MetaFilter posts tagged with names

"The dash don't be silent."

ocherdraco — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:23:22 -0800

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."

Job Voyager

OmieWise — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 05:37:50 -0800

Job Voyager: a data visualization tool for US occupations as a percentage of the labor pool, 1850-2000. (Stream graphs previously)

A boy called Sue

acb — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:37:39 -0800

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.

While Shippensburg University professor David Kalist's report in Social Science Quarterly shows that "unpopular names are likely not the cause of crime," he explains that factors often associated with those names can "increase the tendency toward juvenile delinquency." Boys with unpopular, girlish or uncommon names often are ridiculed by peers, come from families of low socioeconomic status and face discrimination in the workforce based on a preconceived bias about their names, according to the study, which analysed more than 15,000 names.

"It's a Secret to Everybody"

empath — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 19:26:00 -0800

"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.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

fourcheesemac — Sun, 17 May 2009 05:59:50 -0800

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)

Does your son's name end with the letter "n"?

srs — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:01:35 -0800

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"?

United States surrenders, terror, drugs win.

TheOnlyCoolTim — Thu, 14 May 2009 11:10:21 -0800

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.

Why you're probably not named Tricia

escabeche — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:54:23 -0800

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."

All Things Ill-Considered

Potomac Avenue — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:52:54 -0800

What's your NPR name? Rapidly spreading meme generates hilarious lists. Via AskME

Name it and it will be yours

mippy — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 05:55:23 -0800

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.

Surname Surfin' Sur-prises

dgaicun — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:38:44 -0800

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.

Hurricanes from Outer Space!

clearly — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:09:44 -0800

Hurricanes, as seen from orbit. Flying straight into a Hurricane. The list of worldwide Hurricane names. The history of Hurricane names.

Moniker La Winski

weapons-grade pandemonium — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:41:24 -0800

New Zealand judge makes Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii a ward of the court. A nine year-old NZ girl has been made a ward of the court so she can change her name from Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii to something less embarrassing. Any suggestions? Meanwhile, let us pray In God We Trust does not roll his bus.

Waffle, meet Splasher. Splasher, this is Waffle.

The corpse in the library — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:17:16 -0800

"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."

On Having A Black Name

nooneyouknow — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:06:52 -0800

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."

Scientific publishing and names

dhruva — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:22:43 -0800

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."

Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:49:11 -0800

Here is an alphabetical list of the most popular music stars real names.

What's in a Name?

Rain Man — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 08:43:34 -0800

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?

So do we "look like" our online handles, too?

Melinika — Tue, 22 May 2007 11:37:02 -0800

"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)

Buy Metafilter a species!

blahblahblah — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 07:26:30 -0800

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.

You got your diburnium-osmium alloy in my fistium.

blahblahblah — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 13:23:28 -0800

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.).

Largest Agbejemison

jtajta — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 06:36:43 -0800

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

"Love in the Time of Cholera:" 8.6% "Harry Potter:" 45.6%

Iridic — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 14:04:41 -0800

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.

The 50 Worst Video Game Names Of All Time.

feelinglistless — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 13:51:25 -0800

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]

There are 300,000,000 people in the U.S. How many have your name?

aerotive — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 19:41:12 -0800

How many me's are there?