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[Facts] Influence on popularity of Mia discovered...
In the course of being interviewed by a reporter from Associated Press about the new SSA list, she mentioned that Mia was extremely popular in Texas and Arizona in 2005 on the state-by-state lists and wondered if that was a Hispanic phenomenon.After a little Googling I discovered that the probable reason for this is a telenovela called Rebelde which featured the young Mexican actress Anahi in the chief female role of Mia Colucci:http://www.alma-latina.net/Rebelde/Rebelde.shtmlThought those of you who like to track pop culture influences on names might be interested.
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That's interesting...
Mia also made a giant leap in the BC rankings. http://www.behindthename.com/top/search.php?terms=mia&popterm=ca&gender=both
There are not many Hispanic people in BC, so something else must account for its popularity gains here.
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maybe Princess Diaries?
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I wonder if it has had any pop culture influence...===
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I can't really think of anyone, apart from Mia Hamm. None of the people named Mia on Wikipedia would seem to be particularly good candidates. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=mia&fulltext=Search
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This is probably inane but...way back in 1994 it was Uma Thurman's characters name in Pulp Fiction. That's when I think it "got into" my own consciousness as a possibly "cool" name, anyway.. she introduces herself into the mic right before the twist contest, so the name is spoken on the soundtrack too.Speculation from my armchair: Does there have to be a popularizing bearer? Seems to me it is just a name whose time has come - way too Mia Farrow for young parents, until recently, but still a little exotic? Its climb looks a little bit like Jennifer's - a "new" name that gets popular on a sort of exponential curve, very slowly at first and then whoosh after a few decades of exposure? (I think Jennifer Cavilleri came along a bit after the name started to really take off.)- mirfak
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I think there is a children's book with a Mia..In fact, I'm almost positive. I'll take a look through the books upstairs. And I'll interview a few kids to see, but I'm thinking there is.However - if there is a character - has Angelina or Dora jumped? (Dora the Explorer is huge)
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Children watch Dora the Explorer and not the parents who do the naming. I noticed that sitcoms were big on naming babies Isabella and Emma as the two names were becoming big. ===
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You're not a parent, are you?Ask any parent, and they will be able to tell you all of the characters on a show, what they do, what they like - becaues they're constantly ON.
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Yes, Mia is a name increasing with non-Hispanics in the USA too. But its #2 position in Texas and Arizona does seem to indicate an even sharper upsurge lately in Hispanic use.
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You may be interested in the files here:
http://www.behindthename.com/top/analysis/They aren't formatted for public use, so they're a bit difficult to understand. They show how the top 1000 names of the year compare to the names of last year. The first section shows the net movement of names of various usages (eg English names, French names, etc). The second section looks at name length, and the third looks at the initial letter of the name. Of course names generally do not rise and fall based on their length or initial, but at the time I wrote the code I was interested in seeing if there were any long-term trends.
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Thanks. Interesting.
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