Geographical Names: Brooklyn, Camden, etc.
plunderb
member
I was looking something up for the Camden post below and noticed something funny in the data. Some geographical names are vastly more popular in the states where they are most relevant, while others are substantially less popular in the relevant state.
For example, Brooklyn is #21 in the US and top-10 in nine states, but it ranks lowest in New York (#166) and New Jersey (#119).
Meanwhile, Camden is the #160 name for boys in the US, ranking as high as #59 in some states. But it's not even on the New Jersey list, meaning that out of more than 50,000 baby boys born in NJ in 2011, fewer than 5 were named Camden.
But some geographical names benefit in their home states. Take Acadia, which ranks highest in Maine (#219 vs. #3,755 nationally) and McKinley, which ranks highest in Alaska (#88 vs. #451 nationally).
An interesting pattern. It seems that the local city names don't do well in their states, but natural attractions get a boost.
Do you have a local city, mountain, or park that you've seen used as a name? Post it and I'll check its relative popularity.
Re: Geographical Names: Brooklyn, Camden, etc.
Interesting!
I generally think that place names are for places, not for people. But I do think it makes sense that natural landmarks would seem more acceptable as names in their own area than cities.
I live 30 miles from the nation's capital, and you just don't hear of many kids named Washington here! It would be SUPER weird. Baltimore would be weird too.
However, I do know of a few Maryland kids IRL with place names representative of area geography:
Bay -- after the Chesapeake Bay
Tilghman -- after Tilghman Island, could also be Tilman, Tillman, or Tillmann
Harper -- Harper's Ferry, WV
Some other regional faves/dislikes:
Canyon is most popular for boys in Utah (#395 vs. #1,557 nationally)
Caroline is most popular for girls in South Carolina (#15 vs. #87)
Virginia is most popular for girls in Virginia (#185 vs, #576 nationally)
Dakota is not on the list (fewer than 5 uses) for both boys and girls in both Dakotas.
Phoenix is notably unpopular in Arizona: (#745 vs. #388 nationally for boys; #1,036 vs. #645 for girls)
Baby Name Popularity by State
Charlotte
Looks like Charlotte is disproportionately unpopular in NC (#41 vs. #27 nationally). It's not the lowest ranked, though ? that honor goes to South Dakota, where Charlotte is #112. But compared to neighboring Virginia, where Charlotte is #12, it looks like the city may be a factor.
Baby Name Popularity by State
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How are you checking popularity by state past 100? I don't know how to do that.
I vote it is because the people who actually live near those places know whether or not they make a good namesake...
I'm not a fan of place names. I'm more accepting of landmark/mountain/forest etc. names than of city/town/country names.
Yeah, I'd have to say most people from Jersey/Philly would stay away from Camden. I can't imagine anyone would want their child named after a city that just set a record for murders this year.
There is a Charlottesville in VA.
If you go to the SSA "Beyond the Top 1,000" page, you can download zip files of the extended data by state. They're sort of beastly, as they include all the data back to 1911 in a single file and aren't formatted very well. But if you take the time, you can paste the years you are interested in into an Excel file.
Or you can just page me on here if you want me to look something up. DH is a software engineer and he made me a handy dandy database as a present.
Baby Name Popularity by State
Thanks! Whenever I wanted to see the Beyond 1000 list I would go find a thread where MJ Reilly posted because I know it's in her siggy. Hope that doesn't sound stalkerish!
And wow, so jealous your H would do that for you. I should have married a software engineer, lol!
Yeah, but it's a lot smaller than Charlotte, NC. When you figure the majority of the VA population live in much more populated parts of the state (NOVA and Tidewater) and the fact that most people I meet from those parts of the state have no clue where Charlottesville is (I give my location in reference to DC and Richmond)- even if they know of UVA then I doubt that people are choosing Charlotte because of Charlottesville.
Well I'm in Wisconsin and know quite a few little Madisons (which always gets me since we're just outside of Madison). But at least Madison WI is a beautiful city, lovely place to live, etc.
I don't generally care for place names,my exception being Georgia, which I just adore. But that's more a legit name to me than say London or Brooklyn.
I looked up Madison and it turns out that it is popular in Wisconsin (#15), but it is still disproportionately unpopular. That is, Madison is a top-10 name in most states, including neighboring Michigan (#6), but is comparatively low ranked in Wisconsin. Only 8 states have lower ranks for Madison, including neighboring Minnesota and Iowa.
Baby Name Popularity by State
sigh... DH and I really love the name Brooklyn, unfortunately, we live in NJ. We have family and close friends who live in Brooklyn, so this would just irk me if there are convos like, "Let's meet up in Brooklyn" or "I'm hanging out in Brooklyn". Hmmm...we'll see, but Baby Brooklyn might not happen.
BTW, I don't think anyone who lives here would name their kid Camden or Newark. Until recently with the celebrity baby Camdens, I didn't think this was even an option as a first name. I think other NJ city names that have a lesser association with a city would be ok though, e.g. Harrison, Madison, Brielle.