A Name’s a Name
Unless it sucks.
The most popular US baby names last year were…underwhelming.
THE BOYZ
In order:
- Liam
- Noah
- Oliver
- James
- Elijah
- William
- Henry
- Lucas
- Benjamin
- Theodore
I really like the name Benjamin, and seeing Theodore on there is cool. Noah is okay. I HATE the name Liam, and hasn’t Lucas been in the top 10 for like 5,000 years now?
THE GULLZ
- Olivia
- Emma
- Charlotte
- Amelia
- Sophia
- Isabella
- Ava
- Mia
- Evelyn
- Luna
Ugh. They’re not bad, but…
We need some cooler names, yo.
Bobmania
Hahaha, this is a fantastic article.
It details the decline in the number of men named “Bob” participating in major sports.
“Nearly two thousand men named Bob have played in major American sports. Bob Sanders is still playing, but he is the only one. Here, we attempt to come to grips with the most pressing crisis in major athletics.”
Fun phrases include: “Bob-athletes”, “Bobhood”, and the “Bobs Are Overwhelmingly Fat/White/Old Theory.”
And even though it’s a minor thing, it makes me really happy that the author mentioned covariates that may also be causing the decline in Bob-athletes other than just fewer Bobs playing sports (fewer Bobs overall, fewer names shortened to “Bob” due to various reasons). That made Stats Claudia happy.
Oh, and for anyone wondering…
Robert/Roberto and Bob/Bobbie/Bobby trends for boys over the past century or so.
This is also humorous to me because my dad is a “Bob.”
Statistics in the Nude
HAHA, you wish, right?
Today (or yesterday, or some time recently) CNN.com put up a link to the 100 most popular boy and girl baby names of 2011. Said link is here.
My personal opinions:
- Hate the name Aiden
- Dig the name Sophia
- Annabelle’s my kitty’s name!
- Xavier? Really?
- What’s with the excessive overuse of “y” as a replacement vowel for…well, pretty much every other vowel?
- Half of these names I would never expect to be in the 100 most popular for this year.
Anyway.
Me being me, I decided to run a few quick little stats to see what’s what with these names. Consider this a delightful little romp through basic descriptive and inferencial stats.
- Test 1: Is there a difference between the mean number of syllables in the 100 most popular names for boys vs. the 100 most popular names for girls? (2-sample t-test)
- Test 2: Is there a difference between the mean syllable of emphasis in the 100 most popular names for boys vs. the 100 most popular names for girls? (2-sample t-test)
- Test 3: Do either the number of syllables or the mean syllable of emphasis statistically predict the rank of the names for either boys or girls? (Regressions! Regressions!)
Since these are small baby analyses I won’t go through the analyses in depth; I’ll just give you the results.
Test 1
I wanted to determine with this test if the top 100 male and 100 female names had a statistically different number of syllables. No names in either list had more than 4 syllables.
Mean number of syllables for male names: 2.45
Mean number of syllables for female names: 2.09
Results of the t-test: t(187.956) = 3.80, p < 0.001 (0.0001967)
This means that there is a statistically significant difference in the number of syllables in the 100 most popular male names and the 100 most popular female names (with male names having, on average, more syllables).
Test 2
I wanted to see if there was any difference between the two lists of names in terms of where the emphasis was placed in the name. Did one list contain more names where the emphasis was on the first syllable (e.g., “E-than,” “KA-thy”, “CA-ro-line”), or more names where the emphasis was later in the name (e.g. “a-LEX-a,” “nath-AN-iel,” “el-ISE”)? This was simplified somewhat by my coding; I just had “1,” “2,” “3,” and “4” as the codes for the emphasis falling on the first, second, third, or fourth syllable, respectively.
Mean syllable of emphasis for male names: 1.09
Mean syllable of emphasis for female names: 1.29
Results of the t-test: t(167.09) = 3.04, p = 0.0027
This means that there is a statistically significant difference between the location of the syllable of emphasis in the 100 post popular male names and the 100 most popular female names (with the emphasis being placed earlier in the name for males than females).
Test 3
I didn’t save the printout results of the regressions because afterward I realized how bad it was to attempt an inferential statistic with such a pittance of a data set, but I figured I’d let you know what I got anyway: performing a Poisson regression (y variable is a count variable, bitches!) revealed that neither the number of syllables nor the location of the emphasis in the name were statistically significant predictors of the rank of the names.
Ta-da!
Namin’ Babies
I will never have kids. The world needs Claudia spawn about as much as it needs a George W. Bush cloning machine running 24/7 all year ‘round*. But because I’m me, I’ve often thought about what I would name said spawn should he/she/they ever exist.
I usually limit my naming fantasies to male names, because I think I’d produce a male if I were to ever, by some miracle of divine intervention, produce a child.
So because I rediscovered the Name Voyager and all its pretty slopes and lines, I shall present you with my 10 favorite baby (boy) names.
10. Amory
I dig this name probably because it is the name of the main character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, This Side of Paradise. I love Fitzgerald. He rocks. Anyway. It’s got a nice “old fashioned” feel to it, and according to the Baby Name Voyager, it hasn’t been one of the top 1,000 names in the US anytime between 1880 and now.
9. Eddy
I don’t really know why I like this name. I know my mom likes it, too. Possibly I picked it up from her? Haha, or maybe ‘cause I used to watch a
LOT of Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy when I was younger. I freaking love that show.
8. Charles
Another cool old-fashioned name. It has to be Charles, though. I’m not a big fan of Charlie or Chuck.
7. Simon
Unfortunately, if you say the name Simon to people, probably 70% or so of them will immediately think of either Simon Cowell or Simon the chipmunk. Or that game “Simon Says.” Nevertheless, I really like this name. It’s smooth and simple.
6. Meriwether
This is why I can’t have kids. Because society is dumb, I think any young man labeled Meriwether would probably get teased to death because of it. Nevermind Meriwether Lewis of freaking LEWIS AND CLARK was a badass.
5. Eugene
An old name you don’t hear much anymore. I like names with lots of vowels in them.
4. Adam
Such a nice, simple name. I also have this weird thing for Biblical names. Though if I were to have a little dude and keep my last name, I couldn’t name him Adam ‘cause then his name would be all smooshed together—“Adammahler”—and that would be obnoxious.
3. Jules
Tribute to Jules Verne, the greatest science fiction writer ever! I like French names/French versions of other names. I would read this child 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for their bedtime story. Or maybe Around the World in Eighty Days, it’s a bit lighter.
2. Nick
Yes, Nick, I like your name. Nicholas reminds me of Santa Clause, so that’s out, but Nick has always been a pretty snazzy name in my opinion. Also this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGYpsNpg1bw&feature=related
1. Scott
Another “tribute” name, this one in honor of Sir Robert Falcon Scott, an Englishman who led several expeditions to Antarctica back when it was still Terra Incognita to most and who, in a race with Roald Amundsen to be the first to reach the Pole, died on the ice. Haha, that sounds so depressing, eh? You all know how I love Antarctica, though. And you really don’t ever hear the name Scott anymore, do you?
The end!
*Tell me that’s not the most terrifying concept ever.
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