The Name Game

"Oliver and colleagues argue that liberals, consciously or unconsciously, signal cultural tastes and erudition when picking their child’s name. In conversation with me, Oliver used himself as an example. He and his wife, a novelist, named their daughter Esme—a name gleaned from a story by the writer J.D. Salinger.
"On the other hand, conservatives, by being more likely than liberals to pick popular or traditional names (like John, Richard, or Katherine), signal economic capital. That is, they are choosing names traditional to the dominant economic group—essentially, wealthy whites."

John Sides at The Washington Post looks at liberal and conservative patterns in naming babies.