Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Oooh! A Graph
Interesting little Java application at iVillage: The Baby Name Wizard. It actually works for any name, not just babies'. If you're an adult, go ahead and enter your name. It's not a real wizard and won't turn you into a toad.
What it will do is show you a graph of your name (ie, the name you enter) based on how many babies were named thusly from the 1880's to 2005. For instance, hardly anyone was named Christopher (in the U.S., I'm guessing) before 1930. Then in the mid-50's the name shot way up, roughly plateauing from the mid-60's to early-80's, at which point it has dropped off precipitously (still in the top-10, overall, though).
William--my grandfather's, father's, brother's and nephew's name--has been in decline since the 1880's. I think my family may be solely responsible for keeping the name alive at all.
Dina disappeared from the 1890's to the 1930's; it spiked in 1960 (when the Mrs. was born) and looks to have disappeared again.
Philip has had its ups and downs over time. Now it's down; looks like fewer than 400 one-l Phils were born in 2000. On the other hand, the boy's middle name, Nathaniel, spiked in 2003 (64th most popular boy's name).
What's the story of your name?
(via digg.com)
What it will do is show you a graph of your name (ie, the name you enter) based on how many babies were named thusly from the 1880's to 2005. For instance, hardly anyone was named Christopher (in the U.S., I'm guessing) before 1930. Then in the mid-50's the name shot way up, roughly plateauing from the mid-60's to early-80's, at which point it has dropped off precipitously (still in the top-10, overall, though).
William--my grandfather's, father's, brother's and nephew's name--has been in decline since the 1880's. I think my family may be solely responsible for keeping the name alive at all.
Dina disappeared from the 1890's to the 1930's; it spiked in 1960 (when the Mrs. was born) and looks to have disappeared again.
Philip has had its ups and downs over time. Now it's down; looks like fewer than 400 one-l Phils were born in 2000. On the other hand, the boy's middle name, Nathaniel, spiked in 2003 (64th most popular boy's name).
What's the story of your name?
(via digg.com)
Mikesell
4 Snarky Remarks:
lindaruth, at 3:03 PM
Oh, I remember doing this ages ago. As you can imagine, 'Mirta' is not the most common of names. If I recall, correctly, it peaked in the forties. ;) I'll have to check again.
theory about christopher:
The books with Winnie The Pooh and Christopher Robin came out in the, what, late 20's? That would explain that. Some folks naming the babies after the stories came out. But then a boom when people who grew up reading the books had babies in the 50's. The pooh movies came out in the 60's (Disney).
I'm guessing that's why it's been popular since the 30's on.
Mir
theory about christopher:
The books with Winnie The Pooh and Christopher Robin came out in the, what, late 20's? That would explain that. Some folks naming the babies after the stories came out. But then a boom when people who grew up reading the books had babies in the 50's. The pooh movies came out in the 60's (Disney).
I'm guessing that's why it's been popular since the 30's on.
Mir
Nope. This isn't the graph thingie I used some years back. This one just says, "never in the top 1000". The other one mentioned which decade was tops, and it a handful of folks named like me at certain times.
I've usually been the only Mirta in school. (One other one in High School, also Cuban.) And I've only known two famous ones--one a hair products/styling queen in Miami, and one a Puerto Rican singer popular in the 60's and 70's when I was in New York. (she had a tv show.)
Mir<---doesn't turn around in a crowd when names are called out ; )
I've usually been the only Mirta in school. (One other one in High School, also Cuban.) And I've only known two famous ones--one a hair products/styling queen in Miami, and one a Puerto Rican singer popular in the 60's and 70's when I was in New York. (she had a tv show.)
Mir<---doesn't turn around in a crowd when names are called out ; )
That could be, Mir (re: Christopher theory). The "Roosevelt" graph certainly tracks to the two presidents. I'm surprised that Harry and Ron haven't had a resurgence (and Hermione to a lesser degree).
Another interesting graph is for the letters F and W, downward trend left to right; most vowels and X,Y,Z all have recent spikes.
Another interesting graph is for the letters F and W, downward trend left to right; most vowels and X,Y,Z all have recent spikes.
When you start typing (and if you don't hit return) it shows your name in relation to other names that start with that letter -- that's a neat feature, too.