Johnny Wright of Yes But No But Yes says
According to statistics, if there is a girl in your office named Chantelle and you ask her out for drinks, she will let you put your penis in her.
In Britain, 4,000 people were asked what name would be the mostly likely to engage on [the] first date [f]or casual sex. Chantelle was the … uh, winner?
Woman were also asked what would be the name of a chap that would most likely try to [go] for it on the first date. The answer: Dave.
The study itself is trash. For instance while there’s a Chantelle in a “reality” show popular with the surveyed demographic (ages 18-28) and last year there were press allegations that a 12-year-old boy fathered a child with another minor with the same name there are very, very few women with that name living in Britain. Meanwhile David is allegedly the most common English name in that demographic. Even if you knew nothing else about the survey you… probably wouldn’t need to know anything else about it to dismiss it.
But that out of the way we can take a look at the language: a Chantelle would be the most likely to “engage” in first-date sex, and said designation would make one a scare-quoted “uh, ‘winner’” while Dave would most likely “try” and to “go for it.” Following the link to the Daily Mirror (gosh, then it must be true!) there’s more of the same language: “Men aged from 18 to 28 were asked which names would be most up for it.” Meanwhile “Women were also asked which men would be most likely to try it on.”
And hmm… a bit more Googling suggests it’s an ongoing poll. In 2007 the first women’s name on the list was “Kelly.” The polling company spokesperson’s take back then? “If guys have a good experience with a girl of a certain name, they tend to remember them. It’s bad news if your name is Kelly, though.” Also two years ago men named “Lee” topped this year’s favorite, “Dave,” on the list. The spokesperson opined “Girls said these are names they would avoid at all costs on nights out.”
Since none of this has anything to do with whether men or women actually would or wouldn’t have any of the named characteristics let’s call this meta-stereotyping: without knowing anything else about actual people the results let you know “good girls” avoid men who might be interested in sex, and it’s a catastrophe just to be a woman with a name people would associate with casual sex. And goodness knows you wouldn’t want to demonstrate interest in men with certain first names!
Two Rules of Desire much?
Hmm… My real-life name being David this might explain why first dates were hard to come by when I was single. :-)
(Via tweet from Colorlessblue.)
Submitted by 3218 (not verified) on Mon, 2009-09-28 17:24.
I'm also a David, in real life. So THAT was my problem when I was single!!
My wife once had a boyfriend who turned out to be an asshole. She now routine rejects men with the same name that we meet on the swingers website for that reason alone.
Submitted by 3218 (not verified) on Mon, 2009-09-28 19:34.
Nah ... it wasn't the name that jinxed you ... I think you were both just asking out the wrong women. :-)
For the record, the first boyfriend of mine where things got quite steamy was also named David. So maybe there's something to it?
[Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sungold. --fl]
Submitted by 3218 (not verified) on Mon, 2009-09-28 21:57.
Hm. When my uncle was a baby, a woman asked my grandmother his name. When she replied, "David" The response was "Oh, my God! Do you know what you've done? Everyone I know named David is always in trouble!"
Sure enough, he grew up to be a homeless alcoholic who, following a suicide attempt that led to permanent blindness and a brief religious phase, married an illegal immigrant in return for sharing her trailer. Oddly enough they seem last I heard to be happy in a bedraggled, lowdown sort of way.
It does seem like everyone else I've known with that name has done jail time, too, but hopefully for your sake it's coincidence---I like this blog! :)
[Yikes! I'm starting to get a complex here! Maybe I should start introducing myself as "figleaf" in real life too. :-) Thanks, Viverrine. --fl]
Submitted by 3218 (not verified) on Mon, 2009-09-28 23:34.
All the Daves I know are just simply geeks and nerds including the one I married. Seriously 30 gamers in a room and 12 of them named Dave, the need for nicknames was higher than normal.
Now I have Kids in the Hall on the brain.
[Oof! In high-school I was in a district-wide driver's ed class -- 48 boys, roughly half named David! Not all nerds, but, yeah... :-) Thanks, Adela. --fl]
Submitted by 3218 (not verified) on Tue, 2009-09-29 11:26.
Does make you wonder what the answers would have been if the questions were reversed:
Women: "what men's names do you think would be most likely to put out on a first date?"
Men: "What women's names do you think would be most likely to try and jump you?"
Of course, that also leaves the questions of gay and lesbian types and what names they think will be most "up for it"/"likely to try it on".
Submitted by 3218 (not verified) on Wed, 2009-09-30 01:57.
This study leaves me feeling not avid or even livid, but tepid. My beloved is a David.
Also, I think that if there's any signal at all in that noise, then the study just tells you that people stink at reasoning with conditional probability. Of course, given that you have sex with someone on the first date, it's likely that they have a common name. This does not mean that, given that they have a common name, it's likely that they have sex with you on the first date. (I guess that since "Chantelle" is not a common name, its presence on the list has to be explained by something else, like salience bias.)
But now I've thought way too hard about a junk survey whose purpose is probably to make me buy crap I don't want.