Using the SSA Website to Investigate Baby Naming Practices
Pre-Assignment Assessment: What is this showing?
Mark all that apply
a. The percent of girls named Jayla who fall into different racial/ethnic groups
b. The percent of girls in each racial/ethnic group who are named Jayla
c. The rate at which girls in different racial/ethnic groups are named Jayla
d. The racial/ethnic composition of girls named Jayla
Learning Goals
You will use an interactive website tool to determine:
- the sex composition of babies with the name Taylor
- the rates at which boys and girls are named Taylor
- state variation in the rank of a name of your choice
You will interpret analyses.
You will see the advantages and disadvantages of using an interactive website tool.
What do you think?
What is the distinction between the concepts of sex and gender?
How do you measure the popularity of a particular name in 2023?
What percent of babies named Taylor in the 1990s were classified as male on their birth certificate?
What percent of babies classified as male on their birth certificate in 2023 were named Taylor?
What is this showing?
What is this showing?
What is this showing?
Definitions
Demographic rates: # of individuals with an event / # of individuals “at risk” of an event
proportions
probabilities
percents
Demographic composition: characteristics of a group in terms of age, sex, race/ethnicity, and other factors
Overview of SSA Data and Website
Message from SSA Commissioner: Popular Baby Names (ssa.gov)
Based on SSNs registered from 1880 to 2023
Variables: state_abb (NY), sex (M), year (2000), name (Nicholas)
Includes every name that was a top 1000 name in any year
Exercise 1 link: Sex Composition of Babies Named Taylor
What percent of babies named Taylor in the 1990s were classified as male?
Under Select Decade enter 1990s and click Go
Search for Taylor to find the numbers of boys and girls with this name.
Calculate the percent of babies named Taylor who were classified as male. Also calculate the percent classified as female.
Exercise 2 link: Rates at Which Boys and Girls are Named Taylor
What percent of boys born in 2023 were named Taylor?
Under Popularity of a Name
Enter Taylor for Name
Enter 1900 & later for Years
Under Sex associated with name choose Male
Click Go
Exercise 3 link: State Variation in Baby Naming
Under Top 100 names for a selected State and year of birth, enter the requested information for a hypothetical person (e.g., yourself or a family member) and click Go.
Is their name on a list for the Top 100 names?
Under Top 5 names by State for a selected year of birth, enter the same year of birth as in the previous step.
Is the name of your hypothetical person on these lists? If so, for what states is their name ranked highest?
Post-Assignment Assessment: What is this showing?
Mark all that apply
a. The percent of boys named Mateo who fall into different racial/ethnic groups
b. The percent of boys in each racial/ethnic group who are named Mateo
c. The rate at which boys in different racial/ethnic groups are named Mateo
d. The racial/ethnic composition of boys named Mateo
Discussion
Were the results for Exercises 1 and 2 consistent with your expectations?
Percent of babies named Taylor in the 1990s that were classified as male
Percent of boys born in 2023 that were named Taylor
What do you think are the limitations of the SSA interactive tool?
SSA Data Sets
See data sets under this link: Beyond the Top 1000 Baby Names
National data (1 file per year of birth)
- Kara,F,950
State-specific data (1 file per state)
- OK,F,1967,Kara,15
Analyzing Baby Names in Excel and R
See the YouTube video under this link: Excel: Baby Names Tracker Template
Search for R demos like this one: Exploring Trends in Baby Names from Scratch in R
Search for data and code on baby names under github.com.
Examples of what you can do with Excel and R
Mapping Baby Names in R
