Incriminating Names

In the great quest to name our forthcoming child many names have been considered. Media buzz of recent research seems to indicate that unpopular names may hazard our boy into crime.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090128/sc_livescience/boyswithunpopularnamesmorelikelytobreaklaw

However, I remembered the caution from statistician extraordinaire Steve Levitt of Freakonomics fame, "correlation is not an indicator of causality." Sure enough he had already commented on the media frenzy. Of course, less attention would have been given to the researcher's claim if sensible Editors had read Levitt's book in the first place.

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/do-uncommon-names-turn-kids-into-criminals/

Alas I am relieved that name-choosing will not destine our child to crime or ill-will, but sobering to think that MY parenting skills, bad habits and sin might.