Maybe ten years ago or so, the New York Times ran a Sunday Magazine article on a group of parents, I think on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, who worked feverishly to get their children into a particular trendy/spectacular pre-school, on the theory that this pre-school had an excellent track record of placing its children ... at Ivy League institutions, twelve years after its students left the apparently hallowed halls.
Ivy fever lives today. Sarah sent me a post from a blog called "Ask the Name Lady" in which the erstwhile writer sought advice on "what names are likely to get my kids into a top college." You can never start too early, indeed. Sarah's take was that we had doomed Nicholas's chances at Harvard. And, according to the person who sent in the question, had probably also consigned him to a life at an unseemly state university and a job as an assistant to her Harvard-bound children.
But frankly, since the "Name Lady" counseled that one should pay attention to what Ivy Leaguers are naming their children now, and that she found that "the reigning name choices of Ivy League alums are understated antiques," I think Nicholas will be okay. Frankly, Alexander and Henry were on our initial lists too.
Mostly though—and in this case I want to emphasize the point because people don't always understand my humor (or so I'm told)—I find the whole thing rather amusing. As we all know, the only sure-fire way to get one's child into Harvard, Yale, Stanford, or any of the other top-notch universities is to have your names on a building. So if you're not an Adams or Quincy, a Trumbull or Stiles, I would buy a MegaMillions ticket, because Cambridge could always use a new Center for the Study of Whatever Your New-Found Millions Can Support.
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