Powerful tangent, stolen from Dan Knoepfle posting at Quora: ============= What's in a Surname? The Effects of Surname Initials on Academic Success, Journa

Powerful tangent, stolen from Dan Knoepfle posting at Quora: ============= What's in a Surname? The Effects of Surname Initials on Academic Success, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(1), Winter 2006, 175-188 (available here: http://www.stanford.edu/~leinav/pubs/JEP2006.pdf http://www.stanford.edu/~leinav/pubs/JEP2006.pdf) In short, they find that it's better to have a name starting with a letter early in the alphabet, and that authors with names starting with letters late in the alphabet are less likely to collaborate with more than one other person (and end up in the et alia part of the citation). ============== When I was a kid, I new a friend's dad who spoke of the important of marrying well: into a higher position in the alphabet. Miss Z~~~~~ would have no trouble improving her lot in life.