The Simmel effect and babies names

TL;DR

This paper models the Simmel effect using simulations on scale-free networks to explain how social hierarchy influences the popularity and decline of baby names over time, mirroring historical data from 1880-2011.

Contribution

It introduces a simulation approach of the Simmel effect on social networks to analyze cultural trends like baby names, linking social hierarchy to name popularity dynamics.

Findings

Names adopted by highly connected agents become popular in lower classes.

Names fall out of fashion and become extinct after initial popularity.

Simulation results align with historical data on American baby names from 1880-2011.

Abstract

Simulations of the Simmel effect are performed for agents in a scale-free social network. The social hierarchy of an agent is determined by the degree of her node. Particular features, once selected by a highly connected agent, became common in lower class but soon fall out of fashion and extinct. Numerical results reflect the dynamics of frequency of American babies names in 1880-2011.