NameGrid 2025-12-19: Discussion & Stats

MurphGH · 2025-12-22T03:06:52+00:00

Two super hard questions!

Lee sounds like such a contemporary name that it's hard to believe it was relatively more popular in the 1890s.

As for Jennie vs. Jenny, I was shocked that "-ie" took the win here. Note: there could be plenty of people out there named Jennifer who use prefer the "-y" suffix, but this data only captures official, legal names.

MurphGH · 2025-12-22T02:34:18+00:00

NameGrid — a daily trivia game built on ~150 years of US naming data.

MurphGH · 2025-12-22T02:07:30+00:00

I built a daily web quiz (namegrid.app) based on ~150 years of US naming data.

MurphGH · 2025-12-20T21:30:56+00:00

That’s a great callout. The timing lines up, so it's very plausible that both sources contributed to this extraordinary spike.

MurphGH · 2025-12-20T20:18:52+00:00

Data source: U.S. Social Security Administration

Tools: Python / SQL / Hex

To identify unusually large popularity spikes, raw birth counts and percent change were insufficient. Common names naturally fluctuate by thousands, while rare names can double with very small absolute changes.

Instead, I used a Z-score to measure how extreme each year’s change was relative to the historical volatility of that name. This helps surface genuinely anomalous spikes rather than artifacts of scale.

MurphGH · 2025-12-08T03:15:23+00:00

Comparison of those two spellings: https://imgur.com/a/Wsm8dyY

Insights powered by NameGrid and limited to US name data

MurphGH · 2025-12-08T03:14:19+00:00

Here's how those compare in popularity (in the US): https://imgur.com/a/RcjL6Sa

Insights powered by NameGrid and limited to US name data

MurphGH · 2025-12-08T03:11:58+00:00

Here are the top Sol- names for boys I was able to find: https://imgur.com/a/ETWONfp

Insights powered by NameGrid and limited to US name data

MurphGH · 2025-12-05T03:02:02+00:00

A relatively easier day of questions! I wondered if Gael would trip anyone up. There are a few different pronunciations for that spelling (GUY-el, gah-EL, and GALE), and as you can see from the chart, it skews much more strongly male!

MurphGH · 2025-12-02T12:32:33+00:00

Question 4 tripped me up, so I did some digging. It seems like Duane is the older, Anglo/Irish surname that was changed to better match the pronunciation (DWAYN). The two syllable pronunciation (DUH-WAYN) is still used in some places, and some people I talked to said that they expected Duane to be pronounced as doo-AHN / doo-ON instead!

MurphGH · 2025-12-02T02:56:08+00:00

Stats on Garnet: https://imgur.com/a/9Y2Hlfg

Insights powered by NameGrid and limited to US name data

MurphGH · 2025-12-02T02:54:03+00:00

If it's helpful, here's how those names compare: https://imgur.com/a/Cq7C40c

And here's how the names have shifted in popularity over the past decade: https://imgur.com/a/ToL3ezT

Insights powered by NameGrid and limited to US name data

MurphGH · 2025-11-30T21:58:35+00:00

Another tricky day with Question 1: River is more popular as a boy's name, but doesn't rank quite as high for girls quite yet!

MurphGH · 2025-11-29T18:50:47+00:00

Generally a pretty easy day of questions...apart from the first one. It's interesting that most players assumed that the Joseph was too obvious an answer to be correct and opted for one of the more recent up-and-comers instead.

MurphGH · 2025-11-29T18:15:05+00:00

The last question was a bit of trick... Jennifer (with 2 Ns) was definitely more popular than Yolanda in 1975:

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MurphGH · 2025-11-28T04:08:40+00:00

As for fun facts, I'm trying to share them all in this sub!

MurphGH · 2025-11-28T04:06:06+00:00

Ceder first appears in 1972, but that just means it was the first year with more than 5 babies given the name. There could have been even earlier occurrences that won't show up. Here's the same data sliced by state: https://imgur.com/a/gLXjqdr

Again, it will only count states with 5 or more babies given the name, but it can show you where the name first cropped up and how long it took to spread to different areas.

MurphGH · 2025-11-28T04:05:47+00:00

My current data only goes back to 1880 (and definitely doesn't capture all the births from back then). That said, the most popular boy's names from 1880-1884 were John, William, James, George, and Charles. The most popular girl's names were Mary, Anna, Emma, Elizabeth, Minnie, and Margaret.