What's In A Name?

I was trying to figure out what to post, as I have not written much in a while. While I was considering this, I started absentmindedly assigning numbers to letters, and trying to figure out what I could do with these. As I am a math major, and this blog has contained a disproportionately low amount of math, sadly, I figured I would come up with something related to math to post.

Now, the first idea that came to me before the numbers and letters and math was the idea of what is in a name. I believe that many people consider this to be a first name. What stereotypes are associated with various first names? To me, the meat of the subject is in the last name, your history and what nature has given you. I must admit though that there are merits to both ideas.

So, we have what is in a name. And letters equaling numbers. We have all the necessary tools to do some interesting math.
a  b  c  d  e  f   g   h   i     j   k     l     m    n     o    p    q    r    s    t    u     v    w    x    y     z
1  2  3 4  5  6  7   8   9   10 11   12   13   14  15  16  17  18  19  20 21  22  23   24  25   26

I was considering how to approach creating an idea of using numbers to define what is in a name. Personality characteristics are to intangible to define numerically (at least at my low level of math), but maybe something like precision or accuracy. I figured, lets take a look at the likelihood that a statement someone says is correct based on their name. It must be considered that this should be less than 100% for your average name. So maybe the fraction of your first and last names would help this:

Mark / Richard=43/61=0.705 or 70.5%

Here the value of the name is defined as the summation of each of the values of the letters. So Mark = m + a + r + k = 13 + 1 + 18 + 11 = 43.

I can't tell if that is way too often or not often enough. Either way, a second test that I considered is that there are many names that this model would not follow. I thought instantly of Yao Meng, both a physics TA here at the University and an NBA player:

Yao / Meng = 41/39 = 1.05 or 105%

So this idea was not going to work. 

At this point it is rather clear that it is not letters in general that make a good name. Someone with the name Zzzzzz A would not necessarily be better than someone else. So, I decided to add another rule.

Some of the most successful people seem to have a trend of consecutive vowels in their names (especially French and Asian people). With this idea, I thought that the value of a name changes depending on vowels, which to me seem like the more powerful letters, giving definition and form to a word. So, now if two or more vowels are consecutive, you multiply them. However, a = 1 so that wouldn't positively affect the value, so let's say that if a is being multiplied, a = 2. So now:

Yao does not equal Y + a + o, Yao = Y + a*o = 25 + (2*15) = 55.

Now, simply adding the two names does not seem sufficient to determine an inherent value, as discussed above with the Z A thing. Some other manipulation must occur.

I assume that your first name is indicative of the nurture you are going to receive, and your last name is indicative of the nature you are receiving. As such, the value of first names that contain an apostrophe are deducted 5 "points". 

Let us say that the added value of your nature and nurture is proportional to the amount of valuable, positive experience you expect to gain by adulthood. However, if your nature value is greater than your nurture value, we can expect some conflict as your inherent nature, whether it be your interests or physical condition, are not good for the molding that your nurture wants.

One way I thought to deal with this is to simply divide your nature value by ten, and use that as a percentage change.

In my case, Mark = 43 and Richard = 61. I expect conflict as a result. 

43/10 = 4.3. So to reduce my nurture value, we say 43* (1 - 0.043) = 43*.957 = 41.2

Thus the quality of my experience from being nurtured is reduced by my inherent nature.

So far we have deduced how to roughly, very roughly,  determine the value of the experience you are gaining by analyzing your name. Give it a try!

I plan on continuing this train of thought, but I believe this is a good place to end before we start graphing functions related to our names.

If you made it this far, I congratulate you. This post is a large step from the norm, but I think that it is kind of fun to calculate! I will be back with more later.

The First Day of the Rest of Our Lives

Disclaimer: This initial post on this blog is not consistent with the future mood and content of future posts, nor has this been approved by the aforementioned roommate of mine. Also this is listed under CSE students only as CLA students will not understand it.

So this is it. The first day of the rest of our lives. It's move-in time for college freshmen, and whether we are moving far away or 20 minutes down the road, we are facing a cultural and social change that we have never encountered thus far in our lives.

College is a scary time. New people to meet, professors that will not cater to your every need, and for most of us, it is the first time that we are paying directly for our education. This matters now, and we have to make the most of it.

Some of us are looking for relationships, some have just ended them, and some are dreading moving apart from their significant others. The bittersweet emotions are rampant in our heads, as we try to put up a strong front for our parents. It is crazy and exciting, packing our past 18 years into boxes and heading off to something completely new. We hope to see our good friends from high school again, yet look forward to a new group of people that don't know of your embarrassing and frustrating moments, who you can tell all about your grand accomplishments in high school, and move forward with them through college.

It is a difficult time, this first day that will truly affect us for the rest of our lives. Getting off on the right foot with our roommates, our professors, throwing ourselves into the social scene, doing everything it takes to make the most out of our college experience. But this first day is stressful, it is as close to a new beginning as many people come to. Every moment matters, and that is so scary.

Yet, an important idea to remember is that each day is the first day of the rest of our lives, each day something new can happen. That doesn't mean to wait until tomorrow. Do what you want to do now. But know that this first day in college, your first day in classes, is not the say-all-end-all to the next four years of your life. Each new day offers another experience, another friend to make or concept to grasp. Enjoy these moments, and look forward to each new day as a new beginning from yesterday.