Posted on by Californiacontrarian

The Name Game

Today while skimming through the letters-to-the-editor in my local newspaper, I noticed an interesting phenomena, which poses an interesting question. “Can you predict the political leanings of an individual by merely looking at the person’s name?” Of course the logical answer to this should be “No”, but read on.
For the most part you are born with a certain last name, unless your mother decided on some hyphenated neologism . . . but that is a topic for another day! Your first name is usually bestowed on you by your parents, irrespective whether they are hippie, straight, or whatever. Could a person’s first name provide a clue to his or her political leanings?
In regard to today’s newspaper’s letters my first name speculation is not gender related, as those with rightward tendencies were named both Susan and Russ. It should be noted, however, that the name, William, was seemingly always associated with a conservative opinion . . . now please note that I said William, and not Bill or Bubba! However it was the liberal letters that sparked my curiosity, as there were leftward leaning letters from Hallie, Raychel, and Bunny. Now obviously I cannot tell the ages of Hallie, Raychel, or Bunny, but come on, who names their precious little new baby, Bunny? (BTW, I did once know a woman named Bambi, but she did not write letters-to-the-editor or perhaps she just did not sign her real name.) Is Hallie a real name? I know, I know, Hallie Berry, but is this just a shortened form of Hallelujah? Raychel with a Y? . . . even my spell-check could not adjust to this one.
On the male side I did note that one of the liberal males signed with the elitist name of R. Lowell Smith. His first name is R. Lowell? I wonder if his friends call him R., Lowell, or Mr. Smith. (I doubt if he would respond to Smitty or Lefty!)
I realize that this sort of idle speculation about first names might seem to be far out, but so were my observations about bumper stickers . . . that is before you started paying attention!

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