Of Names and Politics: The Palin Story (H/T Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science):
Characteristic blue state names: Angela, Catherine, Henry, Margaret, Mark, Patrick, Peter and Sophie.Characteristic red state names: Addison, Ashlyn, Dakota, Gage, Peyton, Reagan, Rylee and Tanner.
I would like to see state-level data broken down on a finer grained level. After all, it could be that people in red states who give their children very conservative names are the most conservative, and inverted in the liberal states. But it's a really interesting observation. Remember that on the grandest scale baby names vary through random drift.
Below the fold I've placed a map which shows the regions. I've reedited to fit within the ScienceBlogs space limitations. You can find the original at Baby Name Wizard.
Humanities & Social Science
Comments
Actually, this is not surprising. One thing you missed in commenting on a recent paper is that in the U.S., liberals score higher than conservatives on the so-called "right wing authoritarianism" scale, which is actually a measure of conformity (high RWA scorers adhere closely to the "conventional wisdom") and is generally weakly correlated with political views in most countries. The RWA data is thus evidence that in the U.S. liberals are more conformist than conservatives, conservatives more independent, and therefore it's no surprise that conservatives are more likely to choose odd names.
What you missed in commenting on the paper the other day was that the study chose small sample subsets to find their supposed differences -- "Christian conservatives who score HIGH on the RWA scale," i.e. a minority of Christian conservatives, and "Christian liberals who score LOW in the RWA scale," i.e. a minority of Christian liberals. These two groups together represent a small fraction of the US population. I didn't read the paper, so I don't know what it says about selection bias, but my suspicion is that that was junk science, and they searched hard for a population subset that fit their narrative.
Posted by: pj | September 26, 2008 7:38 PM
Posted by: CW | September 26, 2008 9:24 PM
It seems likely to me that economics are a factor here. Although poor people tend to vote Democratic, poorer states tend to vote Republican, so this may just reflect a tendency among lower-income people to choose nonstandard names.
Posted by: Kevin Y | September 26, 2008 11:33 PM
Stanley Lieberson's book *A Matter of Taste* is required to understand the fashion process in names. Very readable.
One thought: maybe creative naming is designed to help girls move up the social ladder (probably within their own geographical region, though). Clearly it's something that should benefit girls over boys. And having a new, cute name is quite charming -- for one thing, it's a signal of youth.
How many Dakotas or Kalebs do you know who are over 25? That's the first thing an established guy (obviously a bit older) would think on hearing her unusual name -- "no females *my* age have that name."
Having been in the Mountain West for a year now, I love these adorable little youth-signaling names like Taylor and Hailey. Tomorrow night I'm going out with an 18 y.o. named Adeline. Ahhh. :)
Posted by: agnostic | September 27, 2008 4:46 AM
I mean, class differences or barriers just seem lower out here, compared to the Bos-Wash corridor. Here, a PYT who isn't a total loser has a chance of snagging a good guy. And unlike funneling the well-to-do kids into the same private (or de facto private) schools and colleges, here everyone high and low (well, with an IQ of at least 105) goes to the same schools.
That's why it's not worth giving your daughter a cute novel name back in Maryland.
Oh, and shameless plug:
Renaming as a facelift
Posted by: agnostic | September 27, 2008 4:58 AM
America is a strange place. <headshake>
You are aware that the average is by definition 100, right?
Posted by: David Marjanović | September 27, 2008 6:07 AM
You are aware that the average is by definition 100, right?
you are aware that ~20-30%* of americans drop out of high school and that those 20-30% are less intelligent than average?
* depends on age interval and how you calculate "graduation" and "drop out"
Posted by: razib | September 27, 2008 6:42 AM
One thought I had when reading the list of names is that some "traditional" names for men over time become exclusively female names. Still others become seen as "sissy" names (Henry turning to Hank).
The tendency for traditional female names to be favored more by "liberals" could be that "Conservatives" see them as a sign. pretentiousness.
Just a thought.
Posted by: Michael | September 27, 2008 8:29 AM
"Conservatives" see them as a sign. pretentiousness."
sign of pretentiousness. Sorry, forgot to proofread.
Posted by: Michael | September 27, 2008 8:44 AM
I meant having an IQ of at least 105 for going to college.
Posted by: agnostic | September 27, 2008 2:59 PM
Uhh. "Kaleb" is a new name? 3000 years young I guess.
Posted by: tom bri | September 27, 2008 11:25 PM
CW -
In the published literature it is frequently asserted that "Right-Wing Authoritarianism" is poorly correlated with political views. The inventor of the RWA scale, Robert Altemeyer, in his 1988 book Enemies of Freedom: Understanding Right-Wing Authoritarianism, states on page 239 that Right Wing Authoritarians as detected by his questionnaire "show little preference in general for any political party."
I have been told by a psychologist who studied RWA that in the U.S. self-described leftists score higher on the RWA scale than conservatives, and Democrats higher than Republicans.
Posted by: pj | September 28, 2008 9:09 AM
Make up your mind.
Posted by: foofoo | September 29, 2008 12:38 AM
"I have been told by a psychologist"
Well isn't that just the gold standard for scientific evidence.
Posted by: Rev Matt | September 29, 2008 3:46 PM
I would have thought that it's at least a plausible hypothesis that it's a matter of group identification; contemporary liberals, for example, might wish to distance themselves from both their embarassing hippy predecessors on the one hand and their conservative contemporaries on the other. Names like the Red State named listed in the post strike me as screaming 'redneck', and I'd never consider any of them for that reason rather than because they seem outlandish...
Posted by: outeast | October 1, 2008 10:33 AM