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What's in a name? The ability to determine if your child will be a felon
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If you're pregnant and thinking about baby names, consider this: a new study in the Social Science Quarterly journal shows that teens with unpopular names are more likely to commit crimes. This is considered to be the first study that examines the correlation between name popularity in teens and criminal tendancies.
The data was analyzed by David Kalist and Daniel Lee from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. They compared the first names of male juvenile delinquents to first names of the male juveniles in the population. They discovered that race did not matter and that juveniles with unpopular names are more likely to commit crime. The popularity-name index was used to determine a name's popularity. The name Michael has a PNI of 100, meaning that it was the most frequently given name during this period. PNI for names like Ernest and Ivan was 1.
Now, no one can say the name itself is the cause for crime. The researchers point out that there are other factors that play into that, such as home environment and socioeconomic status. However, it is possible that teens with unpopular names are more likely to commit crimes because they are embarrassed by their names and treated differently by their peers. They also suggest that the teens may be acting out because they dislike their names. The researchers stated in Social Science Quarterly that "First name characteristics may be an important factor to help identify individuals at high risk of committing or recommitting crime, leading to moreeffective and targeted intervention programs."
This leads me to imagine several things, most of which are hilarious. First, I see this as a future episode of 'Law & Order.' Some male teen commits a heinous crime and then uses the fact he hates his first name, which would be something like Stewart, as his defense and that it led him do it. Second, can't you picture school admissions teams looking over their enrollment roster and checking off certain names in order to provide intervention for these 'at-risk' teens? Or better yet, rejecting students on the basis of their first name? "Can't take him, his name is Ivan!" Finally, it will be interesting to see how celebrity offspring like Apple, Bronx Mowgli, and Pilot Inspektor do later in life. Of course, that will require another study that looks closely at how the relationship between a strange name, a life of excess, and celebrity parents intervene.
So remember this when it's time to name your next child!
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