In my last post, I mentioned that Isabella and Jacob, the SSA's #1-ranked names for 2009, have gotten some press because they are both used in Stephanie Myers' Twilight series. I thought I'd expand this a little further.
A name can get all the pop-culture references you can shake a stick at, and unless it fits parents' collective naming taste -- a trend -- it won't rise in popularity. Take, for example, the show Friends. It was extremely popular, and aired from 1994-2004. During that time, the names used on Friends got a lot of exposure. Phoebe was the only name of a main character that rose in popularity. Chandler got an initial boost in popularity in 1995, and then along with all the rest of the main characters names, fell steadily during Friends' ten-year run.
In 2000, though, when Phoebe was the surrogate for her brother's triplets, one of which was a girl she named Chandler, the name Chandler made it onto the top 1000 for girls for the first time ever. But at the same time, traditionally male trade names for girls were gaining popularity: Taylor was popular throughout the '90s; Hunter peaked in 2000, Tyler gained popularity in the late 1990s, and Piper and Parker made it onto the charts in 1999 and have been rising ever since. Hearing Chandler used on a baby girl on Friends probably sounded fresh and unique to expectant parents who were drawn to girls' names like Taylor, Hunter, and Parker.
So how are the other characters' names faring in terms of popularity? Pretty well, it turns out.
Edward was in the Top 10 from the 1880s through 1930. It has slowly decreased in popularity since then (it was in the Top 100 until 1997), and there does not appear to be a Twilight-induced bump in popularity despite all the Edward fans.
Alice peaked in popularity in 1906. It has stayed in the Top 1000, but since 2005, when Twilight was released, it has increased 156 spots in the rankings, from 414 to 258. The number of babies named Alice since 2005 has gone from 751 to 1,251. It is worth noting another pop-culture reference to Alice -- comedian Tina Fey's daughter, born in September 2005.
Jasper peaked in the 1880s. It was on the Top 1000, but relatively obscure, throughout the 20th century. It started regaining popularity in 2000. Since 2005, it has moved from #537 to #337 -- 200 ranks in 5 years.
Esme has never been in the top 1000. (But on a personal note, I wish it would be! I think Esme is a lovely name that deserves to be used.)
Carlisle has never been in the top 1000, but the spelling Carlyle peaked in 1918. It hasn't been in the top 1000 since 1950.
Rosalie peaked in the 1930s and declined off the charts afterward. It popped back up in 2009 at #840.
Emmett peaked in 1895. It also stayed in the Top 1000. Since 1990, it has been coming out of obscurity (from 964 into the 500s), but Twilight probably gave it a boost -- between 2008 and 2009, Emmett jumped up 215 ranks, from #547 to #332.
The names from Twilight work the same way. Isabella and Jacob were popular before Stephanie Meyer wrote Twilight. In fact, the author has said that she used Bella's name because it was the name she had chosen for the daughter she never had. According to Wikipedia, Meyer's sons are named Gabe, Seth, and Eli -- like Jacob, biblical names that have been gaining popularity in recent years.
Names tend to be popular in cycles. Every generation has its own unique names, and some names are eternally popular (Elizabeth and John, for example) but as a whole, names fall in and out of popularity with time. Parents tend to think that names that were popular for their own, their parents, and their grandparents generations sound too dated. Names that were popular in their great-grandparents' generation, though, sound fresh -- because most people's lifespans don't overlap with their great grandparents'.
Cullen is a an exception. The name has been used as a first name on and off since 1880; consistently since 1978. In 2009, it hit a 129-year peak in popularity: #485, with 555 babies named Cullen in 2009. This is one name that is almost certainly attributable to Twilight. Cullen was declining steadily -- from a previous peak in 1997 (#505) down to #782 in 2008. There is really no force other than Twilight that would reverse that decline so sharply. Similar-sounding names Colin, Collin, and Calvin have been fairly stagnant in the past decade, and Cullen is not a recycled great-grandpa name -- it was obscure 100 years ago.
The vampires in Twilight are all just about 100 years old -- great-grandparent age. And in fact, their names are period-appropriate. For her protagonist vampires, Meyer presumably chose names that sounded old enough but also appealing to her. And since Meyer is in today's parent generation, is it any surprise that the 100-year-old names she chose are ones that appeal to other modern parents?
Showing posts with label names. Show all posts
Showing posts with label names. Show all posts
14 May 2010
Name Nerdery: Aiden Rhymers
Mother's Day weekend is always pretty exciting for me. My mom is awesome, but I am pretty equally excited about her all the time. No, the reason I get so excited about Mother's Day weekend is that the Social Security Administration releases the top 1000 most popular names for the previous year. Last Friday they released 2009's. I'll probably have at least a couple of posts about names. Readers, please let me know if there's anything you'd like me to analyze!
Clearly, the news broke into the regular media that Isabella is the new #1 girls' name, ending a 13-year run by Emily and Emma. But while the media is making a big deal that Isabella and Jacob -- names of main characters in the Twilight series -- are ranked #1, I don't think too much of that. Jacob has been #1 since 1999, and Isabella has been flying up the charts since 1990. When Twilight was released in 2005, both names were already super-popular. The name recognition from Twilight may have given Isabella a boost, but it was popular anyway.
What the SSA data doesn't tell, though, is some other big news: Jacob is actually the #3 most popular name for boys. You see, the SSA doesn't combine alternate spellings of names. It does, however, tell the number of babies named each name, which can then be combined and ranked. When you do that, as I have, you discover the two actual most popular names for boys born in 2009: Aiden and Jayden. On the SSA list, Aiden is ranked #12 and Jayden #8. The reason Aiden and Jayden don't show up as #1 and #2?
There were 15,846 baby boys named Aiden in 2009. But Aiden can also be spelled Aidan (#72), Ayden (#85), Aden (#253), Aaden (#271), Aydan (#622), Aydin (#646), Aidyn (#724), and Aedan (#838). And some boys named Adan (#293) certainly also will pronounce their names like Aiden, though others are the Spanish Adán (accents don't show up on the SSA list). Add those all together, and you get 30,518 little Aiden-variants (not even including the 1117 Adans, because who knows how their names are pronounced). That's DOUBLE the Aidens! On the other hand, the alternate spellings of Jacob on the list (Jakob and Jaycob) add only 1179 babies to the 20,878 Jacobs.
Americans' propensity to play with spelling creates a lot of false data like this. Names like Aiden and Jayden that follow a certain pattern are immensely popular (on the girls' side, Hailey and Kaylee are the highest ranking names for this pattern). Parents can pretty much create a name using this formula:
[K, C, J, H, Br, R, Z, Sh] + [long A] + [L or D] + [-en, -ee, -a]
And then change the spelling to suit one's fancy.
The possibilities are finite, of course, but they seem endless: Braylen, Jayla, Hayleigh, Shaylee, Braedon, Raelyn, Cailyn, Zaiden, Shayla, Jaelyn, Raiden... all of those are in the top 1000.
Clearly, the news broke into the regular media that Isabella is the new #1 girls' name, ending a 13-year run by Emily and Emma. But while the media is making a big deal that Isabella and Jacob -- names of main characters in the Twilight series -- are ranked #1, I don't think too much of that. Jacob has been #1 since 1999, and Isabella has been flying up the charts since 1990. When Twilight was released in 2005, both names were already super-popular. The name recognition from Twilight may have given Isabella a boost, but it was popular anyway.
What the SSA data doesn't tell, though, is some other big news: Jacob is actually the #3 most popular name for boys. You see, the SSA doesn't combine alternate spellings of names. It does, however, tell the number of babies named each name, which can then be combined and ranked. When you do that, as I have, you discover the two actual most popular names for boys born in 2009: Aiden and Jayden. On the SSA list, Aiden is ranked #12 and Jayden #8. The reason Aiden and Jayden don't show up as #1 and #2?
There were 15,846 baby boys named Aiden in 2009. But Aiden can also be spelled Aidan (#72), Ayden (#85), Aden (#253), Aaden (#271), Aydan (#622), Aydin (#646), Aidyn (#724), and Aedan (#838). And some boys named Adan (#293) certainly also will pronounce their names like Aiden, though others are the Spanish Adán (accents don't show up on the SSA list). Add those all together, and you get 30,518 little Aiden-variants (not even including the 1117 Adans, because who knows how their names are pronounced). That's DOUBLE the Aidens! On the other hand, the alternate spellings of Jacob on the list (Jakob and Jaycob) add only 1179 babies to the 20,878 Jacobs.
Americans' propensity to play with spelling creates a lot of false data like this. Names like Aiden and Jayden that follow a certain pattern are immensely popular (on the girls' side, Hailey and Kaylee are the highest ranking names for this pattern). Parents can pretty much create a name using this formula:
[K, C, J, H, Br, R, Z, Sh] + [long A] + [L or D] + [-en, -ee, -a]
And then change the spelling to suit one's fancy.
The possibilities are finite, of course, but they seem endless: Braylen, Jayla, Hayleigh, Shaylee, Braedon, Raelyn, Cailyn, Zaiden, Shayla, Jaelyn, Raiden... all of those are in the top 1000.
05 October 2008
Mennonite DNA
Yesterday at Fall Fest, I discovered the Mennonite DNA Project. This project is using Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA markers to trace paternal and maternal lines and, by comparing DNA markers to genealogy charts, discovering previously unknown relationships between families. It's a pretty cool idea, and an interesting application of DNA haplotyping technology.
As I was filling out my genealogy chart at the Mennonite DNA Project table, I heard a woman exclaim to her sister, "Oh, Mrs. Wiebe has a name! It's Katharina! Her name is Katharina! We've got to tell Mom; she'll be so excited!"
This woman didn't remember an ancestor's name, so she had the volunteer look her up in GRANDMA (the Mennonite genealogy database) and print a chart of her ancestors. Apparently, when her family had been researching their ancestry, they couldn't find any information about a this female ancestor; she was recorded only by her husband's name. But the database had a record of her.
There was something special about that moment to me, and it made me realize that there's something powerful about being able to trace maternal lines. I had them print my mom's ancestry chart (I'm not in the database). I now know that when the Mennonite DNA Project tests my mitochondrial DNA, they will be following a line from me to Helen Margaret Goertz to Margaret Ruth Krehbiel to Helen Ruth Eymann to Maria Franz to Eva Schroeder, my great-great-great-grandmother who was born in 1836. And I don't know; there may be more recorded beyond her (the printout only covers 5 generations).
Even though last names get changed with every generation and sometimes not even first names are recorded, the Mennonite DNA Project will be able to tell my family what other Mennonite female lines we are related to. My DNA will unlock genetic relationships that patrilineal tradition obscured.
As a feminist Mennonite biology nerd, what more could I ask for?
As I was filling out my genealogy chart at the Mennonite DNA Project table, I heard a woman exclaim to her sister, "Oh, Mrs. Wiebe has a name! It's Katharina! Her name is Katharina! We've got to tell Mom; she'll be so excited!"
This woman didn't remember an ancestor's name, so she had the volunteer look her up in GRANDMA (the Mennonite genealogy database) and print a chart of her ancestors. Apparently, when her family had been researching their ancestry, they couldn't find any information about a this female ancestor; she was recorded only by her husband's name. But the database had a record of her.
There was something special about that moment to me, and it made me realize that there's something powerful about being able to trace maternal lines. I had them print my mom's ancestry chart (I'm not in the database). I now know that when the Mennonite DNA Project tests my mitochondrial DNA, they will be following a line from me to Helen Margaret Goertz to Margaret Ruth Krehbiel to Helen Ruth Eymann to Maria Franz to Eva Schroeder, my great-great-great-grandmother who was born in 1836. And I don't know; there may be more recorded beyond her (the printout only covers 5 generations).
Even though last names get changed with every generation and sometimes not even first names are recorded, the Mennonite DNA Project will be able to tell my family what other Mennonite female lines we are related to. My DNA will unlock genetic relationships that patrilineal tradition obscured.
As a feminist Mennonite biology nerd, what more could I ask for?
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