21 maio 2004

CONTAMINANTES

Cultural evolution: The names that parents give their children illuminate cultural evolution
[Alexander Bentley, of University College, London] looked at the frequencies of different first names in American babies. One of his findings was that the ?mutation rate? in names is higher for girls than for boys. Parents, in other words, are more liable to be inventive when choosing a name for a baby girl. The researchers have found that for every 10,000 daughters born in America there is an average of 2.3 new names. For sons, the figure is 1.6.