Joho the Blog » The long tail of baby names

Let’s just see what happens

Hard to Read? Choose a style: Style 1 Style 2 Style 3 Default Toggle Sidebars

The long tail of baby names

Posted on May 11th, 2008

Parade magazine today reports on the top ten names for baby boys and girls this year:

Ok, but I seem to meet more and more kids with one-off names. Isn’t the long tail of names getting longer every year?

Andy Weinberger, on May 12th, 2008 at 7:35 am Said:

Hey, I’m finally in the top ten of something! And our grandmother Emma has made a comeback. It is a name I have been fond of anyway.

Andy

Andy Weinberger, on May 12th, 2008 at 1:17 pm Said:

Actually, I’m surprised about “David,” as someone yesterday said it is always in the top ten (before I saw this list). Well, if AKMA were spelled Akma it would probably be found high up in the list.

miles, on May 12th, 2008 at 2:10 pm Said:

I took a digital history class where we used the baby name wizard (at http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager) to track historical trends. For example, you can see changes in immigration trends by comparing results for Mary with results for Maria. Maybe the one-offs signal an important change that we’ll be able to pinpoint 50 years from now.