So my brother and sister-in-law are new parents of a baby
boy. The statistician in me just couldn't help but think
"What are the most popular American names given OVER
TIME?" Well, all I had to do was look at the Social
Security Administration's website to find out. I just had
to glean the information off their website and compile
the top 1000 names for all years that the SSA has kept
records. So, here you go... below is a listing of the top
1000 male and female names from 1880 to present:
Baby Names (Microsoft Excel 2007
File)
All information comes directly from SSA's Web Site for Baby Names. I
highly encourage you to go there and play with their
database. You can search various variables and see
what their constraints were for the development of
the lists.
The cool thing about viewing the rankings of names over
time is that one can see cultural and ethnic influences
corresponding to significant periods of American history.
For example, directly after an influx of German
immigrants in the 1880s, German names begin to pop up as
immigrant families settle. In the same manner, one can
see Arabic, African, Hebrew, Irish, Polish, Italian,
Spanish, etc. names gaining in popularity directly after
large influxes of immigration settlements.
Want to get a heads up on what the most common names will
be (or was) in high school? Just add about 14 or so years
to the birth year and there you go!