Sometimes all it takes is a few clues to figure out someone’s name. Nathan Yau at Flowing Data has an algorithm that can do just that, using only your sex, decade of birth, and the first couple letters of your name. It’s a fun visual representation of the most popular names starting with a given letter in a given era. Of course it doesn’t work so well for those of us with unusual names! But if you’re as interested in name data as we are, it’s a fun way to spend some time.
Because we couldn’t help ourselves, we dug a little deeper on the Flowing Data site. In addition to the “Guessing Names Based on What They Start With” algorithm, there are so many other really interesting charts, including The Most Gender-Switched Names in US History, The Most Unisex Names in US History, The Most Regional Names in US History, The Most Trendy Names in US History, and even The Most Poisoned Name in US History (Before you click the link, take a guess about this one!).
In celebrity baby name news, the name of Anne Hathaway’s second child with husband Adam Shulman has been announced. US Weekly reported on Tuesday that they’ve named their second son Jack. In our Name News post last July, we speculated that they might go traditional again, as they did with their eldest child, Jonathan. Though we didn’t expect the name to be quite so similar to three-year-old Jonathan’s.
And speaking of matching sibling names . . . Musician DJ Khaled is a papa for the second time! In his Grammy speech, he revealed the name of his newborn son, Aalam, and even explained the name’s meaning and origin: “First of all, God is the greatest, thank you, God. This is for Nipsey Hussle. This is for hip-hop. I want to thank my beautiful queen Nicole. I just had a new baby boy a week ago. His name is Aalam. It means ‘the world’ in Arabic.” Aalam joins three-year-old brother Asahd.
We’ve shared our thoughts about Cameron Diaz and Benji Madden’s new baby’s first name. But now that we know Raddix’s full name, we have even more opinions. Raddix Chloe Wildflower Madden has to have some meaning, right? It’s such a bold mix of styles—a rare “invented” first name, a popular middle name (Chloe), and a second, more “Hollywood” middle name (Wildflower). We might never know how they came up with the unconventional combination, but Wildflower does appear to have a connection to one of Cameron Diaz’s best friends, Drew Barrymore. Very much of the flower-child flavor, Barrymore wrote a memoir titled Wildflower and her production company is Flower Films. The name definitely grows on you; Wildflower is like Rose’s crazy, rule-breaking cousin. And if Diaz chose it to honor her bestie, we approve even more.
From a name-predicting algorithm to the totally unpredictable baby names of Hollywood, that’s our name news!