Names

There are frequent surveys that link academic success with have sensible names, and academic failure with having chavvy names.

Yet, namewise, the England football team today lies up: Paul, Luke, James, Steven, John, Sol, David, Francis, Peter, Michael, and Joseph. The only 'unusual' name out of those 'boringly' English names is Sol, which is short for Sulzeer, a name whose origins I would be hesitant to comment upon.

The subsititutes are more exotic: Ledley, Rio, Darren and Jermaine alongside Christopher, Shaun (I don't like that spelling...) and Keiran.

I dread to think what the England team or ten or twenty years will be called. But if names are the key to success, it might well be Paul, Luke, James, Steven etc etc.