| Thanks for making this an Editor's Pick! @Suse, I understand your concerns. What Chocolatl says is correct. Most SS numbers are now assigned shortly after birth, the forms are filled out by parents rather than the name bearer, and nicknames are rarely used. Also, when Sporcle name quizzes use SSA as a source (most of them do), there is an understanding that the data is not perfect. It is not edited and contains spelling errors, gender coding errors, and other problems, but it is the best we have. Yes, many of the "Joes" recorded there were really named Joseph at birth, and so forth for the other short forms, but not all of them were. Since there is no way to determine how many were birth names and how many were not, it's best to leave the list as it is. |