Evolution of popularity in given names

TL;DR

This paper studies how the popularity of given names has changed over the last century across Korea, Quebec, and the US, revealing patterns of rise and fall linked to social trends and major societal shifts.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of given name popularity evolution over a century in three regions, highlighting social influences on naming conventions.

Findings

Popularity of names exhibits rise and fall patterns over about one generation.

Major social changes correlate with shifts in name diversity.

Name popularity trends are consistent across different cultures.

Abstract

An individual's identity in a human society is specified by his or her name. Differently from family names, usually inherited from fathers, a given name for a child is often chosen at the parents' disposal. However, their decision cannot be made in a vacuum but affected by social conventions and trends. Furthermore, such social pressure changes in time, as new names gain popularity while some other names are gradually forgotten. In this paper, we investigate how popularity of given names has evolved over the last century by using datasets collected in Korea, the province of Quebec in Canada, and the United States. In each of these countries, the average popularity of given names exhibits typical patterns of rise and fall with a time scale of about one generation. We also observe that notable changes of diversity in given names signal major social changes.