Finally, this crisis is receiving the media coverage it so richly deserves!

I never knew Abreu's first name wasn't Roberto.

If you don't count Bobbys, which the author insists don't count, the last first-round Bob was Horner. In the past ten years, teams have used first round picks on guys named Gerrit, Sonny, Keenyn, Kolten, Jameson, Bryce, Barret, Deck, Kaleb, Kolbrin, Kellin, Asher, Chance, Slade, Tanner, Shooter, Colton, Preston, Kasey, Joba, Colby, Prince, Khalil, Cole, and Royce.

But no Bobs.

Have there been any Neil & Bob batteries? Neil Allen and Bob Geren?

Have there been any Neil & Bob batteries? Neil Allen and Bob Geren?

Looks like Allen/Geren happened twice. They just missed a third time.

If you don't count Bobbys, which the author insists don't count, the last first-round Bob was Horner. In the past ten years, teams have used first round picks on guys named Gerrit, Sonny, Keenyn, Kolten, Jameson, Bryce, Barret, Deck, Kaleb, Kolbrin, Kellin, Asher, Chance, Slade, Tanner, Shooter, Colton, Preston, Kasey, Joba, Colby, Prince, Khalil, Cole, and Royce.

But no Bobs.

Suburban America is out of control.

Except for Sonny, that one can stay.

I thought Sonny was a nickname, but his full name is in fact Sonny Douglas Gray.

I thought Sonny was a nickname, but his full name is in fact Sonny Douglas Gray.

Georgia, Alabama or Mississippi?

At least all of those made up names were spelled phonetically correct, which is more than you can say for Dwyane Wade or Laveranues Coles.

At least all of those made up names were spelled phonetically correct, which is more than you can say for Dwyane Wade or Laveranues Coles.

Brett Favre says hi

Georgia, Alabama or Mississippi?

Tennessee apparently. From Smyrna, which looks to be an exurb of Nashville. Your instincts were definitely in the right place.

When I was a kid in French Canada, we would call ourselves "Bob" everytime we would pretend to be a sport superstar. I wonder what name (or names) kids use today.

Also, the first sentense of Bois little biography at the bottom is hilarious.

Hey, I'm doing my part.

Have there been any Neil & Bob batteries? Neil Allen and Bob Geren?

Also Neal Heaton and Bob Melvin.

A first cousin's son (which makes the kid my ... second cousin? first cousin once removed? third uncle? I've awful at these things) who presumably will pitch for Ole Miss (he was hurt last year & so red-shirted) is named Tanner. The horror. (The greater horror, of course, is that he's 6'7", pretty much the same as his dad, who played hoops for Centenary. If I were 6'7", as opposed to about 8 inches shorter than that, my weight would be ... well, still too damned much, but a lot closer to reasonable.)

Better that than my dad's given name, though. He hated "Billy Clyde" & always went by Bill or B.C. Can't blame him at all.

(The first cousin's wife -- not the pitcher's mother; they're divorced -- was previously widowed when her husband died on the plane that crashed in Pa. on 9/11. Interesting family.)

Brett Favre says hi

That name was not made up - I can't help it if he doesn't know how to pronounce it.

A first cousin's son (which makes the kid my ... second cousin? first cousin once removed? third uncle? I've awful at these things) who presumably will pitch for Ole Miss (he was hurt last year & so red-shirted) is named Tanner.

Poor kids, they can't pick their own names. I bet the poor lad hasn't crafted a batch of leather in his life.

Still, he's going to Ole Miss, where the daily views of the magnificent campus and the prettiest girls you'll ever see will take the sting out of his lack of tanning skills.

Ole Miss, where the daily views of the magnificent campus and the prettiest girls you'll ever see

So I'm assured by a co-worker. (Never been to Oxford myself ... though offhand I can't remember having too many complaints in that department while I was at Arizona State some 30 years ago, either.)

Zack/Zach has gotta be the current most inexplicably popular name...

players active in 2011 with MLB experience- Zach Braddock, Zach Britton, Zack Cozart, Zach Duke, Zack Greinke, Zach Jackson, Zach Kroenke, Zach McAllister, Zach Miner, Zach Phillips, Zach Putnam, Zack Segovia, and Zach Stewart.

recently retired players with MLB experience- Zach Day, Zach McClellan, and Zach Sorensen.

active minor leaguers- Zach Aakhus, Zach Baldwin, Zach Booker, Zach Butler, Zack Breault, Zach Cates, Zach Clark, Zac Cline, Zach Collier, Zachary Cone, Zack Cox, Zach Daeges, Zack Dodson, Zach Fowler, Zach Gentile, Zach Getsee, Zach Hammes, Zach Jadofsky, Zach Kapstein, Zach Kometani, Zach Larson, Zach Lee, Zach Lutz, Zachary MacPhee, Zach Mandelblatt, Zach Maxfield, Zach Neal, Zach Osborne, Zack Pace, Zack Parker, Zach Penprase, Zach Petersime, Zach Robertson, Zach Rosscup, Zach Rossetti, Zach Russell, Zach Samuels, Zach Simons, Zack Stanton, Zack Sterner, Zach Thornton, Zack Von Rosenberg, Zach Walters, Zach Ward, Zach Welch, Zack Wheeler, Zach Woods, Zach Zaneski, and Zach Zuercher.

bb-ref search results

Never dremaed that my given name would somehow become exotic in baseball.

At least we have Gibson, Feller, Lemon, Doerr, Clemente and Alomar (I will count Roberto) in the HOF to remember our heritage.

Oh, it's...you Bob.

Still, he's going to Ole Miss, where the daily views of the magnificent campus and the prettiest girls you'll ever see will take the sting out of his lack of tanning skills.

I will second this. I went to Alabama for graduate school, and my favorite football road trip was to Oxford to see all the prettiest co-eds. After teaching at another college in Mississippi, I believe Ole Miss has a monopoly on them in-state.

My given name is Robert. All during high school and college, I was called Bob, and I didn't really care for it. When I graduated college, I told my friends that I wished to be called Robert from now on, and introduced myself as Robert to everyone new from then on. But people who knew as me as Bob from back then sometimes still call me that, and it's a bit jarring...

Never dremaed that my given name would somehow become exotic in baseball.

Someone book Bob on ESPN to complain about this disgrace to the game. You can be the face of the Bob Issue, Bob!

I'm the opposite from vortex. I grew up, & am still known, as "Daniel Paul" back home (all young Southern males are required to go by their first & middle names, of course) & "Daniel" to my cousins. I've been "Dan" ever since the day I set foot in college.

(Well, except for "gef," of course, here & at a few other sites.)

"Zach's Yer Uncle!" just sounds wrong.

Someone book Bob on ESPN to complain about this disgrace to the game. You can be the face of the Bob Issue, Bob!

Should I compare the dearth of Bobs to the missile gap or the facetious mine gap in Dr. Strangelove? And would I have to appear with Bob Ley, Bob Uecker and Bob Costas?

It's odd to think that we had a President named Barack before we had a President named Bob....well, considering Dole's campaign in 1996, I can see why.

There was one active MLB Bob last year, Bobby Abreu, whose given name is “Bob” but goes by “Bobby”.

and there's not much help on the way--bref shows only 3 Bob's currently in the minors (Alcombrack, Blevins, and Borchering)

Alcombrack??!!!

We've had no presidents named Steve or Mike, either. Weird.

I will also echo that Ole Miss has the hottest girls. I went to spring break one year in NOLA and my friends and I were blown away by how hot every single Ole Miss girl was.

and there's not much help on the way--bref shows only 3 Bob's currently in the minors (Alcombrack, Blevins, and Borchering)

It seems like BB-ref doesn't let you view more than the first page of search results for the minors. I got the name Bob Stumpo from one of the commenters on TFA.

Should I compare the dearth of Bobs to the missile gap or the facetious mine gap in Dr. Strangelove?

I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious Bobbily fluids.

yet we've a Zachary, a Millard, a Franklin (2 of them), a Ulysses, a Rutherford, a Chester, a Grover (twice), a Woodrow, a Calvin, a Lyndon, and a Barack

(no Davids, either)

Or Donalds.

Or Peters.

(Though we've had a Dick.)

(Sorry -- couldn't help it.)

I just Googled images for Ole Miss girls and realized how old I am.

A first cousin's son (which makes the kid my ... second cousin? first cousin once removed? third uncle? I've awful at these things)

I just go with "nephew." It's not true, but it's simple, and close enough.

Also, "Tanner" is an awesome baseball name.
Definitely not a cruddy one.

the prettiest girls you'll ever see

I used to think this about Ole Miss until I discovered something called "large cities."

a Ulysses

Whose actual birth name was Hiram.

In my 7 years at Florida I've never roadtripped for football out of fear of Texas Chainsaw-style redneckery. I guess I should've made that trip to Ole Miss.

Also, "Tanner" is an awesome baseball name.
Definitely not a cruddy one.

that's good because there are 8 Tanners currently in the minors.

More Tanners than Bobs--what's this world coming to???

Also, "Tanner" is an awesome baseball name.
Definitely not a cruddy one.

That's a good point. The original was the very definition of "ballplayer."

I used to think this about Ole Miss until I discovered something called "large cities."

Yes.
I hear about beautiful women in France, or Italy, or Brazil, but I live in San Francisco: all you gotta do is walk around downtown at lunchtime, and the diversity and frequency of pretty women is... wonderful.

A first cousin's son (which makes the kid my ... second cousin? first cousin once removed? third uncle? I've awful at these things)

That'd be first cousin once removed. I just go with "cousin's son". I think if you don't specify, the first is implied.

I used to think this about Ole Miss until I discovered something called "large cities."

Psh. Counting stats are nice, but Hotness Per Female Percentage is a rate stat where Ole Miss blows Chicago away.

I live in San Francisco: all you gotta do is walk around downtown at lunchtime, and the diversity and frequency of pretty women is... wonderful.

Pretty men, too, I gather. NTTAWWT.

That'd be first cousin once removed. I just go with "cousin's son". I think if you don't specify, the first is implied.

I'm from rural Arkansas & now live in the middle of Alabama. The default implication would be that the cousin & I procreated.

A list of select names from the parliament rolls of 1626. More than a few given names that we have sadly lost over time

Beauchamp St. John
Unton Croke
Sampsen Darrell
Thomas Meautys (cheated there, I just like the last name)
Bevil Grenville
Reginald Mohun
Clipsby Crew
Patricius Curwen Bart
Ignatius Jordan
Harbottle Grimston Sr.
Baptist Hicks
Capell Bedell
Montagu Bertie
Heneage Finch
Framlingham Gawdy
Hamon le Strange
Gervase Clifton
Calcot Chambre
Bulstrode Whitlock
Ambrose Browne
Poynings More
Lancelot Roper
Eubule Thelwall

Psh. Counting stats are nice, but Hotness Per Female Percentage is a rate stat where Ole Miss blows Chicago away.

But hey, don't take our word for it.

Beauchamp St. John
Unton Croke
Sampsen Darrell
Thomas Meautys (cheated there, I just like the last name)
Bevil Grenville
Reginald Mohun
Clipsby Crew
Patricius Curwen Bart
Ignatius Jordan
Harbottle Grimston Sr.
Baptist Hicks
Capell Bedell
Montagu Bertie
Heneage Finch
Framlingham Gawdy
Hamon le Strange
Gervase Clifton
Calcot Chambre
Bulstrode Whitlock
Ambrose Browne
Poynings More
Lancelot Roper
Eubule Thelwall

LSU's next recruiting class in football. Except, of course, that the first names aren't spelled randomly enough.

We've had no presidents named Steve or Mike, either.

There was Grover Cleveland. Can't imagine why someone would prefer "Grover" to "Steve."

Was Reggie Cleveland descended from President Cleveland?

Have there been any Neil & Bob batteries?

Any Chuck and Bob batteries?

And yet CBS has announced that it's releasing Bob Newhart's third (I think) TV series, Bob, on DVD in April. MLB needs to get with the zeitgeist.

At least I had Bob Brenly as my catcher on 9/30/82 in Atlanta for one inning.

There's really nothing wrong with "Bob." It's my dad's name and to an extent (which shrinks every day) my name. I'm "Voros" for no other reason than an accident of circumstances (sort of the same situation as having to apply for jobs as Talking Mongoose Turner). It seems to have worked well for me, but sometimes I feel guilty because I'm afraid my dad thinks I abandoned his name or something.

Funny that family calls me Voros now as often as anything else. Strange turns life takes...

Hey, I'm doing my part.

Me too, rot-13 style!

i wouldn't NEVAH EVAH go to any skool (if i wasn't married and was lookin for males) with a very high HOTTTTTTness per female percentage population.

i personally would go to someplace like MIT or some kind of engineer skool - i mean, pretending i could do any kind of math at all. either that or to some skool with a very high not attractive female percentage. when you are lookin fer love, much better to stand out than just be one of thousands

We've had no presidents named Steve or Mike, either. Weird.

We're too smart to get involved in politics. Just ask Treder.

-- MWE

Yeah, first cousins once removed. Your first cousin's kids are just more first cousins. When your cousin's son has a child, that child will be your first cousin three times removed. Your mother's first cousins are also your first cousins once removed. But if they have kids, they're actually your second cousins. My brain hurts when I try to take it further than that.

I second what Gunnar said in post 42. We get some world-class talent here in San Francisco.

i personally would go to someplace like MIT or some kind of engineer skool - i mean, pretending i could do any kind of math at all. either that or to some skool with a very high not attractive female percentage. when you are lookin fer love, much better to stand out than just be one of thousands

I dunno -- I taught at one of those sort of schools for a couple of years. M:F ratio was about 3:1, and the women there seemed pretty unhappy. Too much attention from strange socially awkward males I think.

Keenyn, Kolten, Jameson, Bryce, Barret, Deck, Kaleb, Kolbrin, Kellin, Asher, Chance, Slade, Tanner, Shooter, Colton, Preston, Kasey, Cole.

- what are the most popular names for White boys born 18-25 years ago (besides Zach/Zack)

you notice the fad for all the names starting with the letter J is pretty much gone

we named our twins old fashioned names from the Old Testament - never in the top 100

my gf is having twin girls in a few months and she's naming them brenda and cheryl so they can have unusual and unique names

Jittery McFrog Posted: January 19, 2012 at 07:55 PM (#4040795)

i personally would go to someplace like MIT or some kind of engineer skool - i mean, pretending i could do any kind of math at all. either that or to some skool with a very high not attractive female percentage. when you are lookin fer love, much better to stand out than just be one of thousands


I dunno -- I taught at one of those sort of schools for a couple of years. M:F ratio was about 3:1, and the women there seemed pretty unhappy. Too much attention from strange socially awkward males I think.

- were the women socially awkward too?

i wonder why so many males who are good with math are socially awkward...

I taught at one of those sort of schools for a couple of years. M:F ratio was about 3:1, and the women there seemed pretty unhappy. Too much attention from strange socially awkward males I think.

This...our ECE undergrad enrollment is now below 9% female, and while the plurality of the males are from the US (and, of course, about as white as one can get -- bbc, please, please, please encourage any young AA males you know to focus on math and science!), there are few non-Asian females. By junior year, the non-Asian women are all engaged or "all but ring" (this was our case) on that path. I used to speculate that this was partly a defense mechanism to avoid all the socially awkward males, but it turns out that a rather high percentage graduate, change from graduation robes to wedding dress, then walk down the aisle. (We waited a whole two months! before doing so. Oddly enough, most of the folks we knew who did this are also still married, 18 years later.) A lot of the rest of the women followed this recipe after a Masters degree.

Of course, then we spent time in the northeast where the girls all seemed focused on avoiding any risk of getting married before they were about 35. *Slight* cultural difference!

And, per a friend from Vicksburg, Ole Miss *REDSHIRTS* Miss Americas....

A list of select names from the parliament rolls of 1626. More than a few given names that we have sadly lost over time

Where is Preserved Fish when we need him?

I hear about beautiful women in France, or Italy, or Brazil, but I live in San Francisco: all you gotta do is walk around downtown at lunchtime, and the diversity and frequency of pretty women is... wonderful.

sorry, but L.A. is so far out in front of anywhere else that its not funny. been here 6 yrs now and the frequency and variety is still astonishing to me ...

Tom T Posted: January 19, 2012 at 10:25 PM (#4040873)


Of course, then we spent time in the northeast where the girls all seemed focused on avoiding any risk of getting married before they were about 35. *Slight* cultural difference!

- what is ECE?

you mean all females in engineering or all females there?

is it a career thing? i don't get it

i am still wondering about the math/socially awkward thingy. looks like the twins don't have any more math ability than Husband and me, so forget that. not sure about little boy, but he CERTAINLY is not socially awkward...

At least all of those made up names were spelled phonetically correct, which is more than you can say for Dwyane Wade or Laveranues Coles.

Well, there is Jaff Decker.

Also:

http://insidelacrosse.com/news/2011/12/19/2012-inside-lacrosse-all-name-team-powered-flow-society

2012 Inside Lacrosse All-Name Team Powered by Flow Society

First team

Wellington Stanwick Fr., A, Johns Hopkins
Westy Hopkins So., A, Notre Dame*
Lachlan Murray Jr., A, RPI
Caldwell Rohrbach Sr., M, Gettysburg*^$
Sander Aplet Fr., M, Denver
Murphy Vandervelde Fr., M, Harvard
Alden Frelinghuysen So., M, St. Lawrence
Krey Keller Jr., F/O, Wagner
Sether Hanson Jr., LSM, Bowdoin
Landon Carr Jr., SSDM, Maryland
Arden Wipf Sr., D, Bellarmine
Draper Donley So., D, Dickinson*
Kessler Brown So., D, Penn State
Baxter Lanius IV Jr., D, Lehigh*^
Brewster Knowlton Sr., G, WNEC*^

Second team

Torin Varn So., A, Hofstra*
Rustin Bryant So., A, Maryland*
Rhett De Pol So., A, Salisbury
Ronjohn Dadd Jr., A, Bucknell*^
Peer Fish So., M, Denver
Ramsey Bates Jr., M, Amherst
Keaton O’Hara Sr., M, Bellarmine*
Grove Stewart Fr., M, Harvard
Cullen Cassidy So., F/O, Hofstra*
Bonsal Brooks Jr., D, Union
Chapin Speidel So., D, Denison
Blaise Fullen Sr., D, Lehigh
Goran Murray Fr., D, Maryland
Fergus Campbell Sr, G, Dartmouth*

Third Team

Anderson Caldwell Sr., A, VMI
Campbell Puckett Fr., A, Quinnipiac
Forest Sonnenfeldt So., A, Princeton*^
Brady Haseltine So., A, Mercyhurst
Tor Reinholdt Jr., M, Limestone*^
Nils Thompson Jr., M, Bryant*^
Coleman Koesterer Sr., M, Hofstra*
Lawton Salley Sr., M, Bowdoin
Bennett Dee Jr., D, C.W. Post*^
Breck Merritt So., D, Endicott
Dayton Gilbreath Sr., D, Air Force*^
August Remian Jr., D, Vermont
Conley Cummings So., G, Endicott

holy ****

and you check out the women's names? KYLE? GABE??? seriously wtf???

and White people think we give our kids funny names????

were the women socially awkward too?

Not particularly, as far as I could tell. Other than being disproportionately Asian, the female student population there seemed like college students anywhere else. Of course, as a socially awkward male I may not be the best judge of such things...

i wonder why so many males who are good with math are socially awkward...

Likely because they were in their basements studying math all the time instead of being out around others and developing social skills.

dock

wondering why they didn't ask all the other math guys to cmon over to do math stuff in the basement...

seriously

i can see how grrrls who were great at math/engineering were dorx BITGOD because grrrls wasn't supposed to be able to do stuff more difficult that sewing or singing or lifting tea cups or changing diapers/cleaning floors etc, but why are/were males who are engineers/math experts socially awkward?

but why are/were males who are engineers/math experts socially awkward?
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I guess because math isn't a particularly social activity? I mean I guess you can have friends over and work on some calculus, but I would think it would be mostly silent work. Though science I can see being a bit more social. Everyone works in lab groups and so on.

I think there's also an element of the gender roles you describe effecting girls. Being really good at football or baseball or hockey affords you more opportunity to develop your social skills. Not just because you're on a team, but because if you screw up a social situation you're more likely to get another chance later.

It's probably also an issue of how broad interest is in a subject. If you know a lot about math it's probably the subject you're most comfortable talking about. I'd guess for teenagers the topics with the widest appeal would be music, TV and movies, sports (for guys anyway). My comfort areas for conversation were music (while I was in high school in the late 90s, I was into early 90s rock, so this one was mildly useful within a relatively small group), baseball (in Canada it was a bit of a niche sport, though I did have a few baseball friends) and history (no dice). So I think given my circumstances I turned out a little more socially awkward than one would expect.

It could just be coincidence. The skills necessary to excel at math and science just happen to coincide with characteristics that make socializing difficult.
Which could manifest itself in preferences. When I was a kid my favourite activities were sometimes social - playing basketball or hockey on the street with the other neighbourhood kids,
But often inherently unsocial - digging through atlases to get information for various historical simulation games I was trying to invent. Or drawing the flags of all the nations of the world. Or trying to recreate the Battle of Verdun with lego. Now I suppose there's no reason why these CAN'T be social/group activiities. But when you're a kid you're not really thinking about improving your social skills, the point is just to have fun. And with these kinds of things it was just simpler to do on your own. Too many cooks in the kitchen can ruin a delicately constructed game. Also when you're socially awkward to begin with it can be a relaxing haven to have something you can do all alone.

EDIT: I actually did once hang out with a friend and did calculus with him. He gave me a guitar in return! Best tutoring job ever. (I mean for me. In terms of quality I'm pretty sure I did a terrible job teaching him anything)

There are currently 10 guys named Matt playing QB in the NFL. I can't remember the last Bob.

There are currently 10 guys named Matt playing QB in the NFL. I can't remember the last Bob.

Bob Sanders. Also don't forget Bobby Hebert.

There are currently 10 guys named Matt playing QB in the NFL. I can't remember the last Bob.

Gagliano? *checking* Yep. I guess that's another data point in favor of the argument that I spent way too much watching and thinking about the USFL.

If you count Bobbys, Hebert (USFL!) and Hoying appear to be the most recent.

Don't forget Bobby Hebert.

It's a fun name to pronounce. Try and say it. Hebert.

what are the most popular names for White boys born 18-25 years ago (besides Zach/Zack)

this site gives the most popular baby names for every year going back to 1879

and the loss of Bobs is not a statistical illusion:

popularity of Robert
1930 1st
1940 2nd
1950 2nd
1960 5th
1970 5th
1980 9th
1990 13th
2000 29th
2010 54th

L.A. is so far out in front of anywhere else that its not funny

I hear USC is rather whiplash-inducing. And their quarterback is named Matt.

I hear USC is rather whiplash-inducing. And their quarterback is named Matt.

Maybe that's why he's staying. The scenery in Los Angeles >>>> the scenery in Cleveland.

My given name - Joseph - has to be one of the most consistent names. For the past 50 years it has bounced between 7 and 20, with low teens being the far and away most constant.

And there is very likely a brain structure linkage between the math/social awkward thing. A whole pile of kids on the autism spectrum love math/engineering. I suspect because it makes sense to them (unlike people, for example). My eldest is "on the spectrum" and very good at math. My youngest though is not and even better at math. I am very good at it, but most of my family can barely calculate percents (seriously I get calls on this asking for help every couple of years).

The brain is a wonderful and complex thing, like most Bobs!

There are currently 10 guys named Matt playing QB in the NFL.

The Rockies' bullpen is awash in Matts. They had 217 game appearances by pitchers named Matt last year, which has to be the record.

sorry, but L.A. is so far out in front of anywhere else that its not funny.

You're being bamboozled. To quote the Prophet, "Those silicone parts are made for toys."

It is true that Ole Miss girls are pretty, but it's almost offset by how insufferable most of them are. It's a tricky calculus. Now Montreal...there's your city for pretty women.