Weird names cause crime?

Live Science:

Boys in the United States with common names like Michael and David are less likely to commit crimes than those named Ernest or Ivan.

David E. Kalist and Daniel Y. Lee of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania compared the first names of male juvenile delinquents to the first names of male juveniles in the population.

The researchers constructed a popularity-name index (PNI) for each name. For example, the PNI for Michael is 100, the most frequently given name during the period.

The PNI for David is 50, a name given half as frequently as Michael. The PNI is approximately 1 for names such as Alec, Ernest, Ivan, Kareem, and Malcolm.

Results show that, regardless of race, juveniles with unpopular names are more likely to engage in criminal activity. The least popular names were associated with juvenile delinquency among both blacks and whites.

...

I must be an anomaly. With a name like Merv I somehow managed to avoid being a juvenile delinquent. There really are not too many of us with this name, but I am pretty sure I don't know any who are criminals.

I think the data may be skewed by the fact that blacks are over represented in the criminal justice system and they are most likely to be given creative names.

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