The Sex and the City name game: Are you really a Carrie?

Book of Odds

What are the chances Carrie could find a man who really is named Mr. Big?

Just about one in a million-1 in 992,400.

The odds are much higher a person shares her own last name, Bradshaw. Those odds are 1 in 6,787. As for Samantha Jones, the odds on her surname are an astronomical 1 in 203.2.

But remember those t-shirts, "I'm a Carrie"? The odds a woman will advertise herself as a "Samantha" are 1 in 14.29, compared to 1 in 1.27 (37%) for Carrie. The demure Charlotte is a close second with 1 in 2.94 women choosing to identify with her. Miranda? 1 in 4.55 women say they are most like her.

But what if you really are a Samantha? Those odds have been dramatically increasing, from 1 in 796.8 in 1970, right around the time the fictional Ms. Jones would have been born, to 1 in 185.7 for someone born in 2008, the year the Sex and the City movie was released.

Not so for the odds of actually being a Carrie. Those odds peaked around 1970, at 1 in 368.2, up from 1 in 1,812 in 1950. By 2000, the odds had dropped to 1 in 3,731, and by 2008 Carrie had fallen to 1,000th place on the Social Security list of most popular names-ranking below Maryjane, not to mention Sky, Princess, and Tiara.

But rest assured. There are still plenty of boys who carry Mr. Big's real first name. The odds of being named John? As of 2008, those odds were 1 in 163.9.

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Posted By: Rosalind Wright

IStock Photo 3179557 © John Helgason