3 ms·

Funny how many names I'd assumed were common are, evidently, not popular at all anymore. For instance, I would have guessed Melissa (#372) and Brittany (#934) w

Funny how many names I'd assumed were common are, evidently, not popular at all anymore. For instance, I would have guessed Melissa (#372) and Brittany (#934) would have been at least in the top 100. They were probably just popular around my birth year and therefore I've been exposed to them a lot amongst my cohort.

shagie 4y ago
Wolfram Alpha can show this quite well. https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Melissa https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Melissa https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Brittany+&assumption=%7B%22C%22%2C+%22Brittany%22%7D+-%3E+%7B%22GivenName%22%7D https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Brittany+&assumption=%7... Or how about the most common male name - https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Michael https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Michael Or Jennifer - https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Jennifer https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Jennifer - and if this song is something that is a "yea... I recall that" - https://youtu.be/1nN_5kkYR6k https://youtu.be/1nN_5kkYR6k (There were four Jennifers on a small rural school bus that I took to school in the 80s)
- silisili 4y ago
  Yes! There used to even be a site that would predict your age by your first name, with scary (to the user) accuracy. Funny how names trend... edit: This might have been it, trying to find it within edit window https://randalolson.com/name-age-calculator/ https://randalolson.com/name-age-calculator/
  - shagie 4y ago
    One of the neat visulizations of the baby names is a "Bubbled" one from a number of years ago. Girls: https://youtu.be/qVh2Qw5KSFg https://youtu.be/qVh2Qw5KSFg Boys: https://youtu.be/WQv99sEPDsw https://youtu.be/WQv99sEPDsw The thing about this is that it shows that its not some other name becoming dominant, but rather that names are becoming more distinct - fewer children born with a certain given name each year. For example, 1997 (the last year of Michael being the most common boy name) it only had 1.88% of total births - while in 1967, Michael accounted for 4.63% of total births. Girl name popularity changes more rapidly than boy names. The other "this is kind of interesting" is that similar names (e.g. names that start with an L) have similar popularity. https://namerology.com/baby-name-grapher/ https://namerology.com/baby-name-grapher/ You can see the "less common names are more common" with the shape of the graph there since the SSA data is only for the 1000 most common names. That the total is smaller indicates that there are more names beyond the 1000 most common that are becoming more prevalent overall. That tool lets you clearly see that "Luke" and "Lucas" have a similar shape. Michael and Michelle (F) had a similar peak too. Another interesting one to look at is the name "Leslie".
    - silisili 4y ago
      I really like that namerology link. It's fun to put in names of aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc and see how accurate it is. Almost all of my aunts and uncles spiked in the 50s (Rich, Mark, Donna, to name a few), which is when they were born.
boring_twenties 4y ago
I, too, thought Melissa was one of the most common names out there. The Wolfram Alpha link helpfully provided below shows that it peaked right before I was born, and is currently almost negligible.
musasabi 4y ago
The SSA doesn't group different spellings of the same name so it can cause unexpected results. Example: Sofia vs Sophia, or the numerous spellings of Ashley.

shagie 4y ago

Wolfram Alpha can show this quite well. https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Melissa https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Melissa https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Brittany+&assumption=%7B%22C%22%2C+%22Brittany%22%7D+-%3E+%7B%22GivenName%22%7D https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Brittany+&assumption=%7... Or how about the most common male name - https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Michael https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Michael Or Jennifer - https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Jennifer https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Jennifer - and if this song is something that is a "yea... I recall that" - https://youtu.be/1nN_5kkYR6k https://youtu.be/1nN_5kkYR6k (There were four Jennifers on a small rural school bus that I took to school in the 80s)

silisili 4y ago
Yes! There used to even be a site that would predict your age by your first name, with scary (to the user) accuracy. Funny how names trend... edit: This might have been it, trying to find it within edit window https://randalolson.com/name-age-calculator/ https://randalolson.com/name-age-calculator/
- shagie 4y ago
  One of the neat visulizations of the baby names is a "Bubbled" one from a number of years ago. Girls: https://youtu.be/qVh2Qw5KSFg https://youtu.be/qVh2Qw5KSFg Boys: https://youtu.be/WQv99sEPDsw https://youtu.be/WQv99sEPDsw The thing about this is that it shows that its not some other name becoming dominant, but rather that names are becoming more distinct - fewer children born with a certain given name each year. For example, 1997 (the last year of Michael being the most common boy name) it only had 1.88% of total births - while in 1967, Michael accounted for 4.63% of total births. Girl name popularity changes more rapidly than boy names. The other "this is kind of interesting" is that similar names (e.g. names that start with an L) have similar popularity. https://namerology.com/baby-name-grapher/ https://namerology.com/baby-name-grapher/ You can see the "less common names are more common" with the shape of the graph there since the SSA data is only for the 1000 most common names. That the total is smaller indicates that there are more names beyond the 1000 most common that are becoming more prevalent overall. That tool lets you clearly see that "Luke" and "Lucas" have a similar shape. Michael and Michelle (F) had a similar peak too. Another interesting one to look at is the name "Leslie".
  - silisili 4y ago
    I really like that namerology link. It's fun to put in names of aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc and see how accurate it is. Almost all of my aunts and uncles spiked in the 50s (Rich, Mark, Donna, to name a few), which is when they were born.

boring_twenties 4y ago

I, too, thought Melissa was one of the most common names out there. The Wolfram Alpha link helpfully provided below shows that it peaked right before I was born, and is currently almost negligible.

musasabi 4y ago

The SSA doesn't group different spellings of the same name so it can cause unexpected results. Example: Sofia vs Sophia, or the numerous spellings of Ashley.