Crime

What's in a name?

cwilcox | January 28, 2009

We all feel bad for those poor kids whose parents have some sick sense of humor - you know, like poor little Talula does the Hula from Hawaii or Adolf. But new research suggests there might be even more to it. Male teens with unpopular names are more likely to commit crime, regardless of race. A new study in the journal Social Science Quarterly compared the first names of juvenile delinquents to other teens in the population. The names were given a Popularity-Name Index (PNI) based on how frequently that name was chosen by the population - a kid named Michael, for example, had a high PNI…