And here are the most popular girl names from the past 100 years
You might have a bunch of friends with the same name. You might even share your first name with a handful of your BFFs, too. It’s not really a coincidence — you just happened to be born in a year where your name was one of the most popular.
Abacaba, a group that makes videos about data and math, as their YouTube page says, put together a fascinating 5-minute look at the most popular girls names, going back to 1880. Back then, the most popular name was Mary, with 7.24% of new little bundles of joy receiving that name. Mary would reign supreme until 1947, until she was dethroned by a surplus of Lindas. But then, the tides shifted again in 1953 and Mary reclaimed that top spot.
Out of nowhere in the early ’80s, Ashley becomes a big contender — and you probably know at least a dozen Ashleys. Same with Jessica, Jennifer, Amanda, and Sara who all became major players in the ’80s, and continued into the early ’90s.
The video also includes a cool sidebar, that not only lists the top ten names of each year, but provides a little bit of historical context, too. Like, how suddenly Tiffany became a very popular name, because Tiffany the singer released her first album in 1988.
And then with the release of the Twilight books? Every baby was named Isabella — Bella for short.
If you want to see how popular your name really is, check out the video. Also, you may need to watch it a few times, because it is PACKED with facts about names that equally bizarre and enlightening.
Image via here.