What's in a Name?

You can file this one under “people with way too much time on their hands.″

Stockpickr.com, which calls itself the “popular online stock idea network’, has announced the launch of NameFolio. It’s an application designed to run on the Social Networking site Facebook.

Adding the application to one’s Facebook profile generates a mock portfolio (the aforementioned NameFolio) – which, in turn contains 1000 shares of each company whose ticker symbol is found within the name of the account holder. What’s the point of that? Well, the folks who have developed this “tool’ say that it allows users to “compete’ against their friends by determining the…wait for it…valuation of their names.

So – the application – which randomly picks stocks whose tickers match the letters of your name – in random, and changing groupings, shows you what the total value of 1,000 shares of each of the companies in the random and changing grouping is worth. And what your “friends’ name portfolios are worth – and, as it turns out, what the American Idol finalists are worth – – – and the Presidential candidates.

It changes every day of course – but at the market’s close yesterday, the Clinton portfolio was worth $172,000, just ahead of Obama’s $166,040 – and both well ahead of John McCain’s $100,500 – as follows:

For more stories like this, sign up for the PLANADVISERdash daily newsletter.

Hillary Clinton is worth $172,000 (as of May 7)

TickerMy StocksLast
HILLDOT HILL SYS CORP 2.65
AAGILENT TECH INC 31.75
RYROYAL BANK OF CAN 47.97
CLIMACK-CALI REALTY 38.10
NTNORTEL NTWKS CP H 8.31
OREALTY INCOME CP 24.64
NNETSUITE INC 18.58

Barack Obama is worth $166,040

TickerMy StocksLast
BABOEING CO 84.98
RACKRACKABLE SYSTEMS 12.02
OBONEBEACON INS GRP 18.54
AMAMER GREETINGS CL 18.75
AAGILENT TECH INC 31.75

John McCain is worth $100,050

TickerMy StocksLast
JJJ SNACK FOODS 28.15
OREALTY INCOME CP 24.64
HHOOPER HOLMES INC 0.80
NMNAVIOS MARITIME 13.49
CCAMFS CALIFORNIA IN 11.71
ININTERMEC INC 21.26

As for Nevin Adams….well, my name-based portfolio was ahead of them all – $187,610, based on a holding of:

TickerMy StocksLastChange %OpenDay’s RangeVolume
NENOBLE CORP 61.79-0.4763.2461.59 – 63.795,695,175
VVISA INC. 88.50+0.9788.8387.66 – 89.8425,104,956
ININTERMEC INC 21.26-0.5521.8821.12 – 21.97746,169
ADAMADAM INC 6.90-0.146.976.87 – 7.0616,625
SSPRINT NXTEL CP 9.16-0.039.668.97 – 9.7371,281,040

«