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I have a very bipartisan name

According to the Washington Post, here is the partisan lean for all men in the US with names that start with "Ke":

I'm pleased to note that Kevin is the most bipartisan name of the bunch, leaning only slightly Republican.

Oddly, Kenneth is +14 Republican while Kenny is -15 Democratic. Apparently there's something Republican about insisting on using your full name.

15 thoughts on “I have a very bipartisan name

  1. Yehouda

    "... all men in the US.."

    The note to the figure says it is from 35 states (that report party affiliation). The other 15 states don't have men with name starting with "Ke"?

  2. Josef

    I was thinking who would name their child Kelvin?
    In the US, Kelvin caught on as a first name in the 1950s – no doubt influenced by Kevin."
    Then there's this.
    "Kelvin is a masculine given name, ultimately derived from the title of William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, who received a baronage named for the River Kelvin."
    Go figure.

      1. Josef

        No clue. I don't think I've ever encountered the name in my personal life. That's why I googled it to see if people really named their kids Kelvin.

  3. skeptonomist

    The graphs are apparently in percentage points of the name in question. It would be more meaningful if it were in absolute numbers, or fractions of total population. How many Kelvins are there? On the other hand there are lots of Kevins and we might be alarmed if they were leaning the wrong. If the Johns were leaning it would probably have very serious electoral implications.

  4. JesseD

    Men are +6 Repub on average...so "Kevin" apparently is just about a typical male name in this respect.

    My guess about "Kelvin" (especially) and "Kenny" is those tend to be Black men.

    Gender and race probably explain the vast majority of the differentials.

  5. bad Jim

    Jim is far more Republican than James. On the other hand (yes, I'm still holding my big sister's hand), Pamela is more Democratic than Pam.

  6. bouncing_b

    I happen to be friends with a Kelvin. Yes, born in the 50s.

    But the problem here is that we (Kevin) are comparing percentages of names that have wildly varying numbers of “owners”. Some of these results - like the -61 for Kelvin - are meaningless statistics of small numbers. Not usefully comparable to any of the others, unless the total number of each is specified.

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