BabyNameWizard: A reader writes about the website that visually displays the popularity of the top 1000 boy and girl baby names for the last 11 decades:
IMHO, this an excellent use of Java-driven graphics to convey information. You may find it fascinating, as I did. I have always observed how faddish the general run of names is, but this interesting, interactive graph lets you see a name's popularity over time.
For instance, check out Adolf. Around the turn of the last century it was a fairly popular name -- German immigrants, one reckons. However, it drops off the list for reasons that need no discussion.
For a less politically loaded German name, pick Wilhelm or Hermann. See how it dies out with German immigration to the USA. Or Urban or Ole (immigrant names). On the distaff side, Sabina -- a German name -- dies out by the 1930s. And Sabrina first appears after the war. What this means? Beats me with a stick. But it's interesting, even if it is a bit of a tale told by an idiot, etc.
Then check out Adolfo -- it looks almost like bimodal over time, as the Italian Adolfos die out and are replaced after long years with Hispanic Adolfos -- I guess that uniforms and moustaches still have their appeal in the Latin world.
[On the other hand, while Benito did well in the 1920s and 1930s, it never fell too far and even made a sizable comeback in the 1970s.]
Another quirk is people with opposite-gender names. There are apparently some poor women out there named Kevin and William; but I can find no trace of a boy named Sue, which will surely distress Johnny Cash fans.
Actually there are many insights in "Su" territory. At first I thought the name "Summer" had undergone a sex change over the 20th Century, but no, that was an artefact of my aging eyes; the male name Sumner disappeared and the female name Summer showed up.
And there are hippy names -- "Sunny" for one -- that burst into prominence in the sixties and die out steadily.
It would be interesting to graph names against popular songs and entertainments, to see what effect if any they have, but I am too ill-versed in pop culture to pull this off. A few preliminary whacks at it suggest that names namechecked in popular songs and names of popular entertainers are influential. Orville and WIlbur peaked in the teens, Aaliyah (to pick someone whose fortune with flying machines did not do as well as the Ohio brethren) was unheard of before the 1980s and has since exploded into popularity.
I'd add:
- Black girl names beginning with "La-", like Latoya, Latonya, Latonia, Latisha, and Latrice (but no mention of Latrine, which obstetricians claim they have to talk vocabulary-challenged mothers out of periodically), after peaking in the 1980s have practically died out in this decade.
I wonder what has replaced them? Perhaps Mal- names like Malik and Maliyah. These may be variations on Malcolm, which perhaps was popularized in the 1990s by by Spike Lee's movie Malcolm X.
Some famous people bring about a surge in the popularity of a name, such as Dwight in the 1940s through 1960s, while Franklin had a brief spell in the 1930s. Woodrow spiked in the teens, but then fell out of favor. Warren, Calvin, and Lyndon also surged when their namesakes were in office, but John, Richard, Gerald, Jimmy, George, and William/Bill did not.
Clint jumped up in popularity when Clint Eastwood was a big star in the 1970s and 1980s, but Clinton fell in popularity in the 1990s.
Generally speaking, stars don't make common names more popular. Frank fell steadily throughout Frank Sinatra's titanic career. Some very rare names are too associated with a star to get a boost, such as Bing, which never cracked the top 1000 in any decade.
Dylan, however, has moved up to #19 on the boys names list. Does anybody who is having kids these days even remember Bob Dylan? Watch out, parents, because Dylan is catching on as a girl's name.
Audrey fell during Audrey Hepburn's career, but now that she's dead, is in ascent. I suspect that some parents, wisely, like to wait until some time has passed after a star's peak. Dylan and Audrey are now in the permanent firmament, so the names don't sound faddish.
On the other hand, just in the last couple of years has Reese taken off as a girl's name, no doubt due to Ms. Witherspoon. In 2003, there were suddenly about as many girl Reeses as boy Reeses, so the name is probably doomed for boys.
The big worry is that your sons' names will get imperialized by girls, with traumatic consequences as famously described by Johnny Cash. So, I named my sons after Biblical figures. The girls haven't taken over their names in 2000 years so they probably won't anytime soon.
Old Testament names like Jacob, now the number one boy's name, seem to be popular these days. More likely due to fundamentalist Christians than to Jews, who aren't having too many kids.
Why are mountaineers' last names like Hillary and Mallory always given to girls?
The upcoming book Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner has an interesting chapter on names, with some demographic data. By the way, in case you were wondering why guys named Steve get written about a lot on iSteve.com (Pinker, Gould, Rose, Jones, Johnson, Olson, just to name ones who write about evolution), Steven / Steve / Stephen peaked in popularity during the 1950s, and has been in steady decline ever since, presumably because as the world has come to realize what an unappealing set of brainiac know-it-alls we Steves seem to be. Here's a cartoon about the swarm of intellectual Steves sent to me by Steve Pinker.
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