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the Use of Mothers and Children’s Nurses (New York: Appleton, 1894), p. 53.

A GUN OR A SWIMMING POOL? See Steven Levitt, “Pools More Dangerous

than Guns,” Chicago Sun-Times, July 28, 2001.

PETER SANDMAN ON MAD-COW DISEASE AND OTHER RISKS: See

Amanda Hesser, “Squeaky Clean? Not Even Close,” New York Times, January

28, 2004; and “The Peter Sandman Risk Communication Web Site” at http://

www.psandman.com/index.htm.

HOW MUCH DO PARENTS REALLY MATTER? See Judith Rich Harris, The

Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do (New York:

Free Press, 1998); for a Harris profile that also provides an excellent review of the

nature-nurture debate, see Malcolm Gladwell, “Do Parents Matter?” The New

Yorker, August 17, 1998; and Carol Tavris, “Peer Pressure,” New York Times

Book Review, September 13, 1998. / 155 “‘Here we go again’”: See Tavris, New

York Times. / 155 Pinker called Harris’s views “mind-boggling”: Steven Pinker,

“Sibling Rivalry: Why the Nature/Nurture Debate Won’t Go Away,” Boston

Globe, October 13, 2002, adapted from Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The

Modern Denial of Human Nature (New York: Viking, 2002).

SCHOOL CHOICE IN CHICAGO: This material is drawn from Julie Berry

Cullen, Brian Jacob, and Steven D. Levitt, “The Impact of School Choice on

Student Outcomes: An Analysis of the Chicago Public Schools,” Journal of Public

Economics, forthcoming; and Julie Berry Cullen, Brian Jacob, and Steven D.

Levitt, “The Effect of School Choice on Student Outcomes: Evidence from

Randomized Lotteries,” National Bureau of Economic Research working paper,

2003.

STUDENTS WHO ARRIVE AT HIGH SCHOOL NOT PREPARED TO DO HIGH

SCHOOL WORK: See Tamar Lewin, “More Students Passing Regents, but

Achievement Gap Persists,” New York Times, March 18, 2004.

THE BLACK-WHITE INCOME GAP TRACED TO EIGHTH-GRADE TEST

SCORE GAP: See Derek Neal and William R. Johnson, “The Role of Pre-Market

Factors in Black-White Wage Differences,” Journal of Political Economy 104

(1996), pp. 869–95; and June O’Neill, “The Role of Human Capital in Earnings

Differences Between Black and White Men,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 4,

no. 4 (1990), pp. 25–46. / 160 “Reducing the black-white test score gap”: See

Christopher Jencks and Meredith Phillips, “America’s Next Achievement Test:

Closing the Black-White Test Score Gap,” American Prospect 40 (September–

October 1998), pp. 44–53.

160 “ACTING WHITE”: See David Austen-Smith and Roland G. Fryer Jr., “The

Economics of ‘Acting White,’” National Bureau of Economic Research working

paper, 2003. / 160 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Peter

Knobler, Giant Steps (New York: Bantam, 1983), p. 16.

THE BLACK-WHITE TEST SCORE GAP AND THE ECLS: This material was

drawn from Roland G. Fryer Jr. and Steven D. Levitt, “Understanding the Black-

White Test Score Gap in the First Two Years of School,” The Review of

Economics and Statistics 86, no. 2 (2004), pp. 447–464. While this paper contains

little discussion of the correlation between test scores and home-based factors

(television viewing, spanking, etc.), a regression of those data is included in the

paper’s appendix. Regarding the ECLS study itself: as of this writing, an

overview of the study was posted at nces.ed.gov/ecls/.

ADOPTIVE PARENTS WITH HIGHER IQS THAN BIRTH MOTHER: See Bruce

Sacerdote, “The Nature and Nurture of Economic Outcomes,” National Bureau

of Economic Research working paper, 2000.

FINNISH LITERACY: See Lizette Alvarez, “Educators Flocking to Finland, Land

of Literate Children,” New York Times, April 9, 2004.

A BOOK FOR EVERY TOT: See John Keilman, “Governor Wants Books for Tots;

Kids Would Get 60 by Age 5 in Effort to Boost Literacy,” Chicago Tribune,

January 12, 2004.

THE INFLUENCE OF ADOPTIVE PARENTS: See Sacerdote, “The Nature and

Nurture of Economic Outcomes.”

6. PERFECT PARENTING, PART II; OR: WOULD A ROSHANDA BY ANY

OTHER NAME SMELL AS SWEET?

THE STORY OF LOSER LANE: Drawn from author interviews and from Sean

Gardiner, “Winner and Loser: Names Don’t Decide Destiny,” Newsday, July 22,

2002.

THE JUDGE AND THE TEMPTRESS: Based on author interviews.

ROLAND G. FRYER AND THE STUDY OF BLACK UNDERACHIEVEMENT:

Drawn from author interviews.

THE BLACK-WHITE CIGARETTE GAP: See Lloyd Johnston, Patrick O’Malley,

Jerald Bachman, and John Schulenberg, “Cigarette Brand Preferences Among

Adolescents,” Monitoring the Future Occasional Paper 45, Institute for Social

Research, University of Michigan, 1999.

BLACK NAMES (AND OTHER BLACK-WHITE CULTURE GAPS): See Roland

G. Fryer Jr. and Steven D. Levitt, “The Causes and Consequences of Distinctively

Black Names,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 119, no. 3 (August 2004), pp. 767–

805.

“WHITE” RéSUMéS BEATING OUT “BLACK” RéSUMéS: The most recent

audit study to reach such a conclusion is Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil

Mullainathan, “Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal?

A Field Experiment Evidence on Labor Market Discrimination,” National Bureau

of Economic Research working paper, 2003.

YO XING HEYNO AUGUSTUS EISNER ALEXANDER WEISER KNUCKLES

JEREMIJENKO-CONLEY: See Tara Bahrampour, “A Boy Named Yo, Etc.: Name

Changes, Both Practical and Fanciful, Are on the Rise,” New York Times,

September 25, 2003.

MICHAEL GOLDBERG, INDIAN-BORN SIKH: See Robert F. Worth, “Livery

Driver Is Wounded in a Shooting,” New York Times, February 9, 2004.

WILLIAM MORRIS, Né ZELMAN MOSES: Author interview with Alan Kannof,

former chief operating officer of the William Morris Agency.

BRAND NAMES AS FIRST NAMES: Drawn from California birth-certificate data

and also discussed in Stephanie Kang, “Naming the Baby: Parents Brand Their

Tot with What’s Hot,” Wall Street Journal, December 26, 2003.

A GIRL NAMED SHITHEAD: The woman who called the radio show to tell

Roland Fryer about her niece Shithead might have been misinformed, of course,

or even outright lying. Regardless, she was hardly alone in her feeling that black

names sometimes go too far. Bill Cosby, during a speech in May 2004 at the

NAACP’s Brown v. Board of Education fiftieth-anniversary gala, lambasted

lower-income blacks for a variety of self-destructive behaviors, including the

giving of “ghetto” names. Cosby was summarily excoriated by white and black

critics alike. (See Barbara Ehrenreich, “The New Cosby Kids,” New York Times,

July 8, 2004; and Debra Dickerson, “America’s Granddad Gets Ornery,” Slate,

July 13, 2004.) Soon after, the California education secretary, Richard Riordan—

the wealthy, white former mayor of Los Angeles—found himself under attack for

a perceived racial slight. (See Tim Rutten, “Riordan Stung by ‘Gotcha’ News,”

Los Angeles Times, July 10, 2004.) Riordan, visiting a Santa Barbara library to

promote a reading program, met a six-year-old girl named Isis. She told Riordan

that her name meant “Egyptian princess”; Riordan, trying to make a joke,

replied, “It means stupid, dirty girl.” The resultant outrage led black activists to

call for Riordan’s resignation. Mervyn Dymally, a black assemblyman from

Compton, explained that Isis was “a little African-American girl. Would he have

done that to a white girl?” As it turned out, however, Isis was white. Some

activists tried to keep the anti-Riordan protest alive, but Isis’s mother, Trinity,

encouraged everyone to relax. Her daughter, she explained, hadn’t taken

Riordan’s joke seriously. “I got the impression,” Trinity said, “that she didn’t

think he was very bright.”

ORANGEJELLO AND LEMONJELLO: Although these names have the whiff of

urban legend about them—they are, in fact, discussed on a variety of web-sites

that dispel (or pass along) urban legends—the authors learned of the existence of

OrangeJello and LemonJello from Doug McAdam, a sociologist at Stanford

University, who swears he met the twin boys in a grocery store.

A MUCH LONGER LIST OF GIRLS’ AND BOYS’ NAMES: Here lies an arbitrary

collection of names that are interesting, pretty, uncommon, very common, or

somehow quintessential, along with the level of education that they signify.

(Each name occurs at least ten times in the California names data.)

SOME GIRLS’ NAMES

(Years of mother’s education in parentheses)

Abigail (14.72), Adelaide (15.33), Alessandra (15.19), Alexandra (14.67), Alice

(14.30), Alison (14.82), Allison (14.54), Amalia (15.25), Amanda (13.30), Amber

(12.64), Amy (14.09), Anabelle (14.68), Anastasia (13.98), Angelina (12.74),

Annabel (15.40), Anne (15.49), Anya (14.97), Ashley (12.89), Autumn (12.86), Ava

(14.97), Aziza (11.52), Bailey (13.83), Beatrice (14.74), Beatriz (11.42), Belinda

(12.79), Betty (11.50), Breanna (12.71), Britt (15.39), Brittany (12.87), Bronte (14.42),

Brooklyn (13.50), Brooklynne (13.10), Caitlin (14.36), Caitlynn (13.03), Cammie

(12.00), Campbell (15.69), Carly (14.25), Carmella (14.25), Cassandra (13.38),

Cassidy (13.86), Cate (15.23), Cathleen (14.31), Cecilia (14.36), Chanel (13.00),

Charisma (13.85), Charlotte (14.98), Chastity* (10.66), Cherokee (11.86), Chloe

(14.52), Christina (13.59), Ciara (13.40), Cierra (12.97), Cordelia (15.19), Courtney

(13.55), Crimson (11.53), Cynthia (12.79), Dahlia (14.94), Danielle (13.69), Daphne

(14.42), Darlene (12.22), Dawn (12.71), Deborah (13.70), December (12.00), Delilah

(13.00), Denise (12.71), Deniz (15.27), Desiree (12.62), Destiny (11.65), Diamond

(11.70), Diana (13.54), Diane (14.10), Dora (14.31), Eden (14.41), Eileen (14.69),

Ekaterina (15.09), Elizabeth (14.25), Elizabethann (12.46), Ella (15.30), Ellen

(15.17), Emerald (13.17), Emily (14.17), Emma (15.23), Faith (13.39), Florence

(14.83), Francesca (14.80), Frankie (12.52), Franziska (15.18), Gabrielle (14.26),

Gennifer (14.75), Georgia (14.82), Geraldine (11.83), Ginger (13.54), Grace (15.03),

Gracie (13.81), Gretchen (14.91), Gwyneth (15.04), Haley (13.84), Halle (14.86),

Hannah (14.44), Hilary (14.59), Hillary (13.94), Ilana (15.83), Ilene (13.59), Indigo

(14.38), Isabel (15.31), Isabell (13.50), Ivy (13.43), Jacquelin (12.78), Jacqueline

(14.40), Jade (13.04), Jamie (13.52), Jane (15.12), Janet (12.94), Jeanette (13.43),

Jeannette (13.86), Jemma (15.04), Jennifer (13.77), Johanna (14.76), Jordan (13.85),

Joyce (12.80), Juliet (14.96), Kailey (13.76), Kara (13.95), Karissa (13.05), Kate

(15.23), Katelynne (12.65), Katherine (14.95), Kayla (12.96), Kelsey (14.17), Kendra

(13.63), Kennedy (14.17), Kimia (15.66), Kylie (13.83), Laci (12.41), Ladonna

(11.60), Lauren (14.58), Leah (14.30), Lenora (13.26), Lexington (13.44), Lexus

(12.55), Liberty (13.36), Liesl (15.42), Lily (14.84), Linda (12.76), Linden (15.94),

Lizabeth (13.42), Lizbeth (9.66), Lucia (13.59), Lucille (14.76), Lucy (15.01), Lydia

(14.40), MacKenzie (14.44), Madeline (15.12), Madison (14.13), Mandy (13.00),

Mara (15.33), Margaret (15.14), Mariah (13.00), Mary (14.20), Matisse (15.36),

Maya (15.26), Meadow (12.65), Megan (13.99), Melanie (13.90), Meredith (15.57),

Michaela (14.13), Micheala (12.95), Millicent (14.61), Molly (14.84), Montana

(13.70), Naomi (14.05), Naseem (15.23), Natalie (14.58), Nevada (14.61), Nicole

(13.77), Nora (14.88), Olive (15.64), Olivia (14.79), Paige (14.04), Paisley (13.84),

Paris (13.71), Patience (11.80), Pearl (13.48), Penelope (14.53), Phoebe (15.18),

Phoenix (13.28), Phyllis (11.93), Portia (15.03), Precious (11.30), Quinn (15.20),

Rachel (14.51), Rachell (11.76), Rebecca (14.05), Renee (13.79), Rhiannon (13.16),

Rikki (12.54), Ronnie (12.72), Rosalind (15.26), Ruby (14.26), Sabrina (13.31), Sadie

(13.69), Samantha (13.37), Sarah (14.16), Sasha (14.22), Sayeh (15.25), Scarlett

(13.60), Selma (12.78), September (12.80), Shannon (14.11), Shayla (12.77), Shayna

(14.00), Shelby (13.42), Sherri (12.32), Shira (15.60), Shirley (12.49), Simone (14.96),

Siobhan (14.88), Skylynn (12.61), Solveig (14.36), Sophie (15.45), Stacy (13.08),

Stephanie (13.45), Stevie (12.67), Storm (12.31), Sunshine (12.03), Susan (13.73),

Suzanne (14.37), Svetlana (11.65), Tabitha (12.49), Talia (15.27), Tallulah (14.88),

Tatiana (14.42), Tatum (14.25), Taylor (13.65), Tess (14.83), Tia (12.93), Tiffany

(12.49), Tracy (13.50), Trinity (12.60), Trudy (14.88), Vanessa (12.94), Venus

(12.73), Veronica (13.83), Veronique (15.80), Violet (13.72), Whitney (13.79),

Willow (13.83), Yael (15.55), Yas-mine (14.10), Yvonne (13.02), and Zoe (15.03).

SOME BOYS’ NAMES

(Years of mother’s education in parentheses)

Aaron (13.74), Abdelrahman (14.08), Ace (12.39), Adam (14.07), Aidan (15.35),

Alexander (14.49), Alistair (15.34), Andrew (14.19), Aristotle (14.20), Ashley

(12.95), Atticus (14.97), Baylor (14.84), Bjorn (15.12), Blane (13.55), Blue (13.85),

Brian (13.92), Buck (12.81), Bud (12.21), Buddy (11.95), Caleb (13.91), Callum

(15.20), Carter (14.98), Chaim (14.63), Christ (11.50), Christian (13.55), Clyde

(12.94), Cooper (14.96), Dakota (12.92), Daniel (14.01), Dashiell (15.26), David

(13.77), Deniz (15.65), Dylan (13.58), Eamon (15.39), Elton (12.23), Emil (14.05),

Eric (14.02), Finn (15.87), Forrest (13.75), Franklin (13.55), Gabriel (14.39), Gary

(12.56), Giancarlo (15.05), Giuseppe (13.24), Graydon (15.51), Gustavo (11.68),

Hashem (12.76), Hugh (14.60), Hugo (13.00), Idean (14.35), Indiana (13.80), Isaiah

(13.12), Jackson (15.22), Jacob (13.76), Jagger (13.27), Jamieson (15.13), Jedidiah

(14.06), Jeffrey (13.88), Jeremy (13.46), Jesus (8.71), Jihad (11.60), Johan (15.11),

John-Paul (14.22), Jonathan (13.86), Jordan (13.73), Jorge (10.49), Joshua (13.49),

Josiah (13.98), Jules (15.48), Justice (12.45), Kai (14.85), Keanu (13.17), Keller

(15.07), Kevin (14.03), Kieron (14.00), Kobe (13.12), Kramer (14.80), Kurt (14.33),

Lachlan (15.60), Lars (15.09), Leo (14.76), Lev (14.35), Lincoln (14.87), Lonny

(11.93), Luca (13.56), Malcolm (14.80), Marvin (11.86), Max (14.93), Maximilian

(15.17), Michael (13.66), Michelangelo (15.58), Miro (15.00), Mohammad (12.45),

Moises (9.69), Moses (13.11), Moshe (14.41), Muhammad (13.21), Mustafa (13.85),

Nathaniel (14.13), Nicholas (14.02), Noah (14.45), Norman (12.90), Oliver (15.14),