Hehe. I am biased to be Electrical Engineer.
Disproportionately Common Names by Profession
71–80 of 110 posts
Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession
#72> 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.
That's Nominative Determinism:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominative_determinism
Think someone called Crapper being a toilet salesman, or Smith being a Blacksmith, Baker being a Baker etc.
I.e. a funny non-science based upon misunderstanding historical coincidence (profession being used as surnames, family marketing name being used as a crass synoniem for something else) with causation.
Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession
#73> 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…
I've heard mentioned in books on psychology before about this effect, and it seems at least from a clinical perspective, that people do tend to choose their professions based on their names.
I'm sorry I can't provide sources.
Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession
#74> 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…
I've heard mentioned in books on psychology before about this effect, and it seems at least from a clinical perspective, that people do tend to choose their professions based on their names. I'm sorry I can't provide sources.
We would expect people to also tend to choose their names based on their parents, as well as choosing their jobs based on their upbringing.
Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
I gather you're being sarcastic, but high name inequality is just another illustration of a lack of social mobility. People of a certain social class are more likely to name their child certain names, and those children are more likely to grow up into particular professions. Name inequality represents clear evidence against the existence of a meritocracy.
> Name inequality represents clear evidence against the existence of a meritocracy. Meritocracy in what sense? Coming from wealthier background, you're more likely to be well educated. While we may dislike that it is so, it doesn't mean there's no meritocracy in the sense that employers don't hire people based on their qualifications alone. Only that they don't care where these qualifications come from.
> Coming from wealthier background, you're more likely to be well educated.
So, by your admission, education is not meritocratic.
I claim that employment is non-meritocratic first by your measure: if access to a better education is not merited, then employers concentrating on qualifications alone are not hiring according to merit.
I claim also that employment is non-meritocratic independently. The most obvious example is that wealth similarly gives you exclusive access to low-paying but prestigious jobs.
I suspect overall that background wealth is still a better marker for job status than education.
Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession
#76The farmers have the coolest names by far. Or at least to a non-american person, they seem rare. Maybe people in those professions are rarely in the public eye.
Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession
#77Earlier 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.
The predictive element itself has little to do with correlation/causation, though. "If you have gray hair, you're more likely to die in the next ten years than people without gray hair" is a perfectly valid statement, and does not imply at all that gray hair is causing people to die.
If anything, it's more like an ecological fallacy or unwarranted extrapolation to the future.
Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession
#78Gah, I hate stats that a) don't say where the information comes from b) don't say which part of the world they're talking about (US sites are particularly prone to this). I'm assuming this is from US census data, but it's not particularly obvious. There's a rest of the world, you know....
[EDIT: looking at the app, maybe it is worldwide? Still, referring to things like "Republican" doesn't inspire confidence that it's international]
Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession
#79Not 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?
Surely Buddy would refer to Buddy Holly, who predates the height of Guy's career, who died young in a plane crash.
Not that I don't love both.
Re: Disproportionately Common Names by Profession
#80Gads, the even got the title wrong. Should be "Disproportionately common professions by Name". Or, actually, all we can tell from the little on that page is that the title contradicts the subtitle. So maybe the subtle that should be reversed. Who knows? Data is fun!