Economists at Shippensburg University have linked unusual first names with male juvenile delinquency.

Fisticuffs and other troubled youth behavior are often the result of being given an unpopular name, especially if they come from a disadvantaged home environment and low economic strata.

The study, presented at the Canadian Economics Association yearly meeting at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, explained, "Our results show that unpopular names are positively correlated with juvenile delinquencies for both blacks and whites."

Daniel Lee, co-author of the study, added that children with unusual names are often raised by a single parent. Lee clarified to the Canwest News Service, "We're arguing it's not the name per se that causes the juvenile to behave badly, but it's the family background."

The names the study compared with their Popularity Name Indices were: Matthew - 76, Christopher - 64, Ryan - 49, Brian - 30, Richard - 20, Charles - 16, Luke - 5, Walter - 2 and Garland - 0.06.