Regional names

/regional-names

  • Regional names

    http://flowingdata.com/2013/11/18/regional-names

    It was a challenge to choose a name for my son, someone who wasn’t born yet, because I didn’t know where to start amongst hundreds of thousands of choices. So I approached the decision the best way I knew how, through data. That brought me back to Hilary Parker’s analysis on the most poisoned name in history, which led me to the most trendy, and then the most unisex. I wanted a name that wasn’t automatically associated with a fad or gender ambiguous.

    Here’s one more criteria I could’ve added: regionality. (My wife and I already named our son, but the data from the Social Security Administration continues as a source of entertainment.)

    Reuben Fischer-Baum looked at the most popular name by state, which is fun, but I was more interested in names specific to regions. Most popular names by state pretty much match a nationwide trend. For example, even though Sophia was the most popular name in western states in 2012 and not the top ranked in the midwest, it’s still probably high up in the ranks. In other words, Sophia isn’t specific to California, etc.

    #cartographie #visualisation #états-unis #toponymie