I’m always curious about how parents decide to give their children notorious names (not always explained by naming directly after the parent) -- some easy high profile examples, we have Richard Wagner and recently had Thomas Cromwell both sitting on our Supreme Court! The historic men have mixed and complex legacies and aren’t caricaturally horrible fictional characters, but I still can’t imagine the baggage of carrying one of those names.
It might be useful to take time out from belittling the "mediocre" inhabitants of mid-Western America struggling to make a modest living and focus more attention on the multinational hucksters who have brought down banking systems and entire currencies, engineered a profitable pandemic and whose avarice has us on the brink of another world war. George Babbitt seems quite innocuous compared to them.
Our culture has many niches. Even if "George Babbitt" is a notorious name in the niche we inhabit, we shouldn't be so provincial as to assume this is the case everywhere.
The effect of a child's name on his life is indeed unpredictable. The Freakonomics movie discusses parents who for unknown reasons named their firstborn son "Winner" and the second "Loser". Winner went on to become a loser as an adult, while Loser was highly successful. Boy named Sue effect? Proof that names don't matter much? Who knows.
I’m always curious about how parents decide to give their children notorious names (not always explained by naming directly after the parent) -- some easy high profile examples, we have Richard Wagner and recently had Thomas Cromwell both sitting on our Supreme Court! The historic men have mixed and complex legacies and aren’t caricaturally horrible fictional characters, but I still can’t imagine the baggage of carrying one of those names.
I now feel like I have to go read this novel. Just the name of the town ‘Zenith’ makes it seem worthwhile.
It might be useful to take time out from belittling the "mediocre" inhabitants of mid-Western America struggling to make a modest living and focus more attention on the multinational hucksters who have brought down banking systems and entire currencies, engineered a profitable pandemic and whose avarice has us on the brink of another world war. George Babbitt seems quite innocuous compared to them.
A couple of points:
Our culture has many niches. Even if "George Babbitt" is a notorious name in the niche we inhabit, we shouldn't be so provincial as to assume this is the case everywhere.
The effect of a child's name on his life is indeed unpredictable. The Freakonomics movie discusses parents who for unknown reasons named their firstborn son "Winner" and the second "Loser". Winner went on to become a loser as an adult, while Loser was highly successful. Boy named Sue effect? Proof that names don't matter much? Who knows.
Bruce Barton sounds like my grandfather, born the same year, and probably someone I really would have liked.