The Social Security Administration keeps track of the 1000 most popular boys’ and 1000 most popular girls’ baby names in the United States each year. For kicks this evening, I looked up the last name of each president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt, plus the big three of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. I’ve collected data on those presidential last names’ ranks in the top 1000 boys’ and girls’ names since 1999 (where 1 = the most popular name for a sex and 1000 = the 1000th most popular). Here are the results:
Carter is by far the most consistently popular. Is that to Jimmy’s credit? I can’t say, but it is notable that Nixon as a baby name wasn’t allowed in the top 1000 until 2011. Where are Bush, Obama, Ford, Johnson and Eisenhower? Nowhere in the top 1000 for any of these years.
If we’re going to talk presidential first names, the popularity of George during the Dubya years sank from the 129th most popular boy’s name in 2001 to the 163rd most popular in 2009. The name Barack has not broken into the top 1000 during the Obama years.
