Name: Tess
Home: St. Louis
Friday Miscellany
Want a new pet but looking for something less cuddly than a hamster? The World Acquarium in St. Louis has put a two-headed snake up for auction on eBay. Bidding will start at $250,000.
* * *
Babycenter.com has released a list of the most popular baby names of 2005 (at least among Babycenter users). Benjamin ranks a lowly 26th. However, according to Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt in an
article published on slate.com and reprinted in their book Freakonomics, Benjamin tops the list of most popular "high-end white boy names," as well as being the most popular boy's name correlated with high levels of parental education. The authors warn, however, that "high-end" names have a way of becoming "low-end" in a decade or two--at which point the parents with high socioeconomic status abandon those names in favor of others.
* * *
The Associated Press reports that Men's Fitness magazine has proclaimed Baltimore the fittest city in the U.S., according to its unscientific survey. Unfortunately, rival Men's Health magazine ranked Baltimore 93 out of 100 "best cities for men." According to Men's Health, San Francisco is #1. They agree on one thing: Honolulu is #2 on both lists.
Associated Press photo from cnn.com.
posted by Tess | 11:31 AM
2 Comments:
An interesting tool/toy to use regarding baby names is the "Baby Name Voyager." It shows you the popularity of any given name since the 1880s. The name, Benjamin, reached its peak usage the year I was born, 1979.
Another interesting site is from the Social Security registry. In 1976, my name (Carrie) was #28 and in 2004 it was #813!! Check out your panrets' names and birth years too. My mom (Kathleen) and dad (Dennis) were both Top 20 names in 1953, but now they're stuck somewhere in the 300s.
I'm proud that Ilsa's name doesn't make the list, and Juliette is #593 for their respective birth years. I didn't want them to be like I was in school, graduating with five other girls named Carrie!
Post a Comment
<< Home