Message: "Differing popularity info...."

[Facts] Differing popularity info....

by Flute (meganmichele)

5/12/2007, 10:04 PM

I've been going through my favorites list ever since the 2006 list came out a couple days ago to see how much some of my favorites rose or fell in popularity since 2005, just out of curiosity. Well, I just realized something a bit odd. According to this site, Anna's popularity has stayed at 23 for the past two years, while Ella rose from 22 to 21. However, according to the SSA site, Anna went from 22 to 23 and Ella went from 23 to 21.

It's just a minor difference, and probably doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but I was wondering, if BtN gets the top 1000 names straight from the SSA, shouldn't the list be exactly the same? Does anyone have any idea why it would be different? Maybe just an accident in inputing data? I was just a little curious.

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Top Combos: Colette Antonia Marie and Rowan Spencer

#popularity

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- Another Theory (guest) +3

5/16/2007, 7:51 AM

My son was born in 2005. Due to us adopting him, we did not file for his SS# until 2007. They will need to add one more Donovan to the 2005 totals. I'm sure this happens often.

- ClaudiaS +2

5/16/2007, 10:21 AM

This reminds me of something I've wondered about... In earlier years, wouldn't many people have not filed for a SS# until adulthood? Then they may have filled out the forms using their nickname instead of their actual birth certificate name. This would account for the high ranking of short forms like Jim, Don, Bill and Bob on the SS list for, say, 1940. Sound plausible?

- Cleveland Kent Evans (clevelandkentevans)

5/25/2007, 8:58 AM

Yes, I think this is part of the reason the pet forms show up higher on these lists. There certainly are some people who get the pet forms on their birth certificates, but parents in the USA (as opposed to the UK) are much more likely to put the -y pet forms such as Jimmy, Donny, Billy, and Bobby on the birth certificate than they are to use Jim, Don, Bill, or Bob.

I think the name that this has affected the most in the earlier SSA lists is Joe. Joe is extremely high for birth cohorts before 1960 in the SSA data. Back when I was collecting data from state birth records, Joe was almost never used as an official given name. So I bet most of the Joes in the SSA data were actually named Joseph by their parents.

- Array (WeloveyouJesseLacey)

5/16/2007, 10:54 AM

Well, I know a lot of older adults whose full names are simply Jim, Bill, etc. Just like I can think of little girls today whose parents have named them Rosie and Gracie. Perhaps some filled out their nickname rather than their full name, but there were certainly others who were never called anything but Jim, even on the birth certificate. :)

Array

- Rene +5

5/14/2007, 11:24 AM

I still have the HTML file from my query of the SSA database regarding the 2005 data, for building my own name database. This file is from October 21, 2006. At *that* day Ella was ranked 22 and Anna was 23. If you go to the SSA site *now* and query the 2005 data, the two names are reversed.

Unfortunately the data in the older file is without number of births, so I cannot check the revisement theory...

I checked the boy names: There you have a change even higher up in the data: Last October Ryan was given as 13, followed by David on 14. Now the order is reversed.

So, whatever is going on, the phenomenon is real and maybe quite frequent.

- Cleveland Kent Evans (clevelandkentevans) +4

5/14/2007, 8:01 PM

I have the figures from May last year that were posted for 2005. Back then there were 17,735 Ryans and 17,712 Davids. As of tonight there are 17,912 Ryans and 17,957 Davids. So it certainly seems as if some more births have been added in since last May to the 2005 list. Now we really should look at the bottom of the list and see if any names that were around 990 have been replaced since last May with other names because of these additions! :)

- Cleveland Kent Evans (clevelandkentevans) +3

5/14/2007, 8:12 PM

Yup, the bottom has changed too

Last May the last seven names on the boys list ro 2005, with the total numbers, were:

Daquan 169
Edison 169
Bridger 168
Fisher 168
Jaheim 168
Tye 168
Blaise 167

Tonight the last six on the 2005 list are:

Fisher 172
Jaheim 172
Adin 171
Blaise 171
Tariq 171
Edison 170
Joan 170

Bridger & Tye have disappeared from the list, and don't show up when you look for them in the "search a single name function" for 2005 any more, either. Eliseo (173) and Joan have replaced them.

Kudos to Flute for noticing this! It never dawned on me that SSA could be updating their yearly listings after the original postings.

- Mike C +2

5/15/2007, 2:21 PM

I checked all years back to 1990 and found small differences in the data for every year.

- Camilla +1

5/16/2007, 2:16 PM

Hmm, this is very interesting!

- David George DeLancey (guest)

5/29/2007, 10:20 AM

I viewed a boy girl name thing on this site and three box's showed up so my first choise was Nicholas and Jessica still think there realy cool names next was david and rebecca then i wondered about my gramer school sweatheart if she new i chose her last with out me o boy so i changed David to George and ended up with davi and Cathrine now just before i started with this paregraph i was thinking and perhaps still am what an idiot i was chooses us last on the list Darn it 1:21 p.m.e.s.t.mass

- Mike C +1

5/13/2007, 2:02 PM

Interesting. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps some SSA applications arrived later in the year and the SSA revised their data at some point.

- Flute (meganmichele)

5/13/2007, 3:17 PM

Hmm, that makes sense to me. Thanks. :)

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