The Social Security administration has released the list of the most popular baby names for 2022, and they have hardly changed at all from 2021. Or 2020. In fact, Liam has remained the top name for boys for six years now, and Olivia still leads for the fourth year.
The visualization above by redditor chartr shows that the top names just aren't what they used to be. While the most popular names appear to stick around longer, the diversity of names is exploding. A hundred years ago, the most popular name was given to 3% of all boys and girls, while today the top name is only given to 1% of babies. If you were a boy born in the 1940s, there was a 74% chance you were given a top 100 name, but only a 36% chance if you are a boy born in the last few years.
That doesn't mean much on the ground, though. Thirty years ago, it seemed like half the high school was named either Mike or Jennifer, but now that schools are ten times as big, even a less-common name is heard a lot. The internet makes your name seem even more common when you try to register an email or a social media account. Just ask any early adopter who got an email address like mikesmith@gmail.com and constantly gets messages meant for someone else. Now that's a problem even for people with what you may think of as a unique name.
If you want to find out how the popularity of your name has changed over time, enter it into the Baby Name Explorer and get your own chart. -via Digg
Newest 1 Comment
I've known more than afew olivias
Abusive comment hidden.
(Show it anyway.)