ERIE, Pa., May 12, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Parents choose baby names in all sorts of ways, from the conventional — like naming a child after a beloved relative—to the decidedly unconventional, like posting names on a white board outside the delivery room and asking nurses and passersby to vote on their favorite. Chances are no one chooses their child's name based on how many people with that name get into car crashes or have their cars stolen.

But in the tongue-in-cheek spirit of giving parents-to-be one more thing to consider, Erie Insurance compared the Social Security Administration's annual list of the most popular baby names with its claims data to rank which names have the most car crashes and which names' cars are stolen the most.

"Of course we don't think parents should use this information when choosing a name because a person's name has no bearing whatsoever on anything related to their insurance," said Matt Myers, senior vice president of claims, Erie Insurance. "But people are fascinated by baby names, and as a car insurance provider we have claims data that can be correlated to names. We thought we'd share the information knowing that people will find it interesting." Myers joked that his own daughter didn't consult him before choosing the name Eleanor for his newborn second grandchild (which ranks 320^th for crashes).

Below and in this infographic are the 10 most popular boy and girl names and each name's rank according to car crashes and thefts. To find out the crash and theft rank for names not among the top 10 most popular, click here.                                                                                        

To arrive at the rankings, Erie Insurance calculated the number of theft and car accident claims filed by its policyholders between January 1994 and March 2014.

According to A.M. Best Company, Erie Insurance Group, based in Erie, Pennsylvania, is the 14th largest homeowners insurer and 12th largest automobile insurer in the United States based on direct premiums written and the 18th largest property/casualty insurer in the United States based on total lines net premium written. The Group, rated A+ (Superior) by A.M. Best Company, has nearly 4.8 million policies in force and operates in 11 states and the District of Columbia. Erie Insurance Group is a FORTUNE 500 and Barron's 500 company and is proud to be recognized on the list of Ward's 50 Group of top performing insurance companies, which analyzes the financial performance of 3,000 property and casualty companies and recognizes the top performers for achieving outstanding results in safety, consistency and financial performance over a five-year period (2008-2012).

News releases and more information about Erie Insurance Group are available at www.erieinsurance.com.

(ERIE-G)

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SOURCE Erie Insurance