Name Game

Back in February, I posted the top 10 baby names for boys, as determined by babynames.com through a survey of websites where expectant parents post their favorite names. Now, the Social Security Administration has released the top 10 baby names that parents, in fact, gave their infants last year.

Let's see how good the internet is at predicting actual trends:

Top Boy Baby Name of 2003:
Social Security: Jacob
Internet: Aidan (SSA rank: 39)

#2
Social Security: Michael
Internet: Jaden (SSA rank: 83)

#3
Social security: Joshua
Internet: Caden (SSA rank: 114)

#4
Social Security: Matthew
Internet: Ethan (SSA rank: 7)

#5
Social Security: Andrew
Internet: Caleb (SSA rank 34)

#6
Social Security: Joseph
Internet: Dylan (SSA rank: 19)

#7
Social Security: Ethan
Internet: Jacob (SSA rank: 1)

#8
Social Security: Daniel
Internet: Jordan (SSA rank: 38)

#9
Social Security: Christopher
Internet: Logan (SSA rank: 29)

#10
Social Security: Anthony
Internet: Hayden (SSA rank: 85)

That adds up to being off by an average of about 39 in the rankings. Only one name on the internet list, Jacob, actually turned out to be more popular in practice than the internet survey indicated. So much for reliably predicting this trend online.

My own name, which has never, to my knowledge been among the top 10 (only in my last semester of 18 years of school did I share a class with another Janet), seems to be declining even further. It has gone from 238th most popular in 1991 to 508th most popular now. My new niece Emilia's name comes in at 506th, a steady increase from 935th place in 1991. To see how the popularity of your name has changed over the last 13 years, click here for the Social Security Administration's baby name website. There, you can put in any name and, as long as it is in the top 1000 names, you can see how its popularity has waxed or waned.