WHATWHAT BABYBABY NAMESNAMES TELLTELL USUS AboutAbout EthnicEthnic andand GenderGender TrendsTrends Our name tells a story about us. It can determine our View our interactive dashboard career. It can influence how smoothly we navigate through to explore the baby names in a life or, alternatively, how hard it can be for us to get multi-cultural society. ahead (1,4). Over the last 70 years, for example, researchers have tried to gauge the effect of having an unusual name on a person. It is thought that our identity is partly shaped by the way we are treated by other people - a concept psychologists call the "looking-glass self" (2) - and our name, therefore, has the potential to color our interactions with society (3,4). More recent studies present a mixed picture (1,3,4), showing children with unusual names may learn to control impulses because they may be teased and then get used to people repeatedly asking them about their name. Some scholars have explained that children with unusual names actually benefit from that experience by learning to control their emotions or their impulses (1,3,4). Various names are popular among different social classes, and these groups have different opportunities and goals (1). The name we give our baby can stem from traditional, regional, historical or religious sources (5). In addition, a child's name can also hint at what his or her parents’ expectations are for their children within the particular society in which they live. Therefore, it is very interesting to explore baby names in a multi-cultural society like New York City, which has distinct ethnic groups: White, Hispanic, Black, and Asian. Baby names in a multi-cultural society reflect the sociological process of integration or segregation between minority ethnic groups and the majority ethnic group (in New York City’s case, the White ethnic group) (5). Also, it is enlightening to reflect upon the popularity of male and female baby names during this period of progression in gender equality (6). 1 This report sheds light on the following questions: To answer these questions, we analyzed a data set from Kaggle that included 1,571 names of 164,965 female babies, and 1,417 names of 207,569 male babies born in New York City between Do parents of different ethnic groups choose specific ethnic names for their children or do they 2011 and 2016 (7). The dataset included the ethnic group of each baby. prefer more ethnically neutral names for their descendants? Which minority ethnic group - Hispanic, Black or Asian - chooses neutral names for their children and to what extent does the majority ethnic group, the White ethnic group, choose distinct names for their children? To what extent are the children’s names in New York City mostly ethnically specific or ethnically neutral? Which are the names that are given equally between White, Hispanic, Black and Asian ethnic groups (ethnically neutral names), and which are mostly given to children of a specific ethnic group; White, Hispanic, Black or Asian (ethnically specific names)? The ethnically neutral and Ethnicity Number of Number of % of Avg. Num of specific names can indicate to what extent social integration or segregation is taking place Different Names Children Children Children per Name among the next generation raised in New York City. Asian Female 286 22,105 13% 77 Do parents choose specifically female or male names, or do they prefer unisex names for children Black Female 282 22,981 14% 81 of each gender? Does gender equality start with children’s names? Is it a popular trend to give Hispanic Female 463 52,225 32% 113 unisex names? White Female 536 67,654 41% 126 Which are the names that are mostly gender neutral or the most gender specific? Which are Female Total 973 164,965 44% 170 the names that were given almost equally to both males and females? These measurements can Asian Male 262 28,580 14% 109 indicate to what extent names are unisex. Black Male 290 31,000 15% 107 Hispanic Male 400 70,580 34% 176 White Male 460 77,409 37% 168 Male Total 829 207,569 56% 250 Total 1,802 372,534 207 2 Variables Ethnically specific male names: Baby names given to males in one ethnic group only (White, Hispanic, Black or Asian). Gender Neutral and Specific Name Index Ethnically specific female names: Baby names given to females in one ethnic group only (White, Hispanic, Black or Asian). In order to understand if a name was gender neutral or specific, we created a neutrality index Ethnically neutral male names: Baby names that were chosen for males in two or (8,9) and defined this index as: more ethnic groups. 2 2 Ethnically neutral female names: Baby names that were chosen for females in two or 1 – (PMale +PFemale ), more ethnic groups. where P Male is the proportion of male baby names in all the population of babies with the Gender-specific names: Baby names given only in one gender group (male or female). same name. The gender-neutral baby names index can range from 0.00, when a baby male Gender neutral names: Baby names given to both female and male babies. (or female) name has appeared only in one given gender group (Gender specific names), to .50, when a baby name has appeared equally in both gender groups (Gender neutral names where 50% of the given name is female, and 50% of the same name is male). Ethnically Neutral and Specific Name Index In order to understand if a name was ethnically neutral or specific, we created a neutrality index (8,9) and defined this index as: 1 – (PWhite Male 2 +PHispanic Male 2 +PBlack Male 2 +PAsian Male 2 ), where P White Male is the proportion of White male baby names in the whole group of babies with the same name. The ethnically neutral baby name index can range from 0.00, when a male (or female) name was given in one ethnic group (Ethnically specific names), to 0.75, when a male name appeared equally in each one of the 4 ethnic groups (Ethnically neutral names, 25% in each one of the ethnic groups). This ethnically specific name index was computed for males and females. 3 Main Findings Most Popular Male Baby Names In New York City during the researched years, the top 5 most popular names for males were Jacob, Ethan (more than 3,000 names), Matthew, David, and Liam (2500-2750 names). (See Graph 1.1). Graph 1.1: Popular Male Baby Names New York City 2011-2016 JACOB 3,140 ETHAN 3,104 MATTHEW 2,798 DAVID 2,759 LIAM 2,668 NOAH 2,543 MICHAEL 2,509 AIDEN 2,508 DYLAN 2,450 DANIEL 2,327 RYAN 2,286 MASON 2,279 LUCAS 2,246 JOSEPH 2,233 JAMES 2,167 ALEXANDER 2,137 ANTHONY 2,116 SEBASTIAN 2,039 JAYDEN 1,909 CHRISTOPHER 1,847 BENJAMIN 1,799 JUSTIN 1,750 JOSHUA 1,742 SAMUEL 1,716 GABRIEL 1,714 JOHN 1,594 AARON 1,594 KEVIN 1,559 WILLIAM 1,534 JONATHAN 1,502 ADAM 1,499 CHRISTIAN 1,464 NICHOLAS 1,445 ANDREW 1,421 ELIJAH 1,367 NATHAN 1,298 JASON 1,297 HENRY 1,290 BRANDON 1,270 1,000 2,000 3,000 4 ,000 4 Most Popular Female Baby Names The top 5 female names were Emma, Olivia, Emily, Mia, and Sophia (more than 2000 names) (See Graph 1.2). Graph 1.2: Popular Female Baby Names New York City 2011-2016 Emma 2,323 Olivia 2,248 Emily 2,148 Mia 2,078 Sophia 2,025 Leah 1,957 Isabella 1,954 Ava 1,795 Sarah 1,792 Chloe 1,743 Sofia 1,672 Madison 1,660 Victoria 1,467 Esther 1,450 Abigail 1,446 Rachel 1,247 Maya 1,203 Ashley 1,138 Ella 1,099 Grace 1,096 Zoe 1,090 Elizabeth 1,076 Samantha 1,069 Chaya 1,061 Charlotte 1,019 Amelia 965 Gabriella 944 Hailey 940 Kayla 920 Brianna 887 Camila 887 Alexandra 877 Hannah 872 Valentina 860 Arianna 850 Ariana 842 Anna 813 Miriam 798 Scarlett 795 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 5 Baby names in a multi-cultural society The choice of baby names within ethnic groups hints that parents from distinct ethnic groups stronger intention to choose ethnically neutral female baby names than Hispanic parents. 88% of would prefer their descendants to integrate socially into the mainstream population rather than have Asian male babies and 89% of the Black male babies, compared to 80% of Hispanic male babies, were them identify specifically and exclusively in their ethnic groups. 80% of the male baby names and 77% given ethnically neutral male baby names. Indeed, most White parents (72%) choose neutral names of the female baby names were ethnically neutral baby names (names have appeared in two or more for their male babies. However, 28% of their baby names were specific to a White ethnic group. We ethnic groups (see Graph 2). Only 20% of the male baby names and 23% of the female baby names found the same trends for female baby names, except for the Asian ethnic group which chose more were specific in a given ethnic group. The findings also reveal that Black and Asian parents have a neutral names (88%) for their female babies than Black and Hispanic ethnic groups (82%-83%). Graph 2.0: % Ethnically Specific Names vs. % Ethnically Neutral Names by Ethnic Group and Gender 100% 72% 80% 89% 88% 80% 68% 82% 83% 88% 77% Ethnically Neutral Names Ethnically Specific Names 75% 50% 32% 25% 28% 23% 20% 20% 18% 17% 11% 12% 12% 0% White Male Hispanic Male Black Male Asian Male Total Male White Female Hispanic Female Black Female Asian Female Total Female 6 Popular ethnically neutral baby names that crossed ethnic groups (each appeared at least once in a given ethnic group): The top 5 most popular ethnically neutral male baby names that appeared (at least for one baby) in all ethnic groups - White, Hispanic, Black and Asian - were Jacob, Ethan, Matthew, David, Liam, and Michael.