Those of you who know me in the real world will understand why my eye was grabbed by an article entitled, Names really do make a difference.

Turns out the article is about how names direct people's expectations about an individual, and how individuals are influenced by this. Kind of interesting, though not as novel as I was hoping.

One piece I hadn't heard about before is the idea that giving your daughter a 'feminine' name will make her less likely to study math or science. So if you want a math whiz for a daughter, whatever you do don't name her Isabella or Anna, because hearing her 'feminine' name will remind her that she doesn't belong in any masculine subject areas! They even included a twin study in which the twin with the 'masculine' name was found to be more likely to study higher level math or science.

I was all happy reading this, because it seemed to support my intention to name a daughter Raptor Bonesaw in order to prepare her for a life of conquest and ruthless domination. But then I read that, according to UCLA psychology professor Albert Mehrabian, "Parents who make up bizarre names for their children are ignorant, arrogant or just foolish."

Well drat.