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Disproportionately Common Names by Profession

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Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession

#31

Post by swamp40 »

tarpherder wrote: post #12

Its interesting to see the difference in type of names between Football Coach (Dan, Bill, Mike, Jim, Rich, Steve) and Electrical Engineer (Bernard, Eugene, Edwin, Charles, Alfred, Harvey). Short (one vowel each), common, English versus longer (two vowels each) French/"Posh" English names. Correlation between the names and background/educative level seems likely? Songwriter is interesting too: 4 out of 5 end with a va…

It's also possible that football coaches have a tendency to commonize their names - whether to fit in and make their players more relaxed, or maybe they were just raised in solid blue-collar American families.

Their birth certificates could very well read Daniel, William, Michael, James, Richard, Steven.

Similarly, the EE's probably have a tendency to be more formal on their resumes or business cards.

Their family and buddies probably calls them Bernie, Gene, Eddie, Chuck, Freddy, Harv.

Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession

#32

Post by jiggy2011 »

logn wrote: post #29

Not sure I trust the results. For guitarists they list: Mick, Richie, Trey, Sonny, Buddy, Eddie. That correlates strongly with famous musician names (Mick Jagger, Lionel Richie, Trey Anastasio, Sonny Rollins, Buddy Guy, Eddie Van Halen). Maybe kids are named after these legends and are pushed toward music, but maybe their software just counted a lot of duplicate mentions?

I don't know where their data is from, are these names taken from birth certificates? Maybe people are using psuedonames for their music careers?

Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession

#33

Post by [deleted] »

logn wrote: post #29

Not sure I trust the results. For guitarists they list: Mick, Richie, Trey, Sonny, Buddy, Eddie. That correlates strongly with famous musician names (Mick Jagger, Lionel Richie, Trey Anastasio, Sonny Rollins, Buddy Guy, Eddie Van Halen). Maybe kids are named after these legends and are pushed toward music, but maybe their software just counted a lot of duplicate mentions?

[deleted]

Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession

#34

Post by coherentpony »

adevine wrote: post #21
teamhappy wrote: post #3

> People with these names are more likely than others to have these professions. Shouldn't it say: "People with these names happen to be in those professions more often than others"? Anyway, there are a couple of fun ones in there, but I'll let you figure those out yourself. Unfortunately neither my name nor my profession are covered — I'm not quite sure what to make of that. :/ --- They use the same language in thei…

It doesn't appear incorrect to me. The blurb on the graph says "For example, a higher percentage of Elwoods are farmers than of most any other name." As I read it, it means that, say, 1% of Elwoods become farmers, while only .1% of Steves are farmers. That is, if your name is Elwood, you are much more likely to be a farmer than if your name is anything else.

What you're implying here is that correlation implies causation.

If 99% of farmers are Elwoods, you can't claim that one's name being Elwood means one is more likely to become a farmer.

Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession

#35

Post by toupeetape »

tarpherder wrote: post #12

Its interesting to see the difference in type of names between Football Coach (Dan, Bill, Mike, Jim, Rich, Steve) and Electrical Engineer (Bernard, Eugene, Edwin, Charles, Alfred, Harvey). Short (one vowel each), common, English versus longer (two vowels each) French/"Posh" English names. Correlation between the names and background/educative level seems likely? Songwriter is interesting too: 4 out of 5 end with a va…

That is interesting and I am sure there is a good point there but meteorologist is also a profession requiring a high education level. Yet the meteorologist list (Bill, Joe, Jim, Jeff, Mike, Scott) is way more similar to the football coach list to the point where 3 of the names are the same.

Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession

#37

Post by toupeetape »

logn wrote: post #29

Not sure I trust the results. For guitarists they list: Mick, Richie, Trey, Sonny, Buddy, Eddie. That correlates strongly with famous musician names (Mick Jagger, Lionel Richie, Trey Anastasio, Sonny Rollins, Buddy Guy, Eddie Van Halen). Maybe kids are named after these legends and are pushed toward music, but maybe their software just counted a lot of duplicate mentions?

In some of those cases, it could also partly be people adapting their names after those legends. For example, a budding guitarist called Michael who loves Mick Jagger choosing to go by the name of Mick. As Michael is a far more common name than Mick, it would only take a small proportion of 'Michael's to do that and suddenly 'Mick' makes the guitarist list.

Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession

#38

Post by walterbell »

coherentpony wrote: post #34
adevine wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't appear incorrect to me. The blurb on the graph says "For example, a higher percentage of Elwoods are farmers than of most any other name." As I read it, it means that, say, 1% of Elwoods become farmers, while only .1% of Steves are farmers. That is, if your name is Elwood, you are much more likely to be a farmer than if your name is anything else.

What you're implying here is that correlation implies causation. If 99% of farmers are Elwoods, you can't claim that one's name being Elwood means one is more likely to become a farmer.

In that scenario, could one claim that "one's name being Elwood means one is more likely to BE a farmer"?

Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession

#40

Post by teamhappy »

walterbell wrote: post #38
coherentpony wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you're implying here is that correlation implies causation. If 99% of farmers are Elwoods, you can't claim that one's name being Elwood means one is more likely to become a farmer.

In that scenario, could one claim that "one's name being Elwood means one is more likely to BE a farmer"?

Yup, you got it right. The wording is important.

Apparently, if your name is Elwood you're more likely to be a farmer today. But that obviously doesn't mean that kids named Elwood are more likely to become farmers (it could, but I'm afraid you're gonna have to proof that).

Wikipedia has some simple examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_cau...

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