From the Certified Lover Boys driving Mitsubishi Lancers to the “pabigat” BS Org groupmates, there is a never-ending list of stereotypes plaguing Ateneans. In online discussions (ADMU Freedom Wall, meme pages, Twitter threads—you name it), Miguel and Bea have recently become the face of the typical Atenean. However, with Miguel and Bea being joked about as the quintessential Atenean names, are they actually the most common?
Putting it into perspective
Before we reveal the truth behind Miguel and Bea, some context would help place things into perspective.
First, we obtained a dataset containing LS students’ first names and the school they belong to via request from the Office of the Registrar. We only looked at first names for easier analysis and data privacy. Second, “Ma.” and “Maria” were merged into “Maria”—a widespread naming convention that is already officially recognized. However, all other common names featured in this article were determined using exact matches only.
With these, we’ve found that despite some Atenean names being noticeably common, they do not dominate the LS landscape too much. As demonstrated in Figure 1 below, only 11 percent of the total LS student population share the top 10 common names. Considering that there are a total of 3,137 unique names on record, a significant chunk of LS students don the top 10 most common names, but a high diversity of names still exists.
Figure 1: Percentage of LS Student Population with the Top 10 Common Names
What about Miguel and Bea?
While the name Miguel has become inseparable from the vape-wielding Atenean boy caricature, there is only some truth to the stereotype with it being the fourth most common Atenean first name overall.
Figure 2: Miguels and Beas in LS
Moreover, the findings do indicate that most Miguels hail from the John Gokongwei School of Management (JGSOM), whereas the least number of people with first names being Miguel are found in SOH. The fact that SOH’s population is only a third of the size of the other three schools may explain their smaller share of Miguels.
While the number of Miguels in JGSOM and SOH directly correlates with the number of students in those schools, SOSS is an outlier. The data shows that there are more Miguels in the School of Science and Engineering (SOSE) than in the School of Social Sciences (SOSS)—despite SOSS having a larger population.
On the other hand, Bea is a significantly less popular name in Ateneo as it ranked 44th among all Atenean first names. If you’ve come across any “SOSS Beas,” that stereotype would be somewhat supported by numbers. Among the four schools, most Beas reside in SOSS while the least are in JGSOM. However, their total population in the LS is much smaller than that of the Miguels, as the Miguels outnumber them in every school.
As you can see, there is more truth to the Atenean “Miguel” stereotype than that of the “Bea,” but neither is the most common name in Ateneo.
Will the real most common names please stand up?
Now that the notion of Miguel and Bea being the most popular names in the LS has been debunked, which first names are actually the most common? Well, we found that Maria is the most common female name, as well as the most common first name altogether in the LS. In fact, even if “Ma.” and “Maria” were to be disaggregated in Figure 3, Maria would still hold the top spot among Atenean names.
Figure 3: Top 10 Common Names in the LS
While Sophia and Patricia are the second and third most common female names, respectively, they are further down the list in sixth and seventh place overall.
On the other hand, Jose follows Maria as the second most popular Atenean first name overall and the most popular first name among males. Jose is closely followed by John, with a difference of only five more Joses. Miguel clinches the third spot among male names but remarkably lags behind, with 49 less Miguels than Johns.
Kings, queens, and contenders
Now that we know who holds the throne of most common Atenean name, we can also see which name tops each school, as demonstrated in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Top 5 Names per School
For SOSE and SOSS, Maria and John are the first and second most common names, respectively. On the other hand, Maria and Jose are the respective king and queen of JGSOM and SOH, taking up the first and second spot.
The queen of all schools is clearly Maria, a classic name that consistently dominates in all schools. Interestingly, there is a disproportionately high number of Marias in SOSS, which remains in the firm grasp of 101 Marias.
Meanwhile in SOSS, JGSOM, and SOSE, Jose and John fight for a place in the ranks, ending up in either second or third place next to Maria. In SOH, Jose retains second place while Julia and Mary share the third most common name, while John drops to eighth place. What makes John less likely to be a SOH boy? Anyway, Miguel remains the fourth most common name in JGSOM, partially living up to his stereotype.
Questioning stereotypes
Why did we write this article on Atenean names? And why did we painstakingly go through tons of data for this? Jokes about Miguel wearing UNIQLO aside, actually knowing the evidence behind widely held assumptions is a useful practice in everyday life. This article served as a (hopefully fun) exercise in testing assumptions and stereotypes using existing data.
Sometimes, whether out of curiosity or need, we have to factually test what we assume. False assumptions—especially stereotypes—can unfortunately lead to unintended or even disastrous results. Thus, cultivating a sense of comfort in using evidence will help us develop a greater appreciation for data, equipping us with the ability to make well-informed judgements in the future.
*Editor’s Notes: The GUIDON Research Staff requested the dataset from the Office of the Registrar with the guidance of the University Data Protection Office, the endorsement of the Office of Student Activities, and the signing of the Data Protection Covenant and Release Form.
The dataset covers all enrolled LS undergraduate students for the second semester of AY 2021-2022. Only students’ first names and their respective schools were included in the article and its accompanying infographic. Other personally identifiable information was excluded. Moreover, names were aggregated, and highly unique names were hidden via aggregation.
In compliance with the University’s Data Protection Covenant, data that the Research Staff received from the Registrar was only used for this story and was only made available to the Research Staffers who wrote this article. Moreover, the data was immediately deleted from the Research Staff’s database after the story’s publication.