Bad Names Make Boys Bad?

Social Science Quarterly, Shippensburg University professor David Kalist and his cohort, Daniel Lee, spent a lot of time looking at baby names and juvenile detention records. What they determined was:

Our results show that unpopular names are positively correlated with juvenile delinquency for both blacks and whites.

When asked what names were worst, since they had focused on baby boys, they came up with the following worst ten list of baby boy names:

• Alec
• Ernest
• Garland
• Ivan
• Kareem
• Luke
• Malcolm
• Preston
• Tyrell
• Walter

They also talked about how the less schooling a person has, the more likely that they are to give their baby a name that is not highly popular.

While I do think that a baby name is very important, I'm not sure that I buy this whole argument hook, line and sinker. I think that baby names have really dramatically changed in the last twenty or so years. I think parents are being bolder with baby names. Does that set your kid up for something horrible like teasing or jail? My thoughts are that there is a lot more that you can do to influence those factors than by choosing the wrong moniker for your kid. Your thoughts on the matter? Will it change how you name your baby?

_{Source:
First Names and Crime: Does Unpopularity Spell Trouble? Kalist, D, Lee, D. Social Science Quarterly Volume 90, Issue 1, Date: March 2009, Pages: 39-49.}