My latest issue of National Geographic came with this fascinating mapping of population by surname.  Seeing “Anderson” looming large over Minnesota did not surprise me, but I didn’t realize how many of us “snow birds” had permanently escaped to California.  Take a look and see if you can locate any of you long-lost wander-kin around the USA.

The Junk Charts blog, one of my favorites, gave a generally favorable review of the “Nat-Geo” name chart, but they recommended an even-better one – the Baby Name Wizard, which plots the popularity of first names over the last 130 years. 

I am expecting my first grandchild this summer, so there’s been lots of talks about names lately, thus this statistical chart caught my eye.  You, too, may find it interesting. I suggest you start by hovering mouse over the widest streams (blue for boy, pink for girl) at the left (John, Mary, etc)* and then see how their popularity changes over the past 130 years.  A tip: Click the graph to see trends for any given name, or enter it directly.  Press “x” to get out of any specific name field (or type in another).  I typed in my name and saw an explosion of popularity in mid-20th century, but now it’s fading away.  The same holds true for my sister Nancy and my wife Karen – we all get tagged as baby-boomers straight away.

If you think there’s any chance of your name ranking in the top 1,000 for popularity in the USA at any time since 1880, type it in.  How do you do, _______ (<= name here)?