Do Songs with Names as the Title Affect their Naming Popularity?

In this short essay, we will examine a group of popular songs with clear positive and negative associations with personal names. We defined negative associations as lyrics containing references to:

For clarification purposes, many of the positive songs make references to female promiscuity, but those are affirming rather than critical. The song corpus ranges from 1960 to 1995. Each song has the previous 4 years and the following 4 years of their release date, as the data becomes null before or after due to influence being lost.

Positive:

  • “Layla” by Derek and the Dominos

  • “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac

  • “Michelle” by The Beatles

  • “Hey Jude” by The Beatles

  • “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond

  • “Rosanna” by Toto

Negative:

  • “Lola” by the Kinks

  • “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” by The Beatles

  • “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson

  • “Jolene” by Dolly Parton

  • “Runaround Sue” by Dion DiMucci

  • “Angie” by The Rolling Stones

  • “Black Betty” by Ram Jam

  • “Roxanne” by The Police

The following is a quick song-by-song breakdown of why fall into their designated category.

“Layla” by Derek and the Dominos

  • Layla is a song written about the former girlfriend of George Harrison, Pattie Boyd, by Eric Clapton. Notably, the song “Something” by George Harrison is also about Pattie Boyd. “Layla” tells the story of Clapton’s love for Layla, a woman whom he has entangled in her charm, causing him to beg for her love.

“Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac

  • Stevie Nicks wrote the song Rhiannon after being inspired by a story she found in an old wiccan/witchcraft book. The song’s lyrics follow the story of a woman (Rhiannon). She possesses magical powers and is also highly desirable. With her lyrics, Nicks teases the idea of being with Rhiannon, stating, “Wouldn’t you love to love her?”

“Michelle” by The Beatles

  • “Michelle” is another massive Lennon-McCartney hit. It is a standard, whimsically folk love song, of the writers pouring their love out to this Michelle. The lyrics even claim her as theirs, stating “ma belle” which translates to my beautiful.

“Hey Jude” by The Beatles

  • “Hey Jude” is accredited to both Lennon and McCartney, however, it is heavily written by McCartney as it is a song of love and encouragement to Lennon’s first son Julian Lennon, whom he semi-abandoned after coupling with Yoko Ono. It is a heartening song made to cheer up young Julian through his time of turmoil, later causing masses of audiences to feel the same when they hear it.

“Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond

  • “Sweet Caroline” is a joyful song, now turned classic played at bars to Superbowls, gathering everyone collectively to sing “Ba ba bum!” It is a classic summer love story, encapsulating the feeling of young love perfectly.

“Rosanna” by Toto

  • “Rosanna” is a song about true devotion in love. David Paich writes the song depicting how she is on Paich’s mind at all hours of the day, and even when she leaves he will do anything to be with her, even “meet(ing) her all the way.”

“Lola” by The Kinks

  • Although at the time of writing this, “Lola” has turned into an iconic LGBTQ+ song, at the time of its release (1970), gender affirmation was a lot less common, and was rather discriminated against. Lola is a woman the storyteller (lyricist: Ray Davies and Frank O. Anthun) met at a club whom he became enamored with, especially being a man of minimal experience with intimacy. Later, he comes to find out that Lola is not the woman he thought she was, but rather a man. Although the lyrics never state any ill towards this discovery, the interpretation of these lyrics intertwined with the popular political beliefs of the time led it to be negatively associated with the time.

“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” by The Beatles

  • When looking at the lyrics of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, on a surface level it seems like a playful song, depicting a Willy-Wonka Chocolate Factory-like world. This song, written by John Lennon, is inspired by a drawing his daughter gave him which depicted many of the fun worldly characteristics he is describing within the song. However, with this song being released in 1967, the Hippie movement was in full-throttle and their interpretation of the song soon became the most popularized version of interpretation. The song title can be deducted from the acronym LSD, and many of the song’s lyrics were found to be a relatable experience of the drug’s effects.

“Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson

  • Quite the opposite of a love song, quoted by South Padre Island’s most beloved musician, Nathan Hubble, it is the most “un-father’s day song”. “Billie Jean” illustrates Jackson’s struggles with a woman who claims her child is their child. Through the song, Jackson disagrees and claims that she is not his lover.

“Jolene” by Dolly Parton

  • Jolene is dicey when it comes to interpretation. Jolene is a woman who is so irresistible that any man falls for her, and Parton’s husband has succumbed to her just as every other man. Parton begs Jolene that she can have anyone else, just not her man. The ability to relate to Parton’s perspective more than Jolene’s has caused the scale to lean towards Jolene being a massively negative factor. However, Parton never claims Jolene did any kind of double-crossing or cheating, I acknowledge that this song is up for debate on its inherent negative association.

“Runaround Sue” by Dion DiMucci

  • This song is a story of a heartbroken man who fell for a woman who doesn’t stay with any man for very long. Given that this song was released in 1961, the severity of being perceived as a woman who runs around was far greater than it is today. Not only does the man mourn his relationship with Sue, but he also expresses his regrets of starting a relationship with her and warns any future potential lover of her behavior.

“Angie” by The Rolling Stones

  • Although the Angie sung about in this song is never disparaged within the lyrics, the overarching truth of the song is that they have broken up. Therefore, coinciding a breakup with baby-naming causes this Angie to be negatively associated.

“Black Betty” by Ram Jam

  • Black Betty’s true lyrical meaning is ambiguous, as the name Betty may not even be referring to a real person but an object. However, the multiple taboos including within the lyrics (Betty having a child out of her control, Betty getting the lyricist high, either metaphorically or physically) cause it to be categorized negatively.

“Roxanne” by The Police

  • Roxanne is a song of advice, written by Sting. He sings out to Roxanne who he has fallen in love with, however, the issue is that she is a prostitute. Throughout the song, he begs her to stop. Even today, prostitution is still a very controversial field of work, especially as it is illegal in most places, therefore causing this song to be negatively associated.

The following graphs show the popularity by percentage and the change over time, with markers on the release date.

Positive Names

Graph Note: “Roxanne” was misplaced into this graph category, it should be analyzed as a negative name.

Negative Names

Hit songs changed the popularity of names, as shown in both figures. The sharpest increases in popularity after a song’s release date occurred with the names Rhiannon, Layla, and Jolene, followed by Angie and Michelle. Oddly, songs with negative connotations do not seem to have affected name popularity. Rather, the names that decreased in popularity after the song’s release seem to have already been on the decline before the release date. We account for the impact of names on existing trends below. The names that most dramatically rose to popularity were names that were already very low in popularity to begin with (Rhiannon and Layla). Because these names were so rare, we can see the impact without using linear regression to account for existing trends.

Most interestingly, Jolene shot up largely in popularity after being in decline for over a decade with a small increase before the release date. Given that the song is about a mistress stealing Dolly Parton’s partner, it could be assumed that the love for the song and Ms. Parton override the meaning and social implications of the song.

The three Beatles’ songs vary greatly in their influence. In the height of Beatlemania, the already very popular name Michelle rose even higher. While Jude decreased, maybe due to its stronger ties to religion in the hippy sixties, it would be interesting to see if it affected the masculine naming pattern. Although the Beatles managed to prolong the decline of the name Lucy, it may have not been enough as the rise of name diversity as a whole during this time caused a decrease in classic names all around, as seen with Sue.

Song Saturation

Because of the status of these songs in today’s time being highly recognizable, it is easy to assume that by their release date, they were booming in popularity, but that may not be the case. A good measure of popularity for all songs with a release date before 1986 in the United States would be cassette and all forms of vinyl sale (whether it be the full album track or just the single). According to the U.S. Music Revenue Database, it wasn’t until 1986 that C.D. sales began to contribute significantly to overall revenue. To add, only sales data from the United States will be relevant as the SSA data is being used to track name influence, even though there are plenty of songs released in other countries such as the three Beatles songs.

While on the topic of the Beatles, it is only fair to separately categorize their level of influence. They are the single most popular band to ever exist in the form of certified units sold and in combination with Gold, Platinum, multi-platinum, and Diamond units awarded.

The Beatles:

  • Certified Units (In Millions): 183

  • Gold Units: 48

  • Platnium Units: 42

  • Multi Platinum Units: 26

  • Diamond Units: 6

For this reason, on the scale of influence via popularity, the Beatles are at the highest end of the scale while artists who have yet to be awarded anything are the lowest. Focusing purely on the most influential songs for this section, Michelle, Rhiannon, Layla, Angie, and Jolene will be a subset. The following are each band’s certified units sold in the millions.

  • The Rolling Stones (Angie): 66.5

  • Fleetwood Mac (Rhiannon): 55.5

  • Eric Clapton (Layla): 40

  • Dolly Parton (Jolene): 9

Each of these songs also made impressive jumps on their respective song charts for the time. Here are their placings after the release date:

  • Michelle: Grammy for Song of the Year in 1967, No. 1 in multiple countries

  • Angie: No. 1

  • Rhiannon: No. 11

  • Layla: No. 16

  • Jolene: No. 1 (Country Charts)

These song names have a massive onset of “name-fame” which causes a quick yet dramatic effect on name popularity. This form of influence seems to be distinct from other forms such as presidential names which if there even is an increase, it is still relatively gradual, but more often it causes a decrease in name popularity.

One of the original baby-naming handbooks, “How to Name Baby Without Handicapping it for Life” by Alexander McQueen, although dated in many ways, lays out recommendations for naming in America that are still relatively upheld for many parents. When speaking about famous names, he uses examples such as Shakespeare and Lincoln, stating further that the magnitude of recognition those names hold will cause a burden as people will “pay more attention to the name than to the person.” The naming pattern of large spikes then a relatively steady decline following the release, bringing a name out of the shadows of normality and into “name-fame” territory. I’d suggest that the evolutionary phase of this cycle is what causes the massive jump in name popularity. As when the song first comes out either the connection to the artist or the phenomenon of hearing a name you like for the first time makes the burden of meticulously planning a child’s name so much easier. However, once a name reaches “name-fame”, it will likely cause the same outcome as described by McQueen of a name having a stronger identity than the person can.

Social Security data depicts name volatility increasing as new generations are less and less indebted to family traditions, due to the growing strength of individuality in American culture and assimilation. In 1930, the total amount of documented names was 11927 whereas in 2020 it was 31517. Given that listening to music is the most popular entertainment activity and had a prevalence in humanity long before T.V. it is not unreasonable to assume that music is highly influential to naming patterns.

Michelle Influence

Layla Influence

Rhiannon Influence

Angie Influence

The red line depicts what the designated name’s trajectory would be without the influence of the song. As mentioned earlier, Layla and Rhiannon are unique as they were rare names to begin with but the linear regression line helps to show the intensity of the song release’s impact on the two specific names. It is clear that the release of songs with names in the title has a strong influence on naming patterns regardless of the initial rarity of the name (take Michelle for example), whether they are positively or negatively associated. However, the general interpretation of the negative songs categorized aren’t necessarily universal, as mentioned in the category explanation portion of this paper. There are plenty of songs that rise to popularity and become beloved within our minds yet we fail to listen closely enough to understand the meaning (“Hey Ya!” by Outkast). It would be hoped for though that this phenomenon may not be as prevalent when considering baby names.

Using the SSA data and Steven Mintz’s “Huck’s Raft”, it has been observed that male names tend to be less volatile than female names within the United States. Conclusively, major societal customs are the reasoning behind this. For example, in most situations, men are the ones who carry on the family name within a marriage and this same ideology often carries into first names. On average, it is far more common for a male to carry the suffix of Jr./Sr. than it is in comparison to women. Orlando Lugo Jr., a student at the University of Texas, based on his personal experience and observations states, “I think looking back at it (his family naming tradition), it has to do with the honor and reputation. Not just behind the last name, but being apart of a lineage, just like the kings were back in the day.”

Although we’ve observed how songs with names as the title have an effect on that name’s naming pattern, based on naming traditions, songs with masculine names as the title may have less of an effect or none at all on naming patterns. Similarly to the female names, I’ve gathered a list of songs with names as the title from the 1950s to the 1990s and categorized them into positively associated or negatively associated. the following are the songs.

It should be noted that generally, men and women are perceived differently in terms of lyrics. Rather than categorizing a male as negative for promiscuity, this essay will negatively associate the name if there is “player” like behavior in the lyrics. Violence also seems to be a prevalent new way of categorization in regards to the male names.

Positive:

  • “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry

  • “Hey Jude” by The Beatles

  • “Daniel” by Elton John

  • “Fernando” by ABBA

  • “Jack and Diane” by John Mellencamp

  • “Tom Sawyer” by Rush

Negative:

  • “Me and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin

  • “Hey Mickey” by Toni Basil

  • “Jeremy” by Pearl Jam

  • “Louie Louie” by The Kingsmen

  • “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” by The Beatles

Similarly to the womens name section, the following is a quick song-by-song breakdown of why fall into their designated category. Excluding “Hey Jude” as it is in both categories being a gender neutral name.

“Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry

  • The song title may be confusing as to which way Johnny leans in categorizing but Berry is telling the story of Johnny very highly. It is a chipper song shortly describing the life of a young musician from the South with great talent. The chorus, “Go, Johnny, go, go!” is all about encouraging him to get to the big leagues one day.

“Daniel” by Elton John

  • John wrote this sweet and somber song out to his brother, and the lyrics perfectly encapsulates the bond to siblings share with each other and the pain of growing up and having to leave life behind for the world’s demands. Specifially, the Daniel in this song is a war veteran coming home.

“Fernando” by ABBA

  • Similarly to “Daniel”, “Fernando” is also a song appreciating war veterans. Through the lyrics, the song composers (Stig Anderson, Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus) uphold and honor the experience of veterans while also poetically relating to their experiences post-war.

“Jack and Diane” by John Mellencamp

  • Although the lyrics never directly refer to this, “Jack and Diane” originally was set out to be a song recognizing interracial couples. However, it was still a controversial move which is why there are no lyrics explicitly stating such. Regardlessly, it is a sweet love song about two small town lovers finding each other and not taking life too seriously.

“Tom Sawyer” by Rush

  • “Tom Sawyer” has grown to one of the most epic entrance songs of all time, whether it is WWE or NBA, it is a song that embodies victory. Of course, the song is inspired by Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. Rush was able to translate this classic into music, still encapsulating the free spirit and rebellious nature of the oringnal Tom Sawyer.

“Me and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin

  • Not only has this song become a highly treasured song as it rose to become a No. 1 hit after the passing of rock’s arguably biggest female legend, Janis Joplin. It is a sweet love song with a sad ending of death, however the love still rings in her heart.

“Hey Mickey” by Toni Basil

  • Often misinterpreted as a LGBTQ+ positivity song due to the gender-ambiguity of the name, writers Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn have debunked that myth. However, it is a song about a girl head over heels for either a player, or a boy that is just not interested enough in her to commit.

“Jeremy” by Pearl Jam

  • Seeping into hard rock, “Jeremy” by Pearl Jam is very melancholic in regards to lyrics. Unfortunately, the lyrics are inspired by the real-life case of Jeremy Delle, a 15 year old boy who committed suicide infront of his english class in order to venge his bullying. The lyrics follow this story as well as experiences of childhood trauma.

“Louie Louie” by The Kingsmen

  • Not too explicit on the standards of 2024, however “Louie Louie” has been claimed as the most explicit song of the 1950’s-60’s. When lookig at the lyrics, it is not explicit if anything it comes off as a typical song, but it turns out to be one of the most-banned songs of the time. I can only guess that it received this criticism because it was written from the perspective of a Jamaican bar customer to his bartender, woeing over his girlfriend back home, yet still seems very odd.

“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” by The Beatles

  • If the song’s lyrics were completely different, this song would generally be perceived as another great and joyful Beatles song, but the lyrics are far from the playful instrumental it follows. “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” takes us through the life of Maxwell who turns out to be a serial killer. To the point of which describing the way in which and setting he kills his victims.

The following graphs show the popularity by percentage and the change over time, with markers on the release date.

Positive Names

Negative Names

Similar to the female names, the following are the chart placings after their release of the songs chosen for the study

  • Johnny B. Goode: No. 8

  • Hey Jude: No. 1 (for 9 weeks)

  • Daniel: No. 2

  • Fernando: No.1

  • Jack and Diane: No. 1

  • Tom Sawyer: No. 44, No. 8 for rock

  • Me and Bobby McGee: No. 1

  • Hey Mickey: No. 1

  • Jeremy: No. 79

  • Maxwell’s Silver Hammer: No. 10

The male names seem to not nearly have as dramatic of an effect on song name popularity as female names do. As suggested earlier, traditionalism in regards to masculine names seem to be the strongest reasoning behind this, as pop culture will have less weight in name decisiveness in comparison to tradition.

It is interesting to point out a similar phenomenon appearing in both graphs, which is the rarer names have a stronger effect on naming patterns than the more popular names (with the exception of “Michelle”). “Tom Sawyer” is the most obvious example of this. Both the first and last names were used within the graph, Tom being a far more common name, and Sawyer being a very rare name. As a matter of fact, the reasoning as to why the release date isn’t plotted on the graph is because Sawyer shows up in SSA data in 1978 at 0.0003044550% and doesn’t show back up until after the release date of 1981 at 0.0003044550% and continues to grow in popularity after the song’s release. Therefore, except 1978, following the release of the song is only when Sawyer is even measurable in SSA data. It is safe to assume that because of the song, Sawyer was put on the map as a first name. Although the novel, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain existed 100 years before the release of the song, either SSA data wasn’t consistent enough to gather the accurate amount of data in comparison to today, or it was solidified as a last name, a name not to be used for first name purposes. The potential switch from last name to first name status could be due to what was mentioned earlier, a desire to seek out rarity in a name while still maintaining an appropriate nature to the name. Looking at Tom, which is in contrast a very popular and long standing historical name, the song seemed to cause a decrease in it’s popularity.

For the more popular names, positive or negative, the names seem to follow this same pattern following the song release (Jeremy, Bobby, Tom, Johnny, Jack). This is odd, as it applies to both the positive and negative popular names. The only suggestion I have to offer is that attaching a traditional, long-standing name to pop culture and music (something often perceived as feminine by nature) decreases the stern and masculine character it used to be perceived as. And due to traditionalism and gender-roles, this causes the name to be less appealing when naming boys.

Although, this would suggest that this same ideology would be applicable to all songs with male names as the title. But seeing Jude, Fernando, Sawyer and Louie, the same idea does not ring true. To argue this, the main takeaway from both the male and female names is that rare names are more strongly affected by a song’s release than their positive or negative categorization. This is sensible as the ability to discover new names was a bit more limited in the 1960s to 1990s as the internet wasn’t available yet, and the only resources for new name discovery were the media of the time, which was television, radio, books and simply word of mouth. Therefore, and this still rings true today, rarity and uniqueness when naming a child compete for utmost priority (in balance with social sensibilities such as the functionality of the name).

Another interesting difference between the male names in comparison to the female names is they seem to be far more affected negatively by the release of a song than the female names were. Nearly every name besides Louie seems to decrease in popularity following the song’s release. Maxwell practically dismantles my entire argument of rare names being invincible to perception and always growing in popularity after the song’s release. However, Maxwell remains a unique case and goes back to the Beatles phenomenon as mentioned earlier. “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” and “Jeremy” are the only two songs that are explicitly violent and have nearly no room for argument of morality differences of whether the song associates the name with a person who did something in that most would hope not to connect their child to. Therefore the two of which caused an immediate dramatic decrease in their name popularity. The Beatles phenomenon most likely caused the sharp, dramatic initial decline as their popularity and wide reach was powerful in its influence on the general population of the time.

It is hard to differentiate as to why the name rose to popularity in the 5 years following the release date. As names grow further from their song’s initial release date, pinpointing their influence becomes null. A few theories as to why may be because the song has aged away from the name for long enough that the association doesn’t ring as strong. This idea paired with the Beatles’ breakup being the kickstart to Maxwell becoming popular, as people may want to commemorate such a widely favored band, allowed Maxwell to be back in the ring for acceptable names.

Following a similar pattern of the female names, the following are the graphs that depict the name’s trajectory without the influence of the song.

##Sawyer Influence

Note: Sawyer does not have a linear regression line as it only first appeared in 1978 once.

##Johnny Influence

##Jude Influence

##Daniel Influence

##Fernando Influence

##Jack Influence

##Tom Influence

##Bobby Influence

##Mickey Influence

##Jeremy Influence

##Louie Influence

##Maxwell Influence

Through the use of these trend lines, it is obvious that the positive association and the negative association to names in regards to the song is much stronger, as nearly every graph (with the exception of Louie) depicts the years following the release either falling above or below the trend line given their designated category. Similar to what was suggested earlier, general gender roles may be the reasoning as to why this occurs. Due to men being generally perceived as leaders of a household in a position to make the important family decisions and lead within business as to support their family, it could be perceived as detrimental to name a boy after a song that is negatively perceived by society. The possibility of having a name that is correlated with a serial killer (Maxwell) may scare parents and lead them to contemplate how their son may be affected by this in his adulthood. In comparison, women are often perceived to be nurturing and take on a role of caring for the family full-time rather than working. Therefore any negative association with their name may not be taken as seriously of a consideration, leading inspiration from a song name regardless of their lyrics to be far more appealing to a parent.

Hit songs have an obvious impact on naming patterns, especially in times where there was less availability to media such as the time-pool these songs were taken from. Except most traditional names, there is an obvious impact, either negatively or positively, of naming popularity following the release of a song with the name as the title. Even so, many traditional names have the opportunity to be shaken up by the release of a song, but formerly rare names such as Rhiannon and Sawyer have the most obvious impact as the opportunity for that name to exist and reach wide audiences has been granted by the artist, regardless of gender differences. For women, it seems that neither positive nor negative correlation of a song has too much of an impact on its ability to be named to a child, whereas for men the naming popularity is strongly correlated to the song’s given correlation. Further, male names seem to be more negatively affected by a song’s release as generally, music is perceived as feminine by nature, and naming a child in connection to a song could be perceived as a hindrance to his masculinity, which is most relevantly noted in the traditional male names. Given the period in which these songs were taken from, gender roles had far more of an effect on daily activity than it does today, which is reflected in the findings of this paper. This, in pair with media availability, causes the impact of hit songs with names as the title to be highly gendered and influential to naming popularity within the general population.

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