Outrageous.
Curiously, the popularity of naming boys "Susan" [0] also peaked more than half a decade before the song was published. ("Sue", in contrast, peaked even earlier in the mid-40's, though it seems it made a comeback in the late-80's).
[0]: http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gend...
It's easy to see why names such as "Buzz" have the curves that they have (space race), but it's hard to trace any event that influenced more common names. For example, check "Jacob", "Justin". Does anybody have an idea as to why these curves have this shape?
It's interesting to note that the increase in the use of Justin has a matching (if slightly lagging) increase in literature[1], while the increase in Jacob isn't[2].
[1] https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Justin&year_st...
[2] https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Jacob&year_sta...
I just figured out that it shows a random one when you don't enter a query, that's cool.
Other spikes: Linda, Jordan, Mason, Deborah, Beth, Paige, Laurie, Chloe, Megan, Stella, Stacey, Kim
It seems like female names are much more likely to have sharp spikes in popularity verses male first names.
Interestingly, "Buzz" seems to track events and anniversaries in the space race quite neatly. Toy Story had no impact.
http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gend...
'Adolf' seems uniformly credited to just a few poor souls- http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gend...
Here are my observations (note that I'm not actually posting my deadname here, but I'll still post my thoughts on it):
Old first name: My parents were spot on. I'm well within the typical age, and the median year was only four years off from my birth year. It had a very high spike in the 70s and 80s, and it's since gone down to 1970 levels and stayed there.
Old middle name: On the other hand, my parents gave me an old man's name. The age range starts at 47, and I'm 30. It peaked in the early '60s and was a curiosity by the time I was born.
New first name (Amy): I'm a little off here, but not by much. I'm only a year outside the typical range. When I was born, it had already been in decline for a few years, but it had far from bottomed out yet.
New middle name (Jessica): Spot on. Median age is only three years away from my actual birth year, and I was born really close to the peak. Oddly enough, when I was putting together my new name, I originally wanted Jessica to be my first name, but I ended up changing my mind and making it my middle name because I liked Amy better. Shame it crashed so hard in the last few years.
The other thing is for the "classiest" names (ie most fashionable) you want to be at the head of the trend not at the height of popularity as it's become "common" by then.
Contrarily, the name "Winston" jumps in the 1940s.
I found it exceedingly accurate with most of the people for a given first name I know being born plus or minus five years of the peak for that name in popularity.
I find this funny.
[1] http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gend...
~25 when I was born, ~750 and climbing now.
If only I had a trust fund that looked like the growth curve on my name popularity...
Would love to see someone correlate hit TV shows with popular names.
This is what happens when you're #4...
What do they say happens to those who don't label their axis? I've forgotten...