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:
Female Names (Microsoft Excel File)
Male Names (Microsoft Excel 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!