Thursday, May 30, 2013

Game of Thrones (and other movie/tv) Names for 2012


The television show Game of Thrones based on George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series is in its third season, and more popular than ever! This was reflected in last year's names, especially for girls. Here are some from 2012 from the Social Security Administration's database:

Daenerys showed up for the first time, with 21 babies.

Nymeria, the name of one of the character's pet wolves, entered the top list with 5 namesakes.

Arya catapulted the name Aria (still the more popular spelling) into the top 100. in 2011 there were 386 baby Aryas; last year the number increased 51% to 754. Overall, all the spellings of Aria jumped 64%.

The biggest mover is the name Khaleesi. This isn't actually a character's name in the series, but a title held perennial favorite character Daenerys. in 2011, there were 34 girls named Khaleesi (and one other spelling variant, Kaleesi). In 2012, that number jumped to 205 (adding 5 more variant spellings)

Talisa increased from 13 babies in 2011 to 20 in 2012. This name wasn't used in the book series; just in the television show.

Asha increased slightly from 197 to 211. However, Asha is a name used frequently in the Indian community, as it means "wish; hope" in Sanskrit.

Shae (81 up from 77) -- Shae, in various spellings (Shea being the most popular, also Shay, Shaye etc.) as been around for a while.

in 2011, there were 32 girls named Lyanna, and it was the 9th most popular spelling of the name Liana (out of 27). In 2012, there were 46, and was the 7th out of 26 most popular spellings in 2012. In all spellings, the name is declining in popularity, but this spelling is increasing. Not bad for a character who died before the series began and is only mentioned a few times!

Renley is a male character. There were 10 boys named Renly last year, but there were 5 girls (none in the previous years for either sex)! The more popular spelling of this name for girls is Renlee, which leads me to believe that for girls, it's popularity probably comes from elsewhere.

There were 5 girls and 9 boys named Tully in 2012, (0 girls and 10 boys in 2011).

Catelyn hasn't shown a significant increase; probably because, even though the character pronounces is /KAT uh lin/ and is called Cat, it still looks like /KATE lin/, which has been declining in popularity since the 1990s.

There still aren't any Cerseis or Sansas, but those aren't favorite characters.

For boys, the names are less distinctive (i.e, they've already been in use for decades). The favorite character of people I know is Jon, whose name did increase from 340 in 2011 to 385 in 2012. The name Ned had 15 namesakes in 2011, which dropped to 12 in 2012. Jaime went from 730 babies in 2011 to 760.

Tyrion had 38 namesakes in 2012 (up from 25 in 2011)

Theon entered the charts with 12 boys given the name.

There were 10 boys named Renly.

Mance showed up 5 times and Rayder showed up 8 times.

10 boys were named Bran (up from 7 in 2011).

9 boys in 2011 were named Stark, and 16 in 2012. This could be influenced by Iron Man, though.

In other movie news, Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games books, which were turned into movies spawned two names: Katniss (12 in 2012, none in previous years) and Primrose (16 in 2012, the highest number ever. The previous record was set by 10 baby Primroses in 1910; the last time it made the chart was in 1982). 32 girls were named Rue, up from 13 in 2011. For boys, Finnick entered the database for the first time with 9 namesakes.

Merida, the protagonist in the Disney/Pixar film Brave had 19 namesakes in 2012. That is another record; the last time we saw that name was in 2002. The most times it was ever used in one year was 1949, when there were 13.

Eponine, a character from Les Miserables, which won an Academy Award last year spawned her first namesakes ever to make the SSA database: there were 7 born last year. Meanwhile, Cosette, a name that has been around the charts since 1912, had 114 namesakes last year (up from 97 the previous year).

Not a movie (although they made it into one in the 1980s), but the name Eilonwy, from Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain series made the SSA database for the first time in 2012. There were 5 girls named that. 

...and the biggest movie winner! Drumroll please!

Cataleya. In the movie Columbiana, this character is played by Zoe Saldana. In 2011, it showed up in the naming pool for the first time with 46 namesakes in 3 different spellings. In 2012, there were 1358 Cataleyas (with 28 different spellings!) 

I haven't finished doing all the calculations, but I'm pretty sure this is the largest increasing name of the year!

I didn't see the movie; I'm fairly certain this name was made up for the character, though. It is probably based on Cattleya, the genus of orchids (named for botanist William Cattley).

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Preliminary Top 100 Girls' Names in USA: 2012

I've been working on grouping names by spellings. Here's what I have... I will probably go over the list with a fine-tooth comb again, but the top 100 shouldn't change too much. I'll post the full results when I've checked it over again. The most popular spelling is listed only, but "Sophia" includes "Sofia, Sofiya etc." Boys' names in a week or so when I'm done!

1. Sophia (-)
2. Isabella (-)
3. Emma (+1)
4. Olivia (-1)
5. Emily (+1)
6. Ava (+7)
7. Chloe (-2)
8. Zoey (+3)
9. Abigail (-1)
10. Madison (-1)
11. Aubrey (+6)
12. Mia (-)
13. Kaylee (-3)
14. Madelyn (-1)
15. Aaliyah (+4)
16. Lily (-)
17. Layla (+3)
18. Hailey (-3)
19. Riley (-1)
20. Arianna (+2)
21. Addison (-7)
22. Natalie (-1)
23. Elizabeth (-)
24. Avery (+10)
25. Brooklyn (-1)
26. Amelia (+12)
27. Ella (-1)
28. Allison (-)
29. Lillian (+4)
30. Mackenzie (-1)
31. Kaitlyn (-6)
32. Kylie (-1)
32. Peyton (-2)
34. Hannah (+11)
35. Makayla (-8)
36. Evelyn (+6)
37. Leah (-2)
38. Elena (+10)
39. Maya (-3)
40. Brianna (-8)
41. Charlotte (+14)
42. Alyssa (-5)
43. Sarah (-3)
44. Katherine (-3)
45. Grace (-1)
46. Harper (+31)
47. Anna (+2)
48. Gabriella (-9)
49. Victoria (+2)
50. Samantha (-3)
51. Camila (+2)
52. Jocelyn (-9)
53. Adalyn (+12)
54. Jasmine (-8)
55. Liliana (+1)
56. Nevaeh (-6)
57. Savannah (-3)
58. Isabelle (-)
59. Bailey (+7)
60. Alexis (-8)
60. Audrey (+2)
62. Juliana (+5)
63. Claire (-)
64. Lyla (-4)
65. Aria (+52)
66. Ashley (-9)
67. Kaelyn (-8)
68. Scarlett (+7)
69. London (-)
70. Taylor (-6)
71. Kayla (-10)
72. Reagan (+15)
73. Kennedy (-1)
74. Annabelle (+7)
75. Sophie (-7)
76. Genesis (+22)
77. Amaya (-1)
78. Serenity (+13)
79. Jordyn (-8)
80. Melanie (+4)
81. Lauren (-7)
82. Gianna (-9)
83. Eliana (+13)
84. Alexa (-6)
85. Bella (+3)
86. Nora (+36)
87. Sydney (-17)
88. Skylar (+51)
89. Callie (+6)
90. Kendall (-)
91. Julia (-9)
92. Mila (+46)
93. Naomi (+12)
94. Lucy (+5)
95. Maci (-15)
96. Stella (+11)
97. Carly (-11)
98. Kaydence (-5)
99. Adriana (-14)
100. Ellie (+19)

Awesome name!


Thursday, May 23, 2013

Kennedy = Kinnedy?

When I was a student, I studied abroad in Ireland with a bunch of students from across the USA. One gentleman, was from Tennessee. We were sitting in class, and he leaned over and asked me for a "pin." So, I took the safety pin out of my ear (ok, this was the early 1990s) and gave it to him, apologizing that it was the only one I had. Everyone laughed at me. What he had wanted was a "pen." However, in my northeastern dialect, "pin" and "pen" are distinctly different, as are "Don" and "Dawn" and "cot" and "caught."

So here's my dilemma... Every year I take the long list of names the Social Security Administration publishes and group them by spelling. Everyone can agree that Trisha and Tricia are the same name, as are Hailey and Hayley. I have long accepted that, though John and Jon are technically different names (John being a name on its own and Jon being a short form of Jonathan originally), I group them together because they sound the same. Alyssa and Alisa don't necessarily sound the same, but I group them together because of a continuum of names like Alysa, Allysa, Allissa etc. that could be pronounced like /ah LISS a/ or /ah LEE sa/. Like it or not, this is how I justify things. I'm sure if I took 10 different people and had them do this, they'd come up with 10 different things. Heck, I change things from year to year. Miah, Miya, Miyah-- are these Mia or Maya? Lately I've been grouping them with Mia, just because Mia is more popular, though they totally LOOK like Maya to me.

Which brings me to the pin/pen dialect thing. Here are the offending names:

Kennedy/Kynnedi
McKenna/McKinna
Kenzie/Kinsey
Mackenzie/McKinsey
Kensley/Kinsley
Kendall/Kindall
McKinley/McKenley

I've lumped Serinity/Seryniti with Serenity, just because there's no such thing as "serinity."

I've been putting Kennedy and Kynnedi together for the same reason; there's no other name Kynnedi.

Mackenzie and McKinsey are a little more problematic, though. Kinsey is a separate surname. Though Kinsey is a surname of English origin, the name McKinsey appears in the USA (though it's not listed in my Irish or Scottish surname dictionaries; it's probably a variant of Mackenzie/McKenzie.).

It would be convenient if all the "i" spelling names were more popular in states where the predominant dialect does not distinguish between "pen/pin." Here's a chart nicked from Wikipedia:


Sometimes this works. For example, Kynnedi is most popular in Texas, and also shows up in Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee. However, there were also a significant number of Kynnedis born in Michigan and a few in Ohio. Kinsey/McKinsey are all over the map.

What would YOU do?

Thursday, May 02, 2013

New Zealand Banned Names

New Zealand has compiled a list of 77 of the names that have been rejected by the government. According to the linked article, "acceptable names must not cause offense to a reasonable person, not be unreasonably long and should not resemble an official title and rank." The USA has no such restrictions in place; the only regulations to my knowledge are that names must be made of letters (for example, you can name a kid Seventeen, but not 17).

Here are 71 of New Zealand's banned names, along with the number of times they were rejected in the past: 12 years or so... in parentheses are the number of children given these names in the USA since 1880 (girls in pink, boys in blue)

1. Justice - 62 (11,711 - 13,788)
2. King - 31 (10 - 9,754)
3. Princess - 28 (11,772 - 0)
4. Prince - 27 (534 - 11,153)
5. Royal - 25 (426 - 11,304)
6. Duke - 10 (0 - 5,762)
7. Major - 9 (16 - 10,625)
8. Bishop - 9 (5 - 4,257)
9. Majesty - 7 (419- 92)
10. J - 6 (0 - 0)
11. Lucifer - 6 (0 - 46)
12. Use of brackets around middle names - 4 (punctuation marks and spaces don't show up on SS forms in the USA)
13. Knight - 4 (0- 151)
14. Lady - 3 (1755 - 0)
15. Use of back slash between names - 8 (punctuation marks and spaces don't show up on SS forms in the USA)
16. Judge - 3 (0 - 3,303)
17. Royale - 2 (210  - 185)
18. Messiah - 2 (600- 3,167)
19. T - 2 (0- 0)
20. I - 2 (0- 0)
21. Queen - 2 (13,634 - 0)
22. Sir - 2 (0- 1,080)
23. III - 2 (0- 0)
24. Jr - 2 (0 - 1,349)
25. E - 2 (0 - 0)
26. V - 2 (0 - 0)
27. Justus - 2 (559- 6376)
28. Master - 2 (0 - 288)
29. Constable - 1 (0 - 0) Not a title used in the USA, but there have been 77 boys named Sheriff!
30. Queen Victoria - 1 (none have shown up as one name, but it's possible that there are girls with the first name Queen and middle name Victoria)
31. Regal - 1 (0 - 25)
32. Emperor - 1 (0, but there have been 416 girls named Empress.
33. Christ - 1 (47, but these may be typos for Christa or something - 3545)
34. Juztice - 1 (0 but there have been 17 named Justess, 348 named Justis, 199 Justise, 123 Justiss, 1333 Justyce, and 16 named Justyse.  - 1289 named Justis, 44 named Justise, 18 Justiss, 10 Justiz, 380 Justyce and 5 named Justys.)
35. 3rd - 1 (numbers are not allowed in USA names)
36. CJ - 1 (126 - 953)
37. G - 1 (0 - 0)
38. Roman Numerals III - 1 (0 - 0)
39. General - 1 (0 - 3,888)
40. Saint - 1 (33 - 693)
41. Lord - 1 (0 - 445)
42. . (period) - 1 (you can only register names in the USA made of letters)
43. 89 - 1 (numbers are not allowed in USA names)
44. Eminence - 1 (0 - 0)
45. M - 1 (0 - 0)
46. VI - 1 (816 - 125), though this may represent Vi, a nickname for Violet/Viola.
47. Mafia No Fear - 1 (0 - 0)
48. 2nd - 1 (you can only register names in the USA made of letters)
49. Majesti - 1 (32 - 0)
50. Rogue - 1 (123 - 150)
51. 4real - 1 (you can only register names in the USA made of letters)
52. * (asterisk) - 1  (you can only register names in the USA made of letters)
53. 5th - 1 - (you can only register names in the USA made of letters)
54. SP - 1 (0 - 0)
55. C - 1 (0 - 0)
56. Sargent - 1 (0 - 109)
57. Honour - 1 (81 and 1599 named Honor - 10 + 220 named Honor)
58. D - 1 (0 - 0)
59. Minister - 1 (0 - 0) - (this isn't a title used in the USA but there have been 16 male Senators and 345 Governors!)
60. MJ - 1 (0 - 42)
61. Chief - 1 (0 - 44)
62. Mr - 1 (0 - 5)
63. V8 - 1 (you can only register names in the USA made of letters)
64. President - 1 (0 - 39)
65. MC - 1 (209 - 227)
66. Anal - 1 (0 - 0)
67. AJ - 1 (0
68. Baron - 1 (0 - 5,257)
69. L B - 1 (0 - 16)
70. H-Q - 1 (0 - 0)
71. Queen V - 1 (0 - 0)