Ever wondered why there were five kids with the same name in your junior-high class? Ever wondered if you could name your baby by weighing the popularity per million babies of a given name in order to choose one that was unpopular that year?
Well, here ya go:
The Baby Name Wizard. This thing will plot the popularity of a given name over time for you. Very cool.
Of course, I had to type in “Matthew” right off the bat. It was even more interesting, realizing that the variants: “Matt”, “Mat”, “Mathias”, and “Matteo” have variously ranked in the top 1000 at certain times. “Mat” died out in the late 1800’s, and while “Mathias” did, too, it began a resurgence in the 1990s.
What fun!
Where’s Nephi?
That’s a great app–wish I’d known about it during the last 5 months as we struggled to come up with the name of our next girl. A favorite resource during that process was thinkbabynames.com, which adds to the above by giving a more detailed recent history (years, not decades) and international rankings as well. Throws in meanings, variants, etc.
But not nearly as much eye-candy.
An interesting observation during this process was the interaction of different subcultures. For example, when we considered the name Jasmine, (we cast a very wide net folks, and ultimately did not settle on this one) I was suprised to find it in the top 30 given that I’ve never actually met a Jasmine. My theory, as verified when I later found thinkbabynames.com, was that it was a very popular name among blacks. So name rankings may help you if you’re WASP, but if you’re naming for a significant subculture (race, religion, etc.) they aren’t as reliable. As in, why do I know so many Brigham’s (ranked #4946)?
Even more amusing as you cruise to the bottom of the popularity rankings are the misspellings. I’m willing to admit that some parents may specifically want odd spellings, or that some spellings may be in languages I’m not familiar with, but honestly, just because you had a baby doesn’t mean you know how to spell every English name. Casandra, Vanesa, Destiney, and the scores of dropped silent e’s are just too close not to suspect the parents had a different idea in mind when they filled out the certificate.
Paul’s girl
Paul should tell us about his daughter’s name 🙂 Not my story to tell, but it’s a misspelled name on the birth certificate. No telling if it was the parent’s or the recorder’s misspelling…
—
Matthew P. Barnson
Details…
The details can be found here.
——– *This signature is an experiment in Google Bombing mot propre
Matthias..
Hmm.. there’s an idea
Hmmm… my first reaction to
Hmmm… my first reaction to the name Matthias would be that I hope your son likes Broadway and International Male. On the other hand, Matthias Timpane does have a nice flow to it. (We’ll leave out the fact that *I* like Broadway and have been known to purchase from International Male).
I found the site quite intersting. Things of note:
Arthur was in the top 50 in the 1880s, it’s number 350 now.
Mohammed didn’t show on the chart at all, which tells me that there’s got to be something wrong with the chart, since I keep hearing that Mohammed is the most common name in the world. Maybe they just mean in the US?
While Buffy spiked in the 70s and hasn’t been heard from since, both Angel (mostly for boys) and Willow have DRAMATICALLY spiked in the past ten years. Coincidence? Perhaps…
—————————– “I am a leaf on the wind… (cough cough ack)” Arthur Rowan
ANGEL
BTW: Bought the album “Live Fast, Die Never” today.. quality stuff.
Yeppers
The list is compiled from US Birth Certificates. Hence the lack of Mohammeds and Changs.
My $.02 Weed