(Anthropology) How does nearly every US state’s “most popular name” change from “Name X” to “Name Y” within only a year?

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I saw [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/i8daoz/oc_most_popular_baby_girl_names_in_the_us_from/) and was rather interested at how this happens. The only thing I can think of is people naming their child after famous people (or infamous people, like the popularity of Monica nosediving in the mid 90’s).

Another example from the aforementioned post is ‘Jennifer’. That name was the most popular for nearly a decade until it suddenly disappeared in every state.

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3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

People often pick a name that gets exposure in the media for some reason, e.g. “Megan”. After a while prospective parents find that there’s so many little Megans running around that it becomes the last thing they want to name their girl.

It’s just like any other fashion, once a trend becomes too popular it becomes untrendy.

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