faster a trend rises, the faster it's likely to fall, at least as regards longitudinal data of first names given to American children. (Via the Baby Names Blog.) Berger has written before on the drive to non-conform; a 2007 joint paper with Emily Pronin and Sarah Molouki (.pdf) shows that "people see others as more conforming than themselves.... placing more weight on introspective evidence of conformity (relative to behavioral evidence) when judging their own susceptibility to social influence as opposed to someone else's."
posted by escabeche on May 5, 2009 - 42 comments

What's your NPR name? [more inside]
posted by Potomac Avenue on Apr 15, 2009 - 279 comments

What's in a name? The Puritans and Victorians thought names could convey virtue onto whom they were bestowed; in Zimbabwe this is still a popular practise. Some names are thought to be 'high-end', some 'low-end' (even neighbourhoods) and our perceptions of what makes a good name changes in time. Meanwhile there are some human names that seem to suit dogs well.
posted by mippy on Dec 17, 2008 - 61 comments

World Names Profiler is a pretty amazing Flash tool, that allows you to see where other people with your last name are distributed across the world, in frequency per million, right down to the city and regional level. Fun to pair with the NameVoyager.
posted by dgaicun on Sep 10, 2008 - 93 comments

Hurricanes, as seen from orbit. Flying straight into a Hurricane. The list of worldwide Hurricane names. The history of Hurricane names.
posted by clearly on Sep 8, 2008 - 11 comments

New Zealand judge makes Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii a ward of the court. [more inside]
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium on Jul 24, 2008 - 167 comments

"My name is a combination of 'take photo' and the letter 'C' for Charlie. How on earth do you pronounce that, you might ask. Well the answer is you don't. You sign it."
posted by The corpse in the library on Jul 7, 2008 - 45 comments

On Having A Black Name "I am a white woman, a blond, blue-eyed white woman, and I have a first name strongly associated with black women. My mother, a southerner by birth, never stopped telling me she made the name up. The fact that she truly could not remember ever hearing the name before, is a testament to the strength of southern segregation. It is likely she heard it once or twice, and simply forgot it until later. And so, even at 50 years old, I have a name that makes people do a double-take. "You're _____?" is something I have heard all my life. "Yes, that would be me," is what I say, as they look confused. I have upset the social order. Names, I have learned, are a big, big part of it."
posted by nooneyouknow on Apr 24, 2008 - 257 comments

Identity crisis in scientific publishing :"Chinese authors are publishing more and more papers, but are they receiving due credit and recognition for their work? Not if their names get confused along the way."
posted by dhruva on Apr 13, 2008 - 40 comments

Here is an alphabetical list of the most popular music stars real names.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Jan 30, 2008 - 48 comments

Our notions of names and gender may be showing some 'fluidity.' A long-time trend of male names losing their popularity or even their acceptibility once the same names become popular for girls may be shifting to a new 'gender fluidity.' While it's still true that fewer and fewer boys are named Leslie, Shirley, Kim, Ashley, Shannon, Whitney, or Carol, other names have emerged as unisex monikers: Jordan, Angel, or Peyton. Logan has re-emerged as a more clearly male name. See this article in today's N.Y. Times Magazine. The essay was penned by Sam Kean: is that Samuel or Samantha? Does it matter?
posted by Rain Man on Oct 28, 2007 - 139 comments

"He looks like a Bob." True? Apparently so. Researchers at Miami University have shown quantitatively that certain names are associated with certain facial features. Here's their press release; an article on their research will be published in the Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. (Of further interest: the bouba/kiki effect)
posted by Melinika on May 22, 2007 - 81 comments

Are you annoyed that there is no species of blind cave spider named Sinopoda metafilteris or worm salamander named Oedipina bluepepsi? You can fix that for 3,000 Euros at the controversal BIOPAT. For inspiration, the Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature site collects the puns, insults, and other weirdnesses that can be found in the scientific names of various plants and animals [prev.]. Genes are not immune to weird names, especially in the case of the fruitfly, where clever naming is normal; but even better are the world's strangest dinosaur names, which allow you to tremble in fear in front of the bambiraptor and meet the Dragon King of Hogwarts.
posted by blahblahblah on Apr 9, 2007 - 13 comments

Elementymology. An fascinating look at the origins of the names of 117 elements, which also includes the names of the elements in many languages and a discussion of the origin of chemical symbols. If the real elements bore you, you may be interested in the fictional elements and particles in Star Trek and the Legion of Super Heroes (as well as some real ones as used in comics, prev.).
posted by blahblahblah on Mar 19, 2007 - 7 comments

Name of the Year looks to determine the most absurd - but real? - name out there, March Madness-style. Be sure to fill out your bracket today! Somehow, I get the feeling none of these are gonna register on the Baby Name Wizard
posted by jtajta on Mar 16, 2007 - 52 comments

Put a little commerce in your art with Lulu's Titlescorer, a widget that analyzes your book title's chances of gracing the top of the New York Time's bestseller list.
posted by Iridic on Nov 26, 2006 - 69 comments

The 50 Worst Video Game Names Of All Time. This is no joke, there are some real stinkers here which show that people who market games never, never realise that people might actually have to ask for them in shops. Some of these are actually unpronounceable. [via]
posted by feelinglistless on Nov 4, 2006 - 81 comments

How many me's are there?
posted by aerotive on Oct 26, 2006 - 70 comments

The Surname Profiler Project Website. A recent research project based at University College London (UCL) has investigated the distribution of surnames in Great Britain, both current and historic, in order to understand patterns of regional economic development, population movement and cultural identity. Start a search here.
posted by davehat on Feb 2, 2006 - 54 comments

OK, so some professional sports players have less-than-usual first names. Certainly not ones that are likely to appear on the top ten list. But if you really want weirdness in names (and, quite possibly, other things) you need to head over to Utah. (Frameset page; click on 'The Cream of The Crop'.) Personal favorite: VulvaMae
posted by littleme on Jan 20, 2006 - 144 comments

Parallel Wales. They came from Wales, and settled in places called Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. They brought new contributions to the American fabric, but also old names that took on new meanings. Now, more than a hundred years later, what echoes remain? (via Projects)
posted by selfnoise on Nov 18, 2005 - 10 comments

Pete, we need you.
posted by 13twelve on Sep 13, 2005 - 24 comments

Horatio Hornblower, meet Gentle Fudge Staff and researchers at the Cornwall Record Office compiled a list of more than 1,000 unusual names found in censuses as well as in births, deaths and marriage records going back as far as the 16th century. "My all-time favorites are Abraham Thunderwolff and Freke Dorothy Fluck Lane," said Rene Jackaman, archive assistant at Cornwall County Record Office.
posted by diastematic on Sep 12, 2005 - 15 comments

White Power if it's a boy, Aryan Justice if it's a girl.
posted by Robot Johnny on Mar 29, 2005 - 146 comments

What do Norman Cook (AKA Fat Boy Slim), Lord (Richard) Attenborough, Aubrey Beardsley, Lord (Laurence) Olivier, Sir Winston Churchill, Magnus Volk, Dame Anna Neagle, Rudyard Kipling, Sir Rowland Hill and Annie Nightingale, have in common?

They've all had a bus named after them [full list here] in the city of Brighton & Hove on the south coast of England. In Jamaica the buses are named a little more irreverently but this whole naming tradition doesn't seem to be as popular as naming trains with the late Joe Strummer one of the latest in a long line. Pix of the Stummer train here. [Scroll down a bit.]

Anyone live in a place where they name their buses? Or other inanimate objects?
posted by i_cola on Mar 18, 2005 - 24 comments

Because "Tanning Salon" just won't bring in the punters. Where its worth spending some money just to see the names show up on your credit card statement.
posted by bunglin jones on Mar 10, 2005 - 48 comments

Names in Time [babyfilter]
Martin Wattenberg has crafted an elegant interactive visualization of this baby-name data (discussed mefiwise here ). Martin's work discussed here before: 1 2 3
posted by e.e. coli on Feb 8, 2005 - 70 comments

Imitation chicken. Kennedy Fried Chicken, JFK Fried Chicken, J. F. Kennedy Fried Chicken, Kantacky Fried Chicken, et al. [via cardhouse]
posted by sklero on Dec 30, 2004 - 41 comments

The Names of Ancient Cities Still Stir the Imagination. While the City of 333 Genies has almost vanished in the sands and the Mirror of the World is tarnished with age, the City of Men's Desire abides. In 1000 years, will the Big Apple be as vital as the Eternal City or as forgotten as the City of Venerated Houses?
posted by blahblahblah on Dec 7, 2004 - 10 comments

Rude place names. If you're in England then this is for you. Please bare with us rest of the world, this is what we really like in our humour (at least it in Kilburn). If you're not in England then feel free to use my postcode, NW2. Ooooo, titter ye not (and who will be the first wag to post "not"?)
posted by ciderwoman on Jun 28, 2004 - 30 comments

Arsole? Putrescine? Dickite? Moronic Acid? This list of Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names (one NSFW image) proves that scientists can be funny, as does this Stuffy Scientists page, and Mark Isaak's terribly thorough Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature (see, especially, Puns). If you are tempted to wonder what the Father of Taxonomy might have thought of the irreverence of those last two collections, keep in mind that Linnaeus himself named this plant "Clitoria Mariana" in honor of an 'acquaintance', according to this page.
posted by taz on May 18, 2004 - 10 comments

One God, Many Names. An intriguing short paper (pdf) from the Nawawi foundation on names given to God within the Abrahamic faiths and beyond.
posted by Mossy on Apr 27, 2004 - 13 comments

Michelle Branch found by someone doing their taxes. No, it's not the pop singer. But have they ever found terrorist David Nelson? And will liberal radio host Michael Jackson ever get a job again?
posted by calwatch on Apr 9, 2004 - 6 comments

A real Gucci bag out of your reach? Don´t worry, just compensate by naming your kid Gucci! Or Lexus, Evian, Enternity.... more brand baby names here.
posted by jennak on Dec 27, 2003 - 30 comments

Putzmeister!
Saw it on a truck on the street; thought I was hallucinating; Googled it, and yes, they're into concrete pumping, and it's a German company, too. One for the "Bad Business Name Hall of Shame" that I started with my Blonder Tongue thread a year-and-a-half ago. Got any more? Think of it as a MetaTurkeyShoot for the day before Thanksgiving...
posted by wendell on Nov 26, 2003 - 27 comments

We've had lively discussion of unusual baby names here before, but this BBC report about a growing American trend is certainly a curious and rather disturbing angle.
posted by moonbird on Nov 13, 2003 - 111 comments

I'm Michael Jackson - No, I'm the real Jackson. All you other Michael Jacksons are just imitators. So won't the real King of Pop please stand up please stand up please stand up.
(Warning: Angelfire and Geocities links = extreme pop-up action)
_{With apologies to Eminem. Deep apologies.}
posted by Joey Michaels on Sep 9, 2003 - 9 comments

Who Was General Tso And Why Are We Eating His Chicken? Unlike Chicken Marengo, a dish created to celebrate Napoleon's victory, or Beef Wellington, named, it seems for the Duke's boots, General Tso's Chicken has a humbler origin as a traditional Hunan dish revived in a New York Chinese restaurant in the 1970s, when Szechuan was the latest craze. But this article will teach you a bit about the General Sherman of Ch'ing-period China.
posted by briank on Sep 8, 2003 - 23 comments

Interesting list of college athletic teams' nicknames. [More inside.]
posted by Vidiot on Aug 4, 2003 - 40 comments

What does your last name mean? This site has a good variety of surnames with etymologies that seem to be trustworthy in general. You may have to try variant spellings; for instance, "Cardoso" comes up empty, but "Cardozo" gives:

Spanish and Portuguese, derived from Cardoso 'place where thistles grew', town or city from which the first bearer moved; also found in the form CARDOZA; made popular by the Sephardim moiety (Spanish-Portuguese group of Jews).

And if your name isn't there, you can try Behind the Name, which depends on submissions from readers and so is spottier, but has (for example) Nixon ("son of Nicholas"), which vitalog omits. Enjoy!
posted by languagehat on Jul 18, 2003 - 52 comments

Giving Credit where credit is due. For your Friday browsing pleasure, may I present the staff at NPR's CarTalk. Enjoy!
The Conclusive, Definitive, Official Dewey, Cheetham, & Howe Staff List In the good old days, we had an engineer and a rotary telephone with a couple of buttons on it. We pressed a button and--BINGO-- someone was on the air. Of course, it was usually a wrong number...but that's the price you pay for simplicity. Now look at the mess we're in! Thousands of people on the staff...all trying to do less work than us. What a revoltin' development this is. Look at all these employees! But despite our huge payroll--we're always hiring. So if you know of someone who may be worthy to join our crack(ed) staff, send his/her/its name and potential position to the Car Talk Plaza Personnel Department via e-mail to Dewey, Cheetham and Howe.
posted by nofundy on Jun 27, 2003 - 10 comments

Walter Matuschanskayasky Understandably Changed His Name To Walter Matthau, Derek Gentron Gaspart Ulric van den Bogaerde to Dirk Bogarde and Goldie Jean Studlendegehawn to Goldie Hawn but who did Splanger Arlington Brugh and Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg turn out to be? What's in a name, you ask? A lot's in a name, as Famous Name Changes extensively shows!
posted by MiguelCardoso on Apr 7, 2003 - 27 comments

Get Your Own Name, Buster! It's doesn't get any sillier than finding out how many people in the U.K. are at this very moment walking about pretending to be you; the limey bastards. But it's humbling, to say the least - and a bit of fun too. [Via Linkmachinego and Plep.]
posted by MiguelCardoso on Mar 5, 2003 - 39 comments