The Google Gender Guesser

AND the offbeat Google applications keep rolling on. Geoff's Amazing Gender Guesser uses the Google API to search Google for patterns based on a name you submit. An API key is optional, and it's available at http://cgi.sfu.ca/~gpeters/cgi-bin/pear/gender.php .

I entered Herbie. GGG guessed that Herbie is a boy's name and said, "Based on popular usage, it is 4.356 times more common for Herbie to be a boy's name." It also gave me some stats on the popularity of the name Herbie and provided links to a couple of "famous, dead people" named Herbie.

That's fun, but I kept remembering the famous Laurie Anderson question from the song "Smoke Rings": "Que es mas macho, Pineapple o knife?" According to GGG, "pineapple" is a girl's name, and "knife," a boy's name. So sorry Laurie, in this case knife es mas macho. And what about lightbulb v. schoolbus? In that case Laurie and Google agree: schoolbus (boy's name) es mas macho que lightbulb (girl's name.) Thanks and we'll be back in un momento. Doo doo doo doo doo....

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