Names frequency changes not always stochastic

Posted by on October 30, 2009; This entry is filed under Uncategorized.
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Turns out some names do become popular because of celebrities. Though I guess in the “big picture” the names celebrities have is going to be random. (via Andrew Gelman)

One Comments

  1. John Emerson October 30th, 2009 at 7:45 pm

    There’s a real story in the name “Darwin”, which peaked around 1930 at #315. As far as I know it always traces back to Charles; it first appears on the chart in 1890. 
     
    It seems to be sort of a country name. There are two Darwins that I know of around here, and there were one or two Darwins in Iowa where my father grew up.  
     
    My guess is that it’s the village atheist name, from a time when there were a fair number of village atheists.

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