© 2025 New Hampshire Public Radio

Persons with disabilities who need assistance accessing NHPR's FCC public files, please contact us at publicfile@nhpr.org.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Support essential local news and protect public media with a donation today!

We needed scientists for THIS?

(Photo by maybeemily via Flickr Creative Commons)

Rap mogul Jay-Z and his pop star wife Beyonce welcomed a baby girl at Lenox Hill hospital two weeks ago. The news quickly outpaced other top stories on Twitter, helped along by the announcement of her name: Blue Ivy Carter, just the latest celebrity moniker to inspire a collective groan and the Twitter hashtag #NamesBetterThanBlueIvy. Rock star kids named Apple, Moon Unit and even God, beg the question of how a strange name influences a person’s life. Scientists at the Max Planck research school recently published a study proposing that “unfortunate names” can lead to unfortunate lives. Asawin Suebsang is an editorial fellow at Mother Jones Magazine, and he has his own take on whether or not we really needed science to tell us that a bad name can be an unfortunate thing, indeed. 

Related Content

You make NHPR possible.

NHPR is nonprofit and independent. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. Your support makes this news available to everyone.

Give today. A monthly donation of $5 makes a real difference.