[name]Pam[/name] and [name]Linda[/name] mentioned the idea of a competition for getting an advance copy of their new book that is coming out in a few months. I thought of one, and it has to do with making predictions on the SSA 2008 popularity list (which will probably be released around Mother’s [name]Day[/name]).
No one is to play until [name]Pam[/name] or [name]Linda[/name] post their approval of the game. The game will close whenever the SSA releases the list. For this game use the list as the SSA will post it, with no adjustments for spelling variations.
The primary part of the game is to predict what the top 5 names for each gender will be. Here’s how the scoring will go (the lower your score the better):
If you correctly guess a name and it’s in the proper rank, you get no points.
If you correctly guess a name, but have it in the wrong rank you get 1 point for each rank you’re off (e.g. if you guess a name at #2 when it’s actually #3 or vice versa, you get a point. If you guess a name to be #5 when it’s #2 or vice versa, that’s 3 points. Note that transposing two or more names will result in points for each name involved).
Guessing a name to be in the top 5 that is not there will result in 5 points.
The score for each gender will be totaled together for the overall score.
The minimum possible score is 0 points (perfectly guessing all top 5 names and ranks for both genders). The maximum possible score is 50 points (all top 5 guesses for both genders not in the top 5). The member with the lowest score will get an advance copy of BA&A. If there is a tie for the lowest score, the tiebreaker question mentioned below will be applied (you should go ahead and give a response to it in case it has to be applied). If there’s still a tie afterwards, then everyone involved at that point gets a copy of BA&A.
Tiebreaker question: Based on the ratio of the number of babies of each gender given the name, what will be the most unisex name of 2008 among the top 1,000 names (i.e. the one with the closest gender ratio in either direction)? If there’s a tie in the main part of the game, the one(s) who responded with the closest unisex name given by those who play will win.