Judge Starling

The Economist has an article on the changing fashions of baby names by analyzing the first names of 400 million people born in USA and the UK in the last 143 years.

There are two novel elements in this analysis. The first is that the names are not analyzed simply by frequencies, but are first assigned to eight main categories: strength, intelligence, benevolence/love, beauty, religion, joy, and wealth. The second novelty is that the assignment to these eight categories is not based on the original meaning of the name. Rather, The Economist used an AI (a large language model) to provide connotations for each name, and this connotation was used to assign the name to its category.

The main conclusions of this article is that parents are increasingly choosing names associated with beauty for girls, and names associated with power for boys, while brain, while names associated with intelligence are declining.

The idiocy of this “study” is revealed by looking at the three most popular girl names claimed to be associated beauty, Olivia, Emma, and Charlotte. The name Olivia, of Latin origin, means “olive tree.” The olive tree and its branches hold symbolic significance, representing peace. Nothing to do with beauty. In fact, the gnarly trunks of the olive trees are the antonym of beauty. Emma, of Germanic origin, means “whole.” One of the first Emmas in history, Emma of Normandy, is mostly associated with power. Charlotte is the feminine-diminutive form of Charles. Do you associate a petite effeminate Charles with beauty? I don’t.

The most common names for boys associated with power are Noah and Liam. Noah, of Hebrew origin, means “rest.” The famous biblical figure Noah was a drunkard who cursed one of his grandsons, Canaan, and all his descendants to become slaves. This curse, erroneously referred to as the Curse of Ham, has been used for hundreds of years to provide “divine” justification for slavery. Liam is a diminutive form of the Irish name Uilliam (William). Do you associate a petite William with power? I don’t.

The only good thing about this article is that it is unimportant. However, when Artificial Intelligence, which is currently indistinguishable from Natural Stupidity, is used in science, medicine, and engineering, people may be hurt.