Long-term sociolinguistics trends and phonological patterns of American names

Katherine He

doi:10.3765/plsa.v5i1.4741

Abstract

This paper identified macro trends and phonological patterns of 348 million American baby names over 137 years from 1880 to 2017. The analysis showed that sociolinguistic trends have significantly influenced naming over time, as seen in the rise of individualism and unisex names, the impact of public figures and pop culture, and the substantially higher count of unique female names compared to male names. In addition, phonological analysis showed significant differences between male and female names in the number, type, and location of vowels as well as the number of syllables. On average, female names had more vowels, less consonants, and more syllables than male names. Also, names with certain word-final vowels and consonants were identified to be mostly-female or mostly-male. These findings demonstrated an inherent correlation between phonology and the perceived gender of names.

Highlights

IntroductionNames are associated with traits that influence how people perceive one another, which in turn affects naming trends
Used to identify individuals, names are associated with traits that influence how people perceive one another, which in turn affects naming trends
Names are associated with traits that influence how people perceive one another, which in turn affects naming trends. This research examined this phenomenon on a large scale, as demonstrated by trends and phonological patterns in American baby names over 137 years from 1880 to 2017

Summary

Introduction

Names are associated with traits that influence how people perceive one another, which in turn affects naming trends. During the births of the Baby Boomer generation from 1946-1964, Figure 1 clearly shows that more and more unique names were being introduced into the US population, eventually increasing the number of unique names per thousand people from about 2 to 8 for males (a 4x increase), and from 4 to 11 for female (a 2.75x increase). This suggests that novel, nonconventional names have become more popular over time, which is likely driven by the rise of individualism. 21% of male names have only one syllable, compared to 6% of female names

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion