Most Popular Baby Names, Illustrated

This week, Reuben Fischer-Baum of Deadspin.com published two great sets of maps, which depict the evolution of male and female baby names from 1960 to today in each state. For a time--for a long time--Jennifer was the go-to baby girl name and Michael was the dominant baby boy name. In recent years, though, Emily (or Emma) and Jacob have taken over, but regional preferences have become more pronounced and individual states have bucked the national prevailing trends since 2000. (Illinois' individual preference for Alexander from 2008 to 2011 grabbed my eye and has me wondering what happened there; Alexander also popped up in Nebraska for a time.)

My home state of New York has consistently and reliably been a Michael state, except for 1964, when it, like most of the Northeast, saw John become the most popular boy name for a year, probably as a moving response to the death of John F. Kennedy at the end of 1963.

But this is all dull conversation-piece socio-trivia until it is rendered as a GIF and the trends are illustrated and the regional nature of the emerging trends (in 2010, Mason was the most popular name in Iowa; in 2011, it was the most popular in neighboring Nebraska, while Iowa had moved on to Carter) visibly flows across parts of the national map. 

Most Popular Baby Names, Illustrated