One of the things the Kardashian sisters are famous for is having first names that all start with the letter "K." But a new Facebook study found that having the same first initial as your sibling is not just a weird Kardashian quirk.
Facebook data scientists analyzed the decisions parents make when giving their children unique names. The scientists compared users listed as siblings with random pairs of people with the same name to find that the Kardashian trend is not as unique as perceived. The study found that siblings have an 11 percent chance of having a name with the same first initial compared to the seven percent of random Facebook users.
"For years, parents have been naming their children in clever, or, if you feel less charitable, 'clever' way," Facebook writes.
The study found that Facebook siblings in the U.S. of all ages had a high likelihood of having the same first initial. However, they found that the drop in late-teens is caused by "a cultural phenomenon where best friends of that age will often list each other as siblings."
Twins have an even higher chance of being named with the same first initial.
Facebook found that the 10 most common pairs compared to the names at random chance were:
1. Yvette-Yvonne: 37.4 times as often as expected
2. Faith-Hope: 31.4
3. Charity-Faith: 24.3
4. Jami-Jodi: 23.8
5. Gretchen-Heidi: 22.0
6. Charity-Hope: 21.2
7. Kelli-Kerri: 18.9
8. Latasha-Latoya: 18.5
9. Eileen-Maureen: 18.4
10.Colleen-Maureen: 17.0
Kourtney, Kim and Khole were not on the list, but the Facebook blog post credits the boxer George Foreman for being the cleverest. Foreman famously named all five of his sons George. And the Kardashian sisters are not the only family that kept "K" names. Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens loved strikeouts so much that he also named his children names that started with the letter "K."
The Facebook study discovered a trend of names associated with the same ethnicity and virtues such as names like Faith, Hope and Charity.
The study also found that 46 percent more parents in Virginia are "cleverly" naming their child Virginia compared to the rest of the country.
Looks like this study indicates that the Kardashians are some how part of a larger Zeitgeist. That's a scary thought.
