Look at the chart for Jesus, though. It shows the opposite trend.
Seems like you mostly get girls’ names from this formula.
Seems like there’s already been a backlash to that, and some old fashioned names have come back in style.
That’s hardly surprising. Very few people speak Martian.
Just for some data, here are the top names from the last couple of years in the U.S. The numbers are rank, the percentage of babies with that name by gender, and how the ranking changed from the previous year. This is Social Security data posted by Behind the Name.com. It’s worth noting that different spellings are considered different names, which probably makes the Caitlyn variations look less popular than they are.
2008
Boys
- Jacob 1.036 (0)
- Michael 0.944 (0)
- Ethan 0.930 (0)
- Joshua 0.880 (0)
- Daniel 0.870 (0)
- Alexander 0.857 (+5)
- Anthony 0.844 (0)
- William 0.844 (0)
- Christopher 0.827 (-3)
- Matthew 0.806 (-1)
Girls
- Emma 0.904 (+2)
- Isabella 0.894 (0)
- Emily 0.838 (-2)
- Madison 0.820 (+1)
- Ava 0.820 (-1)
- Olivia 0.820 (+1)
- Sophia 0.773 (-1)
- Abigail 0.725 (0)
- Elizabeth 0.575 (+1)
- Chloe 0.569 (+6)
2007:
Boys
- Jacob 1.095 (0)
- Michael 0.991 (0)
- Ethan 0.951 (+1)
- Joshua 0.931 (-1)
- Daniel 0.913 (+1)
- Christopher 0.908 (+1)
- Anthony 0.886 (+2)
- William 0.852 (+2)
- Matthew 0.845 (-4)
- Andrew 0.833 (-2)
Girls
- Emily 0.916 (0)
- Isabella 0.905 (+2)
- Emma 0.869 (-1)
- Ava 0.855 (+1)
- Madison 0.849 (-2)
- Sophia 0.805 (+3)
- Olivia 0.784 (0)
- Abigail 0.732 (-2)
- Hannah 0.628 (-1)
- Elizabeth 0.616 (+1)
2006:
Boys
- Jacob 1.133 (0)
- Michael 1.032 (0)
- Joshua 1.017 (0)
- Ethan 0.937 (+1)
- Matthew 0.927 (-1)
- Daniel 0.914 (+1)
- Christopher 0.902 (+2)
- Andrew 0.900 (-2)
- Anthony 0.886 (-1)
- William 0.865 (+1)
Girls
- Emily 1.025 (0)
- Emma 0.915 (0)
- Madison 0.892 (0)
- Isabella 0.873 (+2)
- Ava 0.812 (+4)
- Abigail 0.748 (-2)
- Olivia 0.742 (-2)
- Hannah 0.696 (-1)
- Sophia 0.647 (+3)
- Samantha 0.597 (-2)
The evidence seems to be true, that Madison as a girl’s name stemmed from Daryl Hannah’s mermaid character in the movie Splash, where it was intended to be a joke, but now the humour is lost.
I guess women who liked the name used it for their daughters in the late '80s, and now girls who liked the movie in the '80s are using the name on their daughters, so it’s even more popular.
I know a woman who is upset that other people have named their daughters Madison, since she thought of it first, right after seeing the move Splash.
Michael
rank in 1920s 52
rank in 1930s 35
rank in 1940s 9
rank in 1950s 2
rank in 1960s - 1990s 1
rank in 2000s - 2
It is true that the number of Michaels per million babies has dropped from 20000 in the 1960s to 4000 in 2008.
My guess for the drop ( in number per million babies ) is that her data is taken from USA Social Security index records, and immigration patterns have changed significantly since the 1960s in the USA because of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that removed the bias favoring Western European nations. So part of the change in popularity of “common” names might come from that.
My name peaked in the mid 70s.
Now it’s dropped off to around number 200.
Eh, I can deal with that. No one spells my nickname the way I do…
Now that could explain a lot. I wondered if immigration was one of the reasons, but I didn’t know about that specific act, so I was wondering why immigration would have become a bigger factor in the '60s.
For the boys, you need to add the suffix -den.
Caiden, Brayden, Aiden, Jaden…
I never checked before, but now I’m surprised. I always thought my name was pretty rare when I was growing up. I think I was in college before I realized there were others out there like me. Even today I have to repeat it and spell it (it’s five letters, no variations) and people still commonly confuse it with a similar-sounding, more common name – but it turns out it ranked in the low 40s back then.
However, in the 90s it seemed I couldn’t go the store without some mother screaming my name at one of her rotten kids. I thought it was gaining in popularity, but just the opposite – it’s been steadily declining, crossing over the 100 mark in 1989 and up to 588 by 2008. Probably because all the kids with me name born after 1970 were so rotten their mothers had to scream at them in public, thus discouraging other parents from using the name.
For the record, my mother never needed to scream at me, and couldn’t have if she tried, having worn out her voice box on my rotten older brother (whose name has dropped from 50 to 839 during his lifetime.)
My name wasn’t that common when I was born in 1978, but now it’s more popular than ever. See post #42. It’s #1 for boys. I can’t go to the grocery store or pass a playground anymore without hearing my name. I’d rather my name had become less popular.
My sister’s name is Jennifer, and she was born in the late 70’s. My name is a much less common one in people my age. She often had another Jennifer in her class in school, but I never had someone else sharing my name. I remember feeling sorry for her because of that when I was a kid.
Wow. My name’s gone from 6th place (in the 60’s) to 139th in 2009.
Of course, I remember always having to tag my name with my last initial all through school because there was at least three of us in any class.
Looks like the big 4 gospels are switching positions.
John has been on a steady decline. Matthew & Mark got popular and are falling back now. Luke is kicking butt and taking names.
John, despite an absolutely dominating 53-year run at being #1 (take that, suckahs!), is now just 20th. 
My daughter’s name has rapidly increased in popularity. In 1976, it was the 495th most popular name for girls in the US. When she was born, in 2001, it was the 37th most popular name. In 2007, it was # 7.
Good going, Sophia. 
(“Sofia” is 36th, and “Sophie” is 74th, so combined it might be a top-5 name).
“Paul” has nothing on my wife, who dropped from #10 in 1969 to 215th today. Sorry, Laura.
In my daughter’s second grade: Emma, Isabella, Emily, Madison, Olivia, Abigail, Elizabeth.
Sophie goes to a Catholic school, in case you haven’t guessed.
I can’t believe a name that started as a joke in a movie, a name that literally means “Son of a Soldier”, is the fourth most popular name (some years this past decade, Madison was the second most popular name). Go figure.
My name peaked at 14 in the 80s and is in a decline to number 18 and as a girl’s name peaked at 436 in early 00s.
Collective unconscious? Sumpin in the water?
My two children and their cousins, a boy and girl in each family, were born in the early seventies. Both my SIL and I thought we were picking something a little unique for their names. They have the most popular and second most popular boy’s and girl’s names for the years they were born.
Yes, one is Jennifer!
Edit: Incidently, this is not a bad thing. If no one has mentioned it yet, children with more common names tend to be seen favorably by teachers.
Oh man, I love this website.
One thing I like to do is try to figure out why a certain name gets more popular. For example, Noah in the mid-00s (I’m guessing “The Notebook”).
I like their tool where you can insert how many syllables, what letters it starts with, and it picks a name for you.
So cool!
I’m such a nerd.
And I forgot the “-or” suffix for boys.
Connor, Caylor, Taylor
I really should make those dice. I could make a fortune!