This is quite a gem:
Jose is again the top boy’s name for babies born in Texas in 2007, evidence, as one approving blogger puts it, “that decades of Hispanic immigration has fundamentally changed this state’s character.” Did anyone ask Texans if, you know, they wanted to fundamentally change the state’s character? (You can search by state and year here.)
Why, those bastards. I bet no one asked Texans if they wanted to get older every day, but lo and behold, it is happening! This remark is so revealing, as it really shows you the modern conservative mindset- “THINGS ARE CHANGING AND IT SCARES ME TO DEATH! What can the government do to stop this?”
At any rate, I looked up WV and the surrounding states, and one name stuck out as exceedingly popular- Jacob.
It is #1 in WV, KY, and Ohio, #2 in PA and VA, and #4 in Maryland. Just seems like a whole lot of Jacobs, and there is pretty clearly a generational component to names. Jacob did not break the top ten in names in Kentucky until 1991, Ohio in 1992, West Virginia in 1993, Virginia in 1995, and Maryland and Pennsylvania in 1996.
Interesting, although I have no idea what it means, and I did not go through all fifty states, so I have no idea if this is a regional thing. I will bet there is a thesis for someone in there somewhere.
For the record, Jacob’s Ladder was released in 1990.
*** Update ***
BTW- The name Jose has been #1 in Texas since 1992, suggesting clearly the “problem” is worse than we thought.
Rick Massimo
So now the “conservative” position is that all baby names must go to a referendum? Or should a certain number of babies be renamed if the aggregate paints a picture they don’t like?
Conservatism is so awesome!
cleek
and 90 is, according to my exhaustive search (87,88,89,90,91) is the first year Jacob cracks the top 20
Genine
I like the name Jacob. I’ve always been partial to “J” names for boys for some reason.
lutton
Jake Plummer’s career at AZ State spanned the mid-90’s.
Coincidence?
Apsaras
I’m a fan of the not-so-subtle distinction drawn that hispanic immigrants are not to be counted among real Texans who must be subjected to the indignities of Tostada stands and pressing 1 for English.
I hope you know this is only going to get worse. For years, we’ve seen projections that “white” people would become a minority in half a century or so. This news was received by Bill O’Reilly with thanks that he’d be dead by then, on air even. Get ready for full-scale freakouts once the children of these immigrants start demanding political representation. For the Republican party, which conciders the name “Juan” a perjorative to be applied to border fence apostates like their presidential nominee, the future isn’t looking very white. Er, bright.
Tom Hilton
That’s better than what happened in the early 19th century, when decades of dumbass Gringo slaveholder immigration fundamentally changed the character of Texas. Now that was worth getting upset about.
Remember the Alamo: kill a Texan!
cbear
Hmmm, that is interesting. I would have thought that a name with “cob” in it might bring back, er, uncomfortable memories for those god-fearing mountain folk.
Live and learn.
Krista
Brings a whole new meaning to the term “nanny state”, doesn’t it?
Cyrus
I read a SF novel once where that was part of the background. It was set in the year 2050 or so, and the main character was a Hispanic political consultant, who had an unfortunate habit of prejudice against anglos. He couldn’t help it, you know, they tend to be so violent.
jake
IRTMSYDHT doesn’t quite cover dreck like this or DhimmiDonutsGate. You need a new tag. Allow me to suggest “Scraping their knuckles on the bottom of the outrage barrel.”
b-psycho
Who says that Jose must mean they’re hispanic?
Not everyone limits themselves based on race. There’s black guys named “Carlos” walking around, after all…
Regardless of whether or not one likes it, the concept of a border is artificial, and that fact has to inform any realistic policy concerning one. There’s pragmatic reasons for reform, I’m not delusional enough to think that just dropping it is an option right now, but in the long run this paranoid assumption that crossing an imaginary line = smacking mom in the face w/ the apple pie & then skeetin’ on the flag has to stop.
Dreggas
Obama nails McCain again
TheFountainHead
Oh noes!! It’s going to be like Los Angeles EVERYWHERE!!
4tehlulz
Protip: Taking over parts of Mexico leads to many citizens named Jose, even generations after the takeover.
TLB
I realize the schtick around here is to throw out some red meat, but perhaps John Cole – someone who I think is an actual professor – might consider offering a more grown-up rejoinder, if he can think one up. He can start by realizing that aging and allowing massive immigration are not the same, since the latter is man-made and is not a natural process. Then, continuing with the same attempt to be as grown-up as possible, Cole could look at the forces that caused the current situation. Then, he could ask whether people have a right to maintain their state’s character, or whether forced changes are OK.
Of course, I don’t expect him to be able to do that.
Grumpy Code Monkey
There are a lot of ways I wouldn’t mind changing the fundamental character of Texas. In the kind of stuff that matters (education, health care, etc.) we’re always near the bottom. We’re #1 when it comes to executing the mentally retarded though, so yay us.
I grew up here, and there’s a lot I love about the state, but frankly, we’re pretty fucked up. Thank God for Florida; as long as they’re around, we’re not the most retarded state in the union.
RSA
One of the chapters in Freakonomics has a nice discussion of baby names and the way they change over time. Roughly speaking, an incomplete answer is that the names chosen by upper class people percolate down, over a decade or so, toward the lower classes. (I don’t know how these trends start, but Levitt and Dubner are just looking at changes over time, if I recall correctly.) No regional analysis, though, again if I remember correctly.
Mustard is Evil
Texas, like the rest of the country, is full of a bunch of Joses regulares…
How soon until we see, with regularity, “No Molesta con Tejas.”
(Too lazy to use punctuaccion correcta.)
bostondreams
We are expecting our first child in about a week (yay!), and have no idea if it will be a boy or a girl (my wife’s idea. yay.). If it’s a boy, I want Jacoby as the name. My wife, however, is refusing to name the child after my favorite Red Sox player, alas.
Rich
There is an interesting Java tool at the Baby Name Wizard that allows you to view the popularity of names over time (but not state by state):
http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager
It is fascinating to me to see the slow decline of names like Mary and the sudden rise of trendy names like Madison or Neveah (‘Heaven’ spelled backwards). Sometimes even political names are given to kids (see the peaks of Roosevelt popularity).
Aldorossi
Jacob, hmmmm….?
Sounds Jewish to me.
Of course now that conservative Christians love them some Jews (Oh, didn’t you hear? We were aquitted of killing Jesus?), I guess that’s not as dire as the whole Jose thing.
And, after all, as Pastor Hagee reminds us, us Jews will get ours when Israel is destroyed in the apocalypse and we either love us some Jesus or end up in hell. I don’t know if we can say the same for “Jose”, being Catholic and all.
Oh wait, Pastor Hagee? Catholics? I think I’m confused now.
patroclus
Soy de Tejas. Hay de mi!
RSA
Maybe you could do an end run: Jacob Yale Bostondreams. . .
Grover Cleveland
John – the economic “migration” of names is discussed in Freakanomics. In general, they contend that names move down the socio-economic ladder over time and often gain in popularity while doing so. So the Brittanys, Ambers and Heathers of today were rich white girl names back in the 70’s and 80’s. Interesting stuff.
The baby name wizard is pretty cool too.
http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager
cbear
Uh, no.
Try and remember that we, you know, actually voted for Gore in 2000.
Unless, of course, you want to make the argument that deliberately disenfranchising 20,000+ minority voters, and faulty optical ballot machines that switched votes, and 3000 Jews voting for Buchanan, weren’t in play that year.
BTW, how many votes did Bush win Texas by, numbnuts?
Grover Cleveland
RSA was there first! Jacob is thought to be part ofhis phenomenon. Very popular now and more exclusively and weathier name probably 10 to 15 years ago.
JGabriel
Rick Massimo:
That’s silly. Obviously the ‘conservative’ position is that anyone who names their baby ‘Jose’ should be deported.
.
Lee
Those that say that this is a change of the character of Texas have never studied Texas or lived in Texas.
Mexican influence in Texas has always been strong. I’ve grown up in Texas and lived in all the major areas of Texas,except for the Pandhandle, for extended periods of time. The least influence of Mexican culture is in East Texas. You cannot escape the influence of Mexican culture anywhere in Texas.
As a side note, what makes San Antonio so interesting is the strong influence of the Mexican culture along with the German culture from central Texas.
Should Know Better
That ugly implication seems to underly a lot of cryptoracist positions. Anything non Anglo-Saxon is by implication not American and invasive.
I’ve noticed it’s a common meme; although I was born and raised outside the US and only one of my parents was born here I am assumed to be a regular American where lots of non-white friends are assumed to be foreign in some way, even though they have the whole cultural context of American high school and college and so on that I only know through movies and TV.
JGabriel
TLB:
That depends on whether you think “changing the current situation” that Jose is a popular name is a complaint worth taking seriously.
Most grown-ups wouldn’t.
.
SnarkyShark
Here’s the money shot
Spank
Win!
PaminBB
So, if all those babies in TX were named Jacob instead of Jose, all would be well with the world? I’m guessing no.
binzinerator
That’s what William F. Buckley Jr. said conservatism was about. Or as he put it, “standing athwart history, yelling ‘Stop'”.
Ironically, conservatives decided radical government intervention was necessary to prevent any miscegenation of the future with change, and angrily demanded government-funded abortions of reality when it became obvious their radical social experimentation would produce something twisted, corrupt, inhuman and evil.
patroclus
Once upon a time, there was a young Hispanic immigrant named Jose, who although familiar with beisbol, had never seen a live major league game in his new country. He decided one noche to go to the Ballpark in Arlington to catch a Ranger game, but it was sold-out and all he could afford was an SRO ticket and the only place he could find to stand was WAY out in left field next to Bob Uecker. Uecker, as usual, was purchasing cervezas prior to the game and when he reached his seat in the first inning, he asked if Jose was enjoying himself even though he wasn’t in the front row. Jose replied: “Mr. Uecker, these Americanos are so nice – before the game they all stood up and sang “Jose can you see.”
Dreggas
Snarky,
I thought the moneyshot was about McShitstain holding a fundraiser with bush behind closed doors “hat in hand”
rawshark
I say no. That right could never be exercised without infringing on someone else’s other rights.
kwAwk
If you follow the links you’ll find out that Jose has been the most popular boys name in Texas for 12 consecutive years.
Some conservative blogger or another is a bit slow on the uptake.
patroclus
12 consecutive [email protected]!! No way Jose!
John Cole
So how do you plan to “maintain the culture” of the state? Ban the name Jose?
cleek
next thing you know, people in Texas will start giving their cities, rivers and mountain ranges Mexican names!
Jose
Honestly, I think this has more to do with there just not being very many Spanish names. My wife and are trying to come up with some original Spanish names for our soon to be son, and it’s pretty hard.
You just can’t get away with naming your kid Destiny or Apple in Spanish.
Seitz
Maybe if Jesus was the most popular name in Texas it would be better. Than the Hispanics and Jesus freaks would be happy.
Of course completely lost on the conrnerites is what it would have been like if we’d had the internet 400 years ago, when the most popular name on for male babies on the Eastern Seaboard changed from Runs With Fox to John. I mean, did anyone ask all those Native Americans if they wanted to fundamentally change the continent’s character?
stickler
PaminBB:
Actually, for these wingnuts, all those babies being named “Jacob” would be fine. If, however, half of them were named “Jakob,” that would be a problem. For about half of the wingnuts. The others would applaud the rise in über-names among our national Volk.
Should Know Better
What culture is being maintained anyway? Are we picking demographics for a given year and establishing quotas thereafter? X many children per race/combination of races? Increases and decreases in breeding rates to be approved by referendum? Are non-Texan Americans from other states allowed in?
An what in the world is a ‘forced’ change? Are nice WASPS being indoctrinated into La Raza and finding changelings in their cribs?
Martin
I wonder what percentage of Texas latinos are from non-immigrant lineages? My google-fu failed on that one. My understanding is that it’s a pretty significant percentage.
TLB: The problem about ‘character’ questions is that they are wholly subjective. Ultimately, such questions are resolved in favor of those with the greatest power to enforce their notion of character – invariably white/male/protestant/wealthy with various regional influences by Irish, German, Dutch, etc.
And the immigration problem is hardly a problem in any ideological sense. 95% of us trace our path to this country through the same immigration of poor-ass individuals seeking a better future. But the current immigration climate was set by the people most pissed off by it – by the GOP. Reagan wanted open borders. Being from CA, he understood the benefits of cheap labor and cheap labor was good in his efforts to undermine the unions.
Doesn’t exactly sound like Tancredo or the Mittster, does it?
KRK
Maybe the popularity of Jacob is the result of those states’ dominant evangelical Protestant populations coming face to face with the huge professional wrestling phenomenon that began with Wrestlemania in 1985.
Parents-to-be in these states realized that there was no better way to show their love for God (awesome) and wrestling (also awesome) than to name their sons after the guy who wrestled God and won, i.e., Jacob.
In other words:
Biblical knowledge & enthusiasm + wrestling popularity = boys named Jacob.
Or it might have been something else.
SnarkyShark
No, that was the implausible plot, horrible acting, and cheesy music. Its teh embarrassment you feel after your own money shot when you realize you are watching porno because you can’t get a date.
Not that I would know about such things.
protected static
Sometimes, there are troughs.
For the last 100 years, Carter has wandered up and down the bottom half of the top 1000 – it dropped out of the top 1000 completely in 1978-1979 (go figure) – and then bounced back to its former place in the bottom for the ’80s & ’90s. It was rehabilitated in 1995, breaking into the 400s, but it didn’t really take off until 2001 or so. Now it’s in the top 100…
(See? It only took W a year to rehabilitate Carter’s image in a way not even Clinton could.)
kc
We should all have a say in this. I mean, nobody ever asked me if it was okay to name their little girls “Taylor” or “Blake” either, and I just don’t think that’s fair.
libarbarian
Forced?
Where are the Persian Masters who are whipping their Mexican slaves into battle with the 300 Texans at the Alamo?
Who exactly is “forcing” them across our border?
RSA
From an Anglo perspective, the existence of Tex-Mex cuisine suggests that battle for the the state’s
puritycharacter was lost decades ago.Otherwise, in addition to Martin’s comment about the subjective nature of “character”, there’s the obvious point that the “character” of a geographical region where people are constantly moving in and moving out isn’t really under the control of anyone or any group in the region. I might as well say that I’m unhappy with the mix of colors of cars in Manhattan–I want more red!
Grumpy Code Monkey
Yo, cbear, chill; all I’m saying is we have someone to share the distinction with. Y’all banned Truck Nutz; we’re trying to ban cheerleading.
And occasionally New Mexico gets into the act (fighting DWI with talking urinal cakes).
Bubblegum Tate
I was wondering that myself. I assume there must be rogue gangs of swarthy Latin males roaming the halls of various maternity wards, holding mothers at gunpoint and forcing them to name their children Jose.
Or maybe those babbling about “forced change” are just a bunch of fucking idiots.
The Other Andrew
As someone living in Montana (they just started the Hillary radio ads–yikes, they’re bad), I’m not look forward to the day when the right figures out which language “Montana” is from.
The Moar You Know
This may be the most laughably fucktarded thing I’ve ever read in my entire life. Who’s doing the “forcing”, supergenius?
Chester
There’s all this talk about the Mexicans in the US, but absolutely none about all the Canadians who live in the US, walking amongst us undetected! Shania Twain, Pamela Anderson, Brian Williams, Michael J. Fox, Neil Young, Jim Carrey, Keanu Reeves, Matthew Perry, Kim Cattrall, Donald Sutherland, Tommy Chong (of Cheech and Chong), and even Shannon Tweed. Yes, Gene Simmons’ (quasi)wife. They got to KISS too!
If only they named their kids with names that sounded different, then we’d realize just how serious the threat from the north is as well. Its amazing we aren’t being forced to eat poutine with every meal already. Already they’ve got hockey teams in places where it doesn’t even snow. Our American culture is doomed.
slippytoad
It really is sad that someone could write an article like this and not immediately have a white sheet and hood stapled to them for life.
cleek
or the origin of the name of that state between Arizona and Texas…
The Grand Panjandrum
Hey, now! We love us some talking urinal cakes out here in the high desert. But, it is a little disconcerting when it starts giggling after you whip it out.
de Selby
The first documented European in Texas was Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca. (his last name means “Head of the Cow”, which I dearly love)
There have been Mexicans here ever since, though the given name “Alvar” seems to have fallen out of fashion since the early 1500’s.
If you’re not used to it by now, you never will be. I feel sorry for you, whoever you are.
J. Michael Neal
Gah! I have no problem with being surrounded by the swarthy, but if Minneapolis becomes like LA, I’m going to have to emigrate.
One of the problems with global warming is that three straight weeks where it doesn’t get above zero degrees is an effective way to keep Californians from moving here.
Bubble Burst
Huh? “Jose is again the top boy’s name for babies born in Texas in 2007” Nothing has Changed!
Mike G
This remark is so revealing, as it really shows you the modern conservative mindset- “THINGS ARE CHANGING AND IT SCARES ME TO DEATH!
“Look! It’s the two symbols of the Republican Party! An elephant, and a big, fat white guy who’s afraid of change!” — Family Guy
buford puser
Good thing for the Repubs that Jose has only been the most popular boy’s name since 1992; all those kids are too young to vote.
I wonder if any kids named Jose were born in 1990 or before? _They_ can vote this year.
Demographic freight trains sure are a bitch.
Jess
Geez–we live in a multicultural society, and always have. Get over it, or move to Scotland or Uzbekistan or something. What a whiner.
grumpy realist
Ah, yes, the incessant whine of dilution of cultural and “native” purity leading to degeneration and despair.
Two hundred years ago they were screaming about the Germans and the other non-English speakers, one hundred and fifty years ago there were fulminations about The Yellow Peril, one hundred years ago the fulminations were about the Irish and the Eastern Europeans (not to mention Those Damned Wops)….
Yawn. If the Hispanics are patient with us, I guarantee within 50 years we’ll have adapted to them quite nicely and will be looking for another harmless ethnic group to lash ourselves into a rage about.
After all, it’s an American Tradition….
The Local Crank
I, too, am opposed to all this involuntary character-changing by immigrants and I demand all you white people change your kids’ names to something more acceptable, like Cornsilk, Pathkiller, Hanging Maw, Drowning Bear, Sixkiller, Hummingbird, Rattling Gourd or Doublehead. Howa!
Glocksman
Bleh..
On one hand, this kind of cultural bullshit is simply ridiculous.
On the other hand, I’ve seen and experienced firsthand the effect of a flood of illegals has on blue collar wages (hint: it’s not positive).
Most of the illegals I work with are decent people as individuals.
However, their presence in the area produces a surplus of labor that holds my wages (which weren’t that high to begin with) down.
Now tell me why I or any other blue collar worker should be so accepting of illegal aliens in the workforce?
Glocksman
Though I will add that the smell in the lunchroom when the Hispanics (both legal and illegal) heat up their meals is simply mouthwatering. :)
Cain
You don’t, I guess. My solution would be to fix our policy towards Mexico. Illegal labor started happening after NAFTA was enacted it seems. Something has happened to the farms and factories that are forcing people to immigrate over the border to the point that they are risking their collective lives. Something isn’t right. I haven’t done enough research, but something isn’t on the up and up and I’m thinking we’re doing something here in combination with the wretch of a government they have in Mexico.
That said, once we do smash the illegal labor problems everything is going to start going up. Fruits and vegetables will definitely go up. I know in Washington and Oregon, they are forced to use illegals to pick the fruits. Without them, there isn’t anybody to the job.
But yeah, those guys are all decent people who are honest. You have to admire that ethic.
cain
Lee
That would not even be remotely correct. Labor has been crossing the border since a border was created except for maybe during WW2.
dslak
Indeed, but there has been a statistically significant uptick in the people crossing and their background (e.g., more corn farmers) since NAFTA was enacted.
It’s a heartless process, but Americans didn’t really care much about the fallout until illegal immigrants began crossing over in droves and driving down their wages. I would hope that one result of this is that people will recognise the many desultory effects of “free-market” capitalism, but I won’t hold my breath.
jibeaux frmrly Jen
Jose is a nice name. If we could do something to convince all those upwardly mobile middle-class white people trying to give their kids allegedly sophisticated names that actually sound either like dog names, hotel chains, or the name of the butler in an Emma Thompson movie, now then I would be behind that.
scott
I’m just wondering if we asked the Native Americans if they wanted to fundamentally change their region’s character when all them Europeans started arriving.