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Conversation

How the hell does name popularity work? I hear people say "When I picked that name it wasn't popular, but suddenly everybody started naming their kid that" all the time. I myself have picked at least 3 names for things I thought weren't popular, only to soon realize they were.

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@PstafarianPrice

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The ambient cultural forces that make one person like a name are acting on other people as well

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@PstafarianPrice

yes but what ARE those forces? What tf made me like the name Lucy, Sophie, Abigail, and Freya, before I knew they were just getting popular?

10:14 PM · Oct 3, 2020

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@PstafarianPrice

People are a substrate for memes. We've only barely scratched the surface of how they work and only really get to see the super visible ones. Once you see the world this way, stuff makes more sense, but so much of it is still inscrutable to scientific inquiry.

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@PstafarianPrice

People like rare names, because they are more unique. No baggage from people you already know Less potential for miscommunication But they can't be too obscure, they need to be recognizable as names.

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@DistractedAnna

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@PstafarianPrice

One thing about girl names is that they tend to be cyclical and those all fit with that. They’re names that jive with historical fiction you (and your peers) probably read as a little girl, or dead relatives that y’all’s parents/other adults describe with hazy fondness.

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@PstafarianPrice

My guess is that there is a sweet spot for names that aren't yet considered overused or sound too dated which get higher preference.

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@PstafarianPrice

Exposure to the same ideas. Wherever you saw Freya, others saw it too, and from there the idea spreads.

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