4.12.2005

"A Roshanda By Any Other Name" -- fascinating two-part Slate piece on differing trends in baby names by race and class over the last 25 years. Using birth certificate info from California, two researchers found that while name alone doesn't dictate an infant's success in life, there is a clear socioeconomic profile that correlates with very distinctive "black" names, and vice versa. Check out the top "blackest" and "whitest" names for girls and boys, and the "crossover" list that both choose equally. According to this, I'm a fourth-whitest girl, dating a 15th most popular crossover boy! Part two asks more broadly where baby name trends come from -- and points out that the trick is to look ahead several decades, not pick the latest fad. "Do Aviva or Clementine seem any more ridiculous than Madison might have seemed 10 years ago?" No way, I love Clementine!

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