I was exploring a baby name site as an example of interesting data visualization tools and started plugging in first names of people I knew and their kids when I made an interesting, yet (in retrospect) obvious, connection: names from popular media quickly become fodder for people naming their newly born children.
Here are a few examples (all screen shots are from the NameMapper website):
The TV show Friends debuted in 1994 and ran until 2004, matching exactly the run that the boy's name Chandler had in the top 100 names in several states.
The Matrix came out in 1999. The girl's name Trinity went from basically having no presence to being among the top 50 (if not top 25) names in many states by 2000.
Mariah Carey released her first album in 1991 and made her the first recording artist ever to have a freshman release with 5 Billboard Top-100 singles. And, not surprisingly, Mariah became a top-50 name in several states almost immediately.
If there's one thing that can be gleaned from this, it's that kindergarten teachers can probably expect to welcome multitudes of little girls named Miley starting in the next year or so.
Here are a few examples (all screen shots are from the NameMapper website):
The TV show Friends debuted in 1994 and ran until 2004, matching exactly the run that the boy's name Chandler had in the top 100 names in several states.
The Matrix came out in 1999. The girl's name Trinity went from basically having no presence to being among the top 50 (if not top 25) names in many states by 2000. Mariah Carey released her first album in 1991 and made her the first recording artist ever to have a freshman release with 5 Billboard Top-100 singles. And, not surprisingly, Mariah became a top-50 name in several states almost immediately.If there's one thing that can be gleaned from this, it's that kindergarten teachers can probably expect to welcome multitudes of little girls named Miley starting in the next year or so.