Help Wanted: Saint Patrick's Namesake Survey

On a scale of one to ten - "1" indicating very little and "10" indicating nearly insatiable - where would you place yourself with respect to innate curiosity?

Like many people, I'm very curious about things that interest me and egotistically curious about myself. But when placing myself on a one to ten continuum of innate curiosity about everything, I'm obliged to allow myself no more than a "5" or perhaps "6", on a good day. Once again, Saint Patrick lands on the bell curve.

That aside, I'm invariably perplexed when I ask someone the reason their parents chose their first name and the person has no answer. How does something so basic to a person's identity as a name escape the innate curiosity of even those who would give themselves a "1" on that scale? I suppose I can understand if a David or a Linda is not curious. But if your name were Sebastian or Tara, wouldn't you want to know where your unusual moniker came from?

In my wholly unscientific and admittedly informal - but long running - survey, I would estimate more than 50% of the people whose names struck me as unusual have not been able to give me any reason why they were so named. Try this, using your own definition of unusual, and see if your survey matches mine. Then, report back here and let others know how well - or not - our results coincide.