Why not to name your kid Lo'quaxious, even for a triple-triple-bingo.

Abiola Lapite at "Foreign Dispatches" points to an interesting paper by economist David Filgio: “Names, Expectations and the Black-White Test Score Gap”.

I suggest that teachers may use a child's name as a signal of unobserved parental contributions to that child's education, and expect less from children with names that "sound" like they were given by uneducated parents. [...] Comparing pairs of siblings, I find that teachers tend to treat children differently depending on their names, and that these same patterns apparently translate into large differences in test scores.

From the paper, here are Figlio's class indicators, recovered from several regression tests:

Four frequent attributes of low socio-economic status names are particularly striking: (1) the name begins with one of a number of prefixes, such as “lo-”, “ta-”, and “qua-”; (2) the name ends with one of a number of suffixes, such as “-isha” and “-ious”; (3) the name includes an apostrophe; and (4) the name has is [sic] particularly long, with several low-frequency consonants. The easiest way to characterize this fourth characteristic is to count the number of “Scrabble” points of the name—I consider a name to have a high Scrabble score if its Scrabble value exceeds twenty points.

As Abiola Lapite points out, Figlio's results are consistent with other studies about job interviews. According to The Washington Post, Figlio also found that “Students with identifiable "Asian" first names were more likely to be recommended for special enrichment programs than siblings with more stereotypically American first names and similar test scores.”

Figlio's other papers are also very interesting.

Comments

[The Great Gazoo]

So Hollywood has been onto something all of this time?

Screen names are important? I understand that Joe Theisman changed the pronunciation of his last name (from THEES-MAN to THIGHS-MAN) to make it more likely that he'd win the Heisman trophy.

Perhaps budding computer scientists should change their names to Claude Turing to guarantee success? :p

[Shripad]

What's in a name? Apparently, not only academic success but also success in movies and the possibility of world peace.

According to Indian numerologists:
http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/may/28spec.htm

"After June 2003, the Indian stock market will do well. The year 2004 will prove to be good for the media and entertainment industry.

"And if the names of the two Indian states, Kashmir and Gujarat, are spelled differently, it may resolve their political problems.

"These are some of the recent predictions made by the numerologist father-son duo Bansilal Jumaani and Sanjay B Jumaani."

See also http://astrospeak.indiatimes.com/articleshow/999943.cms

[shaila khan]

My name is Ms Shaila khan.I'm born on 5th of jan 1983.on wednesday at 11:00am.My fathers name is Mr Alam Khan.My mothers name is Mrs Haseena Khan.I'm not working.I want you to help me what work i shoulp opt(field) for.I'm an ssc passed student.what stones should i wear and on which fingers?