Did I choose the wrong name for our baby?

Some rights reserved by Lindsay Maizland

After choosing our baby's name at the hospital by process of elimination, essentially finding a male name in a baby names book that had no bad connotations for me and that I generally liked, I always wondered whether I choose the right name.  I knew from the baby book that it was also used for girls but subsequently I was a little distraught that people often though his name was "Tyler".  At least most other people spelt it the way I intended, with a "-ar".  I thought what a hassle it would be for our little guy when he grew up to have to repeat his name to teachers, administration clerks, etc.

Therefore, I was interested to listen to the Freakonomics podcast "How Much Does Your Name Matter?"  What I learned was that the name I choose would be considered a male-sounding name because of the "r" sound in its pronunciation and that if the name was chosen for a girl, that family was likely conservative.  Mainly I was relieved to learn that according to research of one of the Freakonomics pair, Steve Levitt, "a first name doesn’t seem to affect a person’s economic life at all."

Our little guy's name is Skylar.  

Freakonomics Radio - economics and story-telling

Some rights reserved by MIGreenberg

Recently uncovered my latest favorite podcast Freakonomics Radio which reminds me of DNTO's style of life story-telling combined with economics and psychology terms like "opportunity costs" and "cognitive dissonance".  Hard and soft gently mixed together.  Very professionally done and an enjoyable audio experience.