How popular is the baby name Rihanna in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, check out all the blog posts that mention the name Rihanna.
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It’s time for the annual Pop Culture Baby Name Game!
This year we’re kicking things off January 8th, the birthday of Elvis Presley! (He was born in 1935 and would have been 83 today.)
So how do you play the game? Just brainstorm for baby names that could have gotten a boost in usage in 2017 thanks to the influence popular culture: movies, music, television, social media, video games, sports, politics, products, trends, and so forth.
Here are the names we’ve come up with so far:
Amilyn – movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi (stolen from Abby)
Have any additions to make? Comment below! Just don’t forget to mention the pop culture influence.
The SSA will release the next batch of baby name data in May, so I will post the results to the game a few days after that 2017 data becomes available.
If you don’t want to miss the results post, please subscribe to NBN by entering your email address into the “Get New Posts via Email” form in the sidebar.
As usual, the disclaimer: Some of the names below were already on the rise. Others may have been influenced by more than just the single pop culture person/event listed. I leave it up to you to judge the degree/nature of pop culture influence in each case.
Where the heck is Usain? Why is Usain not in the data yet? Sure, track and field is relatively unpopular in the United States. Still, I thought Rio might do it — with the help of that viral photo of Usain Bolt cheekily grinning at the competition in the middle of that 100 meter sprint.
Finally, as a former ’80s kid, I did have my fingers crossed for Voltron. Oh well…
How about you? Did any of these rises/falls surprise you?
It’s December 2 — the doubly momentous day on which Britney Spears celebrates her birthday and on which we start another round of the annual Pop Culture Baby Name Game.
Which baby names will see significant movement on the charts in 2016 thanks to popular culture (TV, movies, music, sports, politics, products, current events, video games, etc.)? Below are some possibilities. Leave a comment with the names you’d add — and don’t forget to mention the pop culture influence.
Monica – Puerto Rican Olympian Monica Puig (I’m curious about the rankings in Puerto Rico specifically; Monica fell out of the top 100 in PR after 2002.)
Mountain – daughter of actress Jena Malone
Moushumi – TV show The Voice (late suggestion by me)
Zephyr – U.S. House of Rep. (NY) candidate Zephyr Teachout, who was endorsed by Bernie Sanders. (She was born in Washington state, where Zephyr is particularly popular.)
Zobrist – Chicago Cubs winning season/World Series
I’ll post the results next May, when the SSA releases the 2016 baby name data. If you don’t want to miss the results post, please subscribe!
Which girl names increased and decreased the most in popularity from 2013 to 2014?
Below are two versions of each list. My version looks at raw number differences and takes all 19,067 girl names on the 2014 list into account. The SSA’s version looks at ranking differences and covers the top 1,000 girl names (roughly).
Here’s what the SSA says about the rise of Aranza: “The Latin soap opera “Por siempre mi amor” was aired on Univision from 2013 to 2015. The show featured a young lead character named Aranza, and obviously had its effect on naming trends last year.” (Aransa was on the 2014 debut list.)
The SSA also noted that Montserrat was the name of “the lead character in a very popular Latin soap opera” — “Lo que la vida me robó,” which aired from 2013 to 2014.
But I’m writing them up a bit differently this year — I’m only focusing on 20 big winners.
How did I choose these 20? First, I eliminated all the names that didn’t see increased usage in 2013. Then I eliminated the names that saw relatively small increases in usage. Then I eliminated the names that saw more or less expected increases in usage, given their trajectories.
That left me with about 20 names that became more popular in 2013 due mainly (in some cases entirely) to pop culture influence.
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