A Personal Name Comparator Sensitive to Cultural Trends

[jesse_the_k]

Visit https://time.com/3856405/baby-name-popularity/

The form prompts you to input a name and its associated birth date, as well as choose from male or female gender.

It returns the popularity rank of that name in the specified year, which it calls your "today name." It then lists sixteen names which occupy the same relative position, beginning with the 1890s.

My birth name (not Jesse) was the 41st most popular for my birth year. Today that would be Natalie; in the 1970s it would be Carrie; in the 1900s it would be Thelma.

This delighted me for no particular reason. The data is pulled from U.S. Social Security records:
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/
Social security started in 1937, so I can't explain how their data can reach back to 1890.

ETA: Thanks to cosmolinguist for the link.

Comments

[sophygurl]

Oooo interesting. Mine is the 361st most popular name for my birth year, which is not surprising.

[jesse_the_k]

Almost an entire year's worth ahead of you!

[tozka]

How fun! I have a whole host of kooky great-aunt kinda names: Doreen, Virgie, Lorena, Clarice, Phoebe, Dolly.

I'm betting the 1890 names are from people who registered for a SSN later in life-- like my great-grandmother, born in 1890 and registered for her SSN in...1942? Something.

[sanguinity]

I was gonna say: nowadays it's mostly newborns who get SSNs, but in 1937 it would have been mostly adults. A chunk of whom, of course, would have been born in 1890.

[jesse_the_k]

Thanks for the explanation. Of course they have to start somewhere!

[jesse_the_k]

The high point for local media in my week is the Sunday obituaries, where there are many wonderful one-off names. Today we have Berndetta and Lurline.

[gloss]

Ew, my name today would be Rylee, and last year? Brielle.

I will stick with my nice plain-ass 70s name.

(I love these kinds of tools, thank you for the link!)

Rylee?

[jesse_the_k]

Why o why? It sounds like a kind of bread to me.

Re: Rylee?

[gloss]

Ha! A bread variety or, I was thinking, a very small regional chain of corner markets.

[worlds_of_smoke]

in the 1970s it would be Carrie

And this is why I'm changing my name as soon as it won't cause assloads of drama. :p

[jesse_the_k]

Your better name is as popular today as it was in 1950!

I can have a fact, without any actual meaning.

[pauraque]

My birth name was the 83rd most popular female name in my birth year, but interestingly, the name my parents would have given me if I'd been amab (Michael) was the #1 most popular male name for that year! However, the actual name I picked when I transitioned was only 229th for my birth year, and even less popular by the year I picked it.

Data!

[jesse_the_k]

You have a lot of data now.

My parents planned on a boy, so I got the feminized version (which I discard as soon as I left home). The today name would be Jaxon, and I'm sorry that sounds like a tool for changing tires.

[oracne]

Thelma is awesome.

It does have awesome qualities

[jesse_the_k]

...and in 1991, when the movie Thelma & Louise was a Thing, Thelma was way down on the list at 762. The parallel of rarity today would be Aarya.

[yourlibrarian]

I find myself rather suspicious of these results. That my name was even in the top 300 of my year is a bit of a surprise given that I didn't run across anyone with the same name for nearly two decades, but I don't know how long the list is either. The results came up with a suspicious number of A-starting names and a strange sex change in the 1880s. Also Alivia sounds like a medication.

My 2020 name is Alani

My 2018 name is
Amina

My 2017 name is
Ariella

My 2010s name is
Lilliana

My 2000s name is
Alivia

My 1990s name is
Cara

My 1980s name is
Jocelyn

My 1970s name is
Sandy

My 1960s name is
Gayle

My 1950s name is
Cathleen

My 1940s name is
Violet

My 1930s name is
Iva

My 1920s name is
Elvira

My 1910s name is
Letha

My 1900s name is
Eileen

My 1890s name is
Lura

My 1880s name is
John

[jayeless]

Funny little tool! Apparently my "today name" is Emma… which is my younger sister's name :P I feel like name popularity in Australia and the US doesn't line up 100% (even though mine is apparently the second-most popular in the year of my birth in both). They line up enough, though, that most of the names it gave me felt like, "yep, that would be right."