Wolfram|Alpha bills itself as a “computational engine,” whatever the hell that is, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun! One feature W|A has is the ability to show you demographic information on a name. For example, let’s look at the given name Damien:

Here’s how W|A can be used to figure out a problem. Author John Sandford just came out with Wicked Prey, the latest in his long-running series of crime novels featuring Det. Lucas Davenport. Probably one of the worst in the series, unfortunately, despite Sandford going to the trouble of tying the story to a real world event for the first time, last year’s Republican National Convention. Anyhoo, a lot of the novel deals with Davenport’s adopted daughter Letty, and at one point Letty hangs out with some of her friends from school. What are the names of the freinds? Sandford name checks kids named John, Harry, Sally, and Frank. Let’s put those names into W|A and see what we get. Rather than the popularity of the names, let’s look at the age distribution of people who have those names today:

All those peaks are at 63-years old. How old is John Sandford? He’s 65.

I’d estimate that, assuming a class of hundred people, Letty’s chances of being in a class with a Harry, Sally, Frank and John is about 0.008%.