Editing Given name (section)

==Popularity{{anchor|Popularity distribution of given names}}==
[[File:USA historical popular baby names.svg|thumb|250px|Most popular US baby names from 1880 to 2012]]
The popularity (frequency) distribution of given names typically follows a [[Zipf–Mandelbrot law|power law distribution]].

Since about 1800 in England and Wales and in the U.S., the popularity distribution of given names has been shifting so that the most popular names are losing popularity. For example, in England and Wales, the most popular female and male names given to babies born in 1800 were Mary and John, with 24% of female babies and 22% of male babies receiving those names, respectively.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.galbithink.org/names.htm|title=First Name Popularity in England and Wales over the Past Thousand Years}}</ref> In contrast, the corresponding statistics for England and Wales in 1994 were Emily and James, with 3% and 4% of names, respectively. Not only have Mary and John gone out of favour in the English-speaking world, but the overall distribution of names has also changed significantly over the last 100{{nbsp}}years for females, but not for males. This has led to an increasing amount of diversity for female names.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://analyticalvisions.blogspot.com/2006/11/names.html |work=Analytical Visions|title=Names |date=13 November 2006}}</ref>

===Choice of names===
Education, ethnicity, religion, class and political ideology affect parents' choice of names. Politically conservative parents choose common and traditional names, while politically liberal parents may choose the names of literary characters or other relatively obscure cultural figures.<ref>J. Eric Oliver, Thomas Wood, Alexandra Bass.  "Liberellas versus Konservatives: Social Status, Ideology, and Birth Names in the United States"  [http://conference.mpsanet.org/Online/Search.aspx?session=2834 Presented at] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130713085234/http://conference.mpsanet.org/Online/Search.aspx?session=2834|date=13 July 2013}} the 2013 [[Midwestern Political Science Association]] Annual Meeting</ref>  Devout members of religions often choose names from their religious scriptures.  For example, Hindu parents may name a daughter [[Saanvi]] after the goddess, Jewish parents may name a boy [[Isaac]] after one of the earliest ancestral figures, and Muslim parents may name a boy [[Mohammed (name)|Mohammed]] after [[Muhammad|the prophet Mohammed]].

There are many tools parents can use to choose names, including books, websites and applications. An example is the Baby Name Game that uses the [[Elo rating system]] to rank parents preferred names and help them select one.<ref name="Baby Name Game">{{cite web |url=http://www.monkie.biz |title=Baby Name Game |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://archive.today/20140329014247/http://baby-namer.meteor.com/launch |archive-date= 29 March 2014 }}</ref>

===Influence of popular culture===
{{More citations needed section|date=October 2015}}
[[Popular culture]] appears to have an influence on naming trends, at least in the United States and United Kingdom. Newly famous celebrities and public figures may influence the popularity of names. For example, in 2004, the names "Keira" and "Kiera" (anglicisation of Irish name Ciara) respectively became the 51st and 92nd most popular girls' names in the UK, following the rise in popularity of British actress [[Keira Knightley]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 January 2005 |title=Babies' Names 2004 |url=http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=184 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050727084712/http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=184 |archive-date=Jul 27, 2005 |website=National Statistics Online}}</ref> In 2001, the use of Colby as a boys' name for babies in the United States jumped from 233rd place to 99th, just after [[Colby Donaldson]] was the runner-up on ''[[Survivor: The Australian Outback]]''.{{citation needed|date=October 2015}} Also, the female name "Miley" which before was not in the top 1000 was 278th most popular in 2007, following the rise to fame of singer-actress [[Miley Cyrus]] (who was named Destiny at birth).<ref name=ssa>"[http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/ Popular Baby Names]", Social Security Administration, US.</ref>

[[File:Influence of TV series on given names.svg|thumb|500 px|right|Influence of TV series on given names in England and Wales from 1996 to 2021.]]

Characters from fiction also seem to influence naming. After the name [[Kayla (name)|Kayla]] was used for [[Kayla Brady|a character]] on the American [[soap opera]] ''[[Days of Our Lives]]'',<!--This is the correct rendering, per the show's title sequence.--> the name's popularity increased greatly. The name [[Tammy (given name)|Tammy]], and the related [[Tamara (given name)|Tamara]] became popular after the movie ''[[Tammy and the Bachelor]]'' came out in 1957. Some names were established or spread by being used in literature. Notable examples include [[Pamela (name)|Pamela]], invented by Sir [[Philip Sidney]] for a pivotal character in his epic prose work, ''[[The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia]]''; [[Jessica (given name)|Jessica]], created by William Shakespeare in his play ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]''; [[Vanessa (name)|Vanessa]], created by [[Jonathan Swift]]; [[Fiona]], a character from [[James Macpherson]]'s spurious cycle of [[Ossian]] poems; [[Wendy]], an obscure name popularised by [[J. M. Barrie]] in his play ''[[Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up]]''; and [[Madison (name)|Madison]], a character from the movie ''[[Splash (film)|Splash]]''. [[Lara (name)|Lara]] and [[Larissa (given name)|Larissa]] were rare in America before the appearance of ''[[Doctor Zhivago (1965 film)|Doctor Zhivago]],'' and have become fairly common since.

Songs can influence the naming of children. Jude jumped from 814th most popular male name in 1968 to 668th in 1969, following the release of [[the Beatles]]' "[[Hey Jude]]". Similarly, [[Layla]] charted as 969th most popular in 1972 after the [[Eric Clapton]] song. It had not been in the top 1,000 before.<ref name=ssa/> Kayleigh became a particularly popular name in the United Kingdom following the release of a song by the British rock group [[Marillion]]. Government statistics in 2005 revealed that 96% of Kayleighs were born after 1985, the year in which Marillion released "[[Kayleigh]]". {{citation needed|date=September 2013}}

Popular culture figures need not be admirable in order to influence naming trends. For example, Peyton came into the top 1000 as a female given name for babies in the United States for the first time in 1992 (at #583), immediately after it was featured as the name of an evil nanny in the film ''[[The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992 film)|The Hand That Rocks the Cradle]]''.<ref name=ssa/> On the other hand, historical events can influence child-naming. For example, the given name [[Adolf]] has fallen out of use since the end of [[World War II]] in 1945.

In contrast with this anecdotal evidence, a comprehensive study of Norwegian first name datasets<ref>{{cite journal |title=You Name It – How Memory and Delay Govern First Name Dynamics |bibcode-access=free |first1=David A. |last1=Kessler |first2=Yosi E. |last2=Maruvka |first3=Jøergen |last3=Ouren |first4=Nadav M. |last4=Shnerb |date=20 June 2012 |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=7 |issue=6 |pages=e38790 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0038790 |pmid= 22745679 |pmc=3380031 |bibcode=2012PLoSO...738790K |doi-access=free}}</ref> shows that the main factors that govern first name dynamics are [[endogenous]].  Monitoring the popularity of 1,000 names over 130 years, the authors have identified only five cases of [[exogenous]] effects, three of them are connected to the names given to the babies of the Norwegian royal family.

===20th century African-American names===
Since the civil rights movement of 1950–1970, [[African-American names]] given to children have strongly mirrored sociopolitical movements and philosophies in the African-American community. Since the 1970s neologistic (creative, inventive) practices have become increasingly common and the subject of academic study.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gaddis |first1=S. |title=How Black Are Lakisha and Jamal? Racial Perceptions from Names Used in Correspondence Audit Studies |journal=Sociological Science |date=2017 |volume=4 |pages=469–489 |doi=10.15195/v4.a19 |doi-access=free|url=https://osf.io/7c4wv/download }}</ref>