Cetacea wrote:OP
is Pooling votes allowed? for instance could I form a pool with 10 of my friends each putting in a $1 (so $10), I could then take bets on most favoured names and then use the pool to influence outcomes
Two or more people can spend their money on the same name. Whichever name ends up with the highest total amount of money is the most useful name.
Samantha: $20 (you: $5, me: $15)
Gertrude: $7 (you: $7, me: $0)
If no more pareto moves were possible, then Samantha would be the most useful name.
There's nothing in the OP against people betting on the outcome. But how would that work? At the racetrack, after a race has started there's no way for the gamblers to influence the results. But for baby naming, the gamblers would be able to influence the results. Clearly though they can't spend more money on the names than they expect to make from winning the bet.
It seems like the smaller the number of spenders, the less people will be willing to bet on the outcome. This is because less money can be used to significantly influence the outcome. But imagine that everybody had the opportunity to use their money to determine the name of Prince William. In this case, probably lots of people would spend their money to participate. This means that it would take serious money to significantly influence the outcome. As a result, more people would be willing to bet on the outcome.