Free cupcakes for people with “Joy” names

Hostess cupcake

Do you know a U.S. resident — either yourself or someone else — who has the word “Joy” in any part of their name (first, middle, or last)?

If so, you have until July 2 to enter that person into the Hostess Joy Drops sweepstakes:

100 winners will be selected to receive a Hostess Joy Drops package. If your “Joy” lives in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Utah or Virginia, they may get their package via a special drone delivery.

The package (valued at about $55) includes a box of CupCakes, a box of Twinkies, a bag of Donettes, and various other “summer fun essentials” such as sunglasses, a Frisbee, and a sheet of stickers.

Finally, just for fun, here’s a sampling of the dozens of “Joy” names in the SSA data: Joy, Joyce, LaJoy, LaJoyce, Joya, Joycie, Joyanne, Joyanna, Joyette, Joyetta, Joyelle, Joyella, Joylene, Joylynn, Joynell, Joynae, Joyous, and Joyful.

Image: Adapted from Hostess CupCake Whole by Evan-Amos under CC0 1.0.

Free Kentucky Derby party for Bostonians named Jeremy

Kentucky Derby, 2017

Is your name Jeremy? Do you live in (or near) Boston?

If so, you can attend a Kentucky Derby party for free tomorrow afternoon.

The Sporting Club — a bar located at Omni Boston Hotel at the Seaport — is hosting its 3rd annual Kentucky Derby party from 3 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 4.

This year, to honor the racehorse “Lucky Jeremy,” who has a 500-1 odds of winning the top prize in U.S. horse racing, any person with the name Jeremy can enter free of charge and be treated like a VIP with complimentary food, The Sporting Club said.

People who are not named Jeremy can buy tickets online (while they’re still available) for $25.

Source: McLaughlin, Chris. “Is your name Jeremy? Kentucky Derby promo at Boston bar allows ‘VIP’ entry.” MassLive.com 25 Apr. 2024.

Image: Adapted from 2017 Kentucky Derby by squirrel83 under CC BY 2.0.

Directory updated

The new look of the baby name directory

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you know that the baby name directory has been updated and redesigned. The directory now covers the full SSA dataset (1880-2022), and the pages should both load more quickly and be easier to use on a phone.

Here are the girl names that start with N, for instance, and the girl names with 5 letters. To see other lists, try one of these links:

I hope you like the improvements. I’m sorry the directory pages were so sluggish for so long.

Timeline updated

Hi everyone! Two quick announcements regarding the baby name timeline.

First, I’ve added 2022, finally. :)

Second, I’ve started sprucing up the timeline. I’m putting each year on its own page and throwing in some fun sets of rankings:

  • Top 5 popular names overall (male & female)
  • Top 5 absolute increases (male & female)
  • Top 5 relative increases (male & female)
  • Top 5 debuts (male & female)

Only handful of years (1926, 1927, 1984, 1985, and 2021) have been converted so far, and converting the rest will take me a number of months. In the meantime, if you’re curious to see the rankings for a particular year (or years), please let me know below and I’ll work on those first.