Name Popularity
I’m still trying to figure out the best way to keep this blog updated. I can usually easily come up with content to blog about, but my schedule these days is not particularly conducive to allowing me the time. It mainly boils down to energy and effort as it takes a fair amount of both to put together a coherent and (debatably) interesting post. Leaving the house at around 7AM and not getting back until around 7PM typically drains me of both of these resources.
In any case, today at least I have a tidbit that some might find intriguing. Browsing around I stumbled across this name popularity tool. The applet pulls information from a database of names given to babies as reported by the Social Security Administration. Give it a name and it will display the popularity of that name over time since the late 1800’s. (Although I’m not quite sure how that works since if I’m not mistaken the Social Security Administration didn’t exist until FDR was president). In any case it’s a neat tool to play with. Interestingly, my name has shot way up in popularity in recent years. According to the tool, I was one of only 100 or so Owen babies the year I was born. This past year it looks like there were close to 2000.
November 9th, 2005 at 1:02 am
That’s a really cool website. If I’m not mistaken, though, the numbers they give are per one million babies. So in the year you were born, there were about 100 Owens per one million babies, not 100 Owens altogether.
November 9th, 2005 at 9:37 am
Oh yeah you’re right. That would make sense anyways since if they reported numbers solely on a yearly basis, they would be obviously skewed by population growth.