Baby Name: Judith

The baby name Esty (a diminutive of Esther) is primarily used in the state of New York, thanks to the large Jewish community in New York City.

But the name was also featured in the Emmy-winning Netflix series Unorthodox a couple of years ago. So, last year, I checked the Esty data (both the national data and the New York data) to see if the show had influenced the name’s usage.

It may have — Esty did indeed see its highest-ever usage both nationally and in New York in 2020. Even more intriguingly, though, I noticed what seemed to be gaps in the recent NY data. Specifically, New York had no data on the name Esty for the years 2016, 2018, and 2019.

Check it out:

	Esty usage in the U.S.	Esty usage in New York
2021	63	57
2020	68	60
2019	59	…
2018	41	…
2017	36	36
2016	43	…
2015	39	37
2014	37	35

I mean, It’s possible that the New York usage of Esty simply dropped below the 5-baby minimum during those particular years. As per the SSA:

To safeguard privacy, we exclude from our tabulated lists of names those that would indicate, or would allow the ability to determine, names with fewer than 5 occurrences in any geographic area.

If that were the case, though, you’d expect to see corresponding dips in the national usage. And we don’t see that here.

It seems more likely to me that some of the New York data is simply…missing.

So the next question is: Are there gaps in the NY data for other names as well?

To check, I grabbed all the names with heavy New York usage listed in the 2021 state-by-state post and the 2020 state-by-state post — 34 names in total — and looked the data.

The result? Exactly half had similar gaps.

Here’s what I found…

The boy name Cheskel (a form of Chatzkel, which is based on Ezekiel) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 5 years straight:

	Cheskel usage in the U.S.	Cheskel usage in New York
2021	29	29
2020	18	…
2019	27	…
2018	30	…
2017	23	…
2016	27	…
2015	22	21
2014	25	23

The girl name Chany (a diminutive of Channah) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 4 years straight:

	Chany usage in the U.S.	Chany usage in New York
2021	65	58
2020	56	…
2019	60	…
2018	55	…
2017	56	…
2016	55	55
2015	44	43
2014	42	41

The boy name Naftuli (based on the Biblical name Naphtali) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 4 years straight:

	Naftuli usage in the U.S.	Naftuli usage in New York
2021	29	29
2020	33	…
2019	33	…
2018	27	…
2017	24	…
2016	33	33
2015	24	22
2014	29	25

The girl name Idy didn’t appear in the New York state data for 4 years:

	Idy usage in the U.S.	Idy usage in New York
2021	46	…
2020	47	47
2019	31	26
2018	29	…
2017	26	…
2016	25	…
2015	17	16
2014	15	13

The boy name Shmiel (a form of Shmuel, which is based on Samuel) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 4 years:

	Shmiel usage in the U.S.	Shmiel usage in New York
2021	40	40
2020	45	…
2019	38	38
2018	31	…
2017	35	…
2016	44	…
2015	44	44
2014	38	37

The girl name Yides (a diminutive of Yehudit, which is a form of Judith) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 4 years:

	Yides usage in the U.S.	Yides usage in New York
2021	39	…
2020	34	34
2019	51	…
2018	32	32
2017	39	…
2016	35	…
2015	42	42
2014	38	38

The boy name Berl didn’t appear in the New York state data for 4 years:

	Berl usage in the U.S.	Berl usage in New York
2021	19	…
2020	17	17
2019	23	23
2018	18	…
2017	16	…
2016	22	…
2015	21	21
2014	19	18

The girl name Frady (a diminutive of Freyde) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 3 years straight:

	Frady usage in the U.S.	Frady usage in New York
2021	25	25
2020	22	…
2019	23	…
2018	21	…
2017	21	21
2016	20	20
2015	17	14
2014	19	19

The girl name Pessy (a diminutive of Batya, which is a form of the Biblical name Bithiah) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 3 years:

	Pessy usage in the U.S.	Pessy usage in New York
2021	63	51
2020	62	…
2019	41	…
2018	54	46
2017	41	33
2016	34	…
2015	46	45
2014	42	40

The boy name Lipa (a short form of Lipman, which is based on the name Liberman) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 3 years:

	Lipa usage in the U.S.	Lipa usage in New York
2021	50	44
2020	48	43
2019	53	…
2018	44	38
2017	37	…
2016	42	…
2015	43	40
2014	50	50

The boy name Usher (a form of Asher) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 3 years:

	Usher usage in the U.S.	Usher usage in New York
2021	41	36
2020	37	…
2019	58	…
2018	36	29
2017	34	…
2016	41	35
2015	45	40
2014	31	28

The boy name Avrum (a form of Abraham) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 3 years:

	Avrum usage in the U.S.	Avrum usage in New York
2021	42	34
2020	37	28
2019	24	…
2018	29	24
2017	27	…
2016	25	…
2015	17	16
2014	23	22

The boy name Lazer (a form of Eliezer) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 3 years:

	Lazer usage in the U.S.	Lazer usage in New York
2021	40	…
2020	37	31
2019	45	39
2018	29	…
2017	28	…
2016	43	35
2015	29	28
2014	33	31

The boy name Yossi (a diminutive of Yosef) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 3 years:

	Yossi usage in the U.S.	Yossi usage in New York
2021	35	29
2020	30	…
2019	23	18
2018	30	24
2017	21	…
2016	29	…
2015	20	19
2014	25	19

The girl name Goldy (a diminutive of Golda) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 2 years:

	Goldy usage in the U.S.	Goldy usage in New York
2021	69	57
2020	63	53
2019	51	44
2018	62	54
2017	56	…
2016	46	…
2015	48	42
2014	28	22

And, finally, the boy name Nachman didn’t appear in the New York state data for 2 years:

	Nachman usage in the U.S.	Nachman usage in New York
2021	27	18
2020	23	17
2019	18	…
2018	20	12
2017	21	…
2016	21	16
2015	28	24
2014	27	20

If the gap years matched up more closely with one another — as with the glitch of 1989, for instance — I could chalk it up to a few incomplete batches of data.

But they don’t, so…I don’t know what to make of this.

Do you guys have any thoughts, or theories?

(If you’d like to examine the New York data for yourself, download the “State-specific data” file from the SSA website.)

Sources: Behind the Name, SSA

Image: Adapted from Data loss of image file (public domain)