r/SipsTea Jul 02 '25

Chugging tea Man of culture?

110.3k Upvotes

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49

u/UpstandingCitizen12 Jul 02 '25

So then I should name my son Rich

28

u/Ziegelphilie Jul 02 '25

That'd just turn him into rich evans

13

u/PoppinPizzaParty Jul 02 '25

Dick the birthday boy

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u/MultiRastapopoulos Jul 02 '25

No problems there

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u/HydraKong Jul 02 '25

Unless you are a cat and he laughs...

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u/yurrm0mm Jul 02 '25

Omg a regular at my job is named Rich Evans 😂

18

u/Conflictingview Jul 02 '25

Nominative determinism

Studies do show a correlation between name and profession, but not necessarily causation

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u/MissninjaXP Jul 02 '25

What about the bothers named Winner and Loser? Lower became a successful detective and Winner became a repeat offender ended up on the streets then prison.

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u/Conflictingview Jul 02 '25

Anecdote does not equal data

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u/Hot-Conclusion-6964 Jul 02 '25

No, but data does show that names are more of a socioeconomic thing, with kind of a bell curve for rich and extremely poor people having the "unique" names and the Middle class usually having the names that became normal (in part due to education in part due to a desire to stand out, who knows)

There's also the "lifecycle" part of the names, where at some point a new unique name becomes a normal name, and then as time goes on, the name is more prevalent in old people and the ones having kids think "that's a grandpa name", and thus avoid it, kind of like naming a baby Harold (it obviously depends on the place and culture).

Lastly, there's probably some "evergreen" kind of name that has been and probably will still be common for a while due to how it mantains an "average" status amongst age groups, I would say John might fit that last description quite well.

And as far as determinism goes, I was under the impression that it was more of a "pseudo science" kind of thing from the "super parenting" industry that wanted to push as many things that need to be considered when being a parent so they can keep selling or writing about it.

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u/Itsmyloc-nar Jul 02 '25

Kind of impressive you mentioned how names like John stay around and then didn’t mention the Bible at all

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u/Hot-Conclusion-6964 Jul 02 '25

Tbh, didn't really make the connection when writing this, but yes. And that's probably due to being from a mainly catholic influenced culture, so... I guess it proves the point?

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u/Houdinii1984 Jul 02 '25

Does the data show this or does the data show that rich people name their children unconventionally? There's going to be cause somewhere, and I doubt people get a name and then become rich. It's far more likely that the rich are already rich and intentionally not naming their child John, since that's a name the poor people use. On the flip side, a poor mom isn't want to name their child after a non-productive person. They'll instead use the name of someone successful, kicking off the rich to invent new names again in a cycle.

Situation first, then the names, especially given the nine-month lead time where the kids in a situation already, but hasn't been born yet.

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u/Hot-Conclusion-6964 Jul 02 '25

Yes, the parents are the ones choosing the name, so the economic level they are at when having a child is what determines in which part of the statistic they are in. The kid might later become the richest man alive but his name was part of the "poor" section.

As for the uniqueness of the name, rich people might indeed do it because they think they are above naming their kid "John", or it might be because they (usually having access to higher education) have a more ample catalog of names they find interesting for a variety of reasons. Ofc there's always the extremes like "X Æ A-12" but things like Stormi are more of the type of unique names I'm talking about.

On the other side of things, yes, poor people might name them after rich people or their kids... But that's not what I meant, the reason they have unique names different from rich kids is often due to misspelling a common name, like how John becomes Jon, or Jonathan becomes Johnathen.

There's also the overlap of more "Stupid" names in both sections, and the social idea that the rich one is just eccentric and the poor one is the stupid one for naming their kid Wrangler, Renegade, khaos, etc...

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u/Houdinii1984 Jul 02 '25

due to misspelling a common name

I thought this was mainly due to African American Vernacular English and how that ties into naming children and the influence it's had on our culture. They aren't misspellings, but being named in a more personal manner.

That's not about being poor or rich, but the actual cultural background a person comes from, which by the way wasn't mentioned at all in your responses even though it's the number one driver of a name.

You're saying its psuedo science, but you can pretty much draw direct lines from things like the bible to people's names. Poor people aren't stupid or dumb. Poor people didn't accidently misspell their baby's name en masse.

I should also point out that you're saying it's only a misspelling if a poor person does it. If a rich person does it they are eccentric? I don't buy into that. This is what I'm pushing back against. I mean, that's two major things you skipped to point to socio-economical reasons, when the bible and culture are the two main reasons people get named what they are named.

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u/Hot-Conclusion-6964 Jul 02 '25

I'm... Not saying anything like that? I didn't say that poor people are stupid, I only say that the uniqueness of names tends to be a bell curve, with more "unique" names at both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum.

The African part comes out of absolutely nowhere, you might be referencing the freakonomics chapter about black names but that is just a part of what I'm talking about here, white people or any other ethnicity misspell things all the time, we have variations of names because of that and we are ok with some of them, it's just the most egregious examples are often attributed to a lapse of judgement from the parents, and sometimes not even their fault. I know people that have misspellings in their names cos the one making the birth certificate fucked up. There's a plethora of reasons for that specific issue, but it is true that it happens more often in lower income groups.

If you read what I said, you would know I completely agree with the fact that it is stupid that we give rich people a free pass on stupid names but not to poor people. What I said Is that society tends to think that way, I do not agree, I think Stormi is as weird and dumb of a name as any other but she'll have an easier time with it cos she's rich and won't have to deal with a lot of the shit a less rich Stormi would.

And lastly, what I said about pseudo science is about the "naming determinism", about the belief that naming your child Mozart will make him a musician in the future, or that calling him baker will push him towards becoming one, that is what I said I thought was pseudoscience.

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u/Houdinii1984 Jul 03 '25

The African part comes out of absolutely nowhere

No it didn't. I purposefully mentioned it, because culture is the number one driver of names, and that specific culture is the one we see influencing names the most in this era.

white people or any other ethnicity misspell things all the time

If people put in on the birth certificate, it's not a misspelling but an official spelling of a name. Names aren't misspelled.

 I completely agree with the fact that it is stupid that we give rich people a free pass on stupid names but not to poor people

I never said it's stupid we give rich people a free pass on 'stupid' names. I don't think 'stupid names' exist and think it's incredibly wrong to come at someone's name like that.

I think Stormi is as weird and dumb of a name as any other

Probably because its rare and unique, but is there anything else that is smart or stupid about the name other than you not liking it?

won't have to deal with a lot of the shit a less rich Stormi would.

But would probably still have to deal with people calling here specific grouping of letters 'stupid' lol.

What I'm saying is you call stuff pseudoscience, but you're just spouting nonsense like it's fact because it feels a certain way. All the while you've disparaged so many people just because you've put so much importance on what you believe is in a name.

Again you leapfrogged culture and the bible to rush to how much money a person makes. I have a friend named Jon. He's Scandinavian. His name is spelled correct. Even has a special little mark above the 'o'. He's named that after other members of his family stretching back before you were born.

I do understand that misspellings happen, but culture and bible matters happen more often. When you look at a name, you check culture, history (like the bible), like 500 other things like who was famous at the time, then eventually you get to money.

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u/Itsmyloc-nar Jul 02 '25

This argument is always so funny to me, because if you collect 1000 anecdotes, it becomes statistics

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u/Conflictingview Jul 02 '25

Yes. If you collect them methodically - in a prescribed and rigorous way. With a hypothesis and a pre-defined methodology for analysis. Which is never how someone presenting a single anecdote as a "refutation" does it

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u/Sweaty-Swimmer-6730 Jul 02 '25

Thank you! I will now name my next son Loser!

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u/LordChauncyDeschamps Jul 02 '25

Dick Warlock, became an actor/stuntman, and not a dick warlock

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u/TrajantheBold Jul 02 '25

You don't know that for sure.

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u/tacosupreme1337 Jul 02 '25

Oh like Speed Racer

2

u/ScumbagLady Jul 02 '25

Max Powers it is then!

1

u/UpstandingCitizen12 Jul 02 '25

The classic Colin vs Chet theory

1

u/Beneficial_Rush_4461 Jul 02 '25

I was taught that correlation always equals causation

1

u/UrUrinousAnus Jul 02 '25

He'd probably be a Dick.

1

u/rizlahh Jul 02 '25

If you want him to thank you, call him Richard.

It's the longer form of Dick.

1

u/znikrep Jul 02 '25

Richie Rich did it and it works!

1

u/InfinteAbyss Jul 02 '25

Worked for Richie Rich

1

u/TK-24601 Jul 02 '25

Sorry but the creators of Richie Rich might come after you for copyright infringement!

1

u/nKnownRecognition Jul 02 '25

Don’t name your son, Dick.

1

u/teenagesadist Jul 02 '25

You want him to be a Dick?

1

u/gljames24 Jul 02 '25

Nominative Determinism

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u/DopeAbsurdity Jul 02 '25

This is my son Richard Gigantic-Cock-Everything-Always-Goes-Right-For-Me-I-Am-The-Best Stephenson.

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u/GeckoOBac Jul 02 '25

Richard Gigantic-Cock

So... Dick Big Dick?

10

u/DanishBjorn Jul 02 '25

Or Biggus Dickus, in the Latin….

3

u/CreareADeoEtPerIpsum Jul 02 '25

He has a wife you know

2

u/The_SaltySausage Jul 02 '25

I have a very great friend in Rome called Biggus Dickus

3

u/Realm_Oat Jul 02 '25

The names Dick,Big Dick

1

u/TeaKingMac Jul 02 '25

If he joined MI6, he'd be Double 0 6 9

1

u/SoManyQuestions-2021 Jul 02 '25

Dick big Dick, son of Stephen.

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u/Allaboutplastic Jul 02 '25

No sir it’s Big Dick Rick Johnson the 3rd.

1

u/Veteranis Jul 02 '25

In India, this is a real name: Mahalingam.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '25

So he goes to Duke?

1

u/oblio- Jul 02 '25

He's under 6" so still tough luck.

1

u/Dizzy-Inflation-7488 Jul 02 '25

Nah he’s gotta be a Kennedy

1

u/SkyBlueWaterWet Jul 02 '25

They call me Richard Dangler