There was a section in Freakonomics about this. Most of that chapter is available here. http://www.slate.com/id/2116449/ http://www.slate.com/id/2116449/ An em

There was a section in Freakonomics about this. Most of that chapter is available here. http://www.slate.com/id/2116449/ http://www.slate.com/id/2116449/ An empirical study concluded that "black" names had no effect; it was background. On the other hand, it's only people with a certain kind of background that name their kid "Shaniqua" (middle class blacks usually adopt generic North American naming standards). So I'm not sure if that contradicts your point.