library(babynames)
library(tidyverse)

Intial Hypothesis

The initial hypothesis for this data set research was that due to the popular series written by Rick Riodan, Percy Jackson, there would be an increase in interest surrounding Greek Mythology, and therefore an increase in people named after the Greek gods, of which the stories centered around. The Olympian Gods of Greek Mythology were the specific focus of this data research due to their prominence in the books, as well as two of the main characters that were not one of the deities. These characters were included to prove that there could be some influence of the books over the increased trend of names.

Data Set 1: Olympian Goddesses

(excluding Athena)

The first data set show 5 of the female Olympians. The data shows positive growth of the names “Aphrodite”, “Artemis”, and “Hera” beginning between the years 2008-2010. The name “Hestia” was present in the data set, however these findings were not significant enough to appear on the graph. The name “Demeter” was not present at all.

babynames %>% 
  filter(name %in% c("Hera", "Artemis", "Hestia", "Demeter", "Aphrodite") & year > 2000 & sex=="F") %>% 
  ggplot(aes(year, n, color=name)) + geom_line()

Data Set 2: Athena

Due to the high popularity of the name “Athena” a separate graph was needed so it would not interfer with the visuals of the Data Set 1. While this name exisited prior to the publication of the books, it was not until the mid-to-late 2000’s that the name increased exponentially.

babynames %>% 
  filter(name %in% c("Athena") & year > 2000 & sex=="F") %>% 
  ggplot(aes(year, n, color=name)) + geom_line()

This set is to show the popularity of the name “Athena” throughout the 1900s.

babynames %>% 
  filter(name %in% c("Athena") & year > 1900 & sex=="F") %>% 
  ggplot(aes(year, n, color=name)) + geom_line()

Data Set 3: Olympian Gods

(excluding Hades and Poseidon)

In this data set, the names “Apollo”, “Ares”, and “Zeus” are shown to have begun to increase around the year 2005, while the name “Hermes” has remained without change. The name “Hephaestus” does not appear at all. “Dionysus” is the the outlier, only appearing sparingly between the years 2004-2016.

babynames %>% 
  filter(name %in% c("Zeus", "Apollo", "Hermes", "Hephaestus", "Ares", "Dionysus") & year > 2000 & sex=="M") %>% 
  ggplot(aes(year, n, color=name)) + geom_line()

Data Set 4: Hades, Poseidon, Dionysus

The data set was created separately from Data Set 3 to emphasize the fact that neither name appears in the data until after 2005.

babynames %>% 
  filter(name %in% c("Hades", "Poseidon") & year > 2000 & sex=="M") %>% 
  ggplot(aes(year, n, color=name)) + geom_line()

Data Set 5: Main Character: Percy/Perseus

The names “Percy” and “Perseus” were present in the Percy Jackson series as the main character (“Perseus” was the full name; “Percy” was the nickname).

babynames %>% 
  filter(name %in% c("Percy", "Perseus") & year > 2000 & sex=="M") %>% 
  ggplot(aes(year, n, color=name)) + geom_line()

Data Set 6: Main Character: Annabeth

“Annabeth” was the other main character in the Percy Jackson series. This data shows that around the year 2009 there was a significant spike in the numbers.

babynames %>% 
  filter(name %in% c("Annabeth") & year > 2000 & sex=="F") %>% 
  ggplot(aes(year, n, color=name)) + geom_line()

Conclusion

The conclusion of this data shows that while the frequency might not be directly caused by the Percy Jackson series, it could have spiked interest in Greek Mythology, which in turn resulted in more people being named after the Olympian deities. Given that the book series was published between 2005-2009, the fact that these names became more popular around 2015 could be significant. This would be around when the targeted audience started to have children. The name spike after books were published could also be due to the parents of the children who read the books with them (the targeted audience).

Whether or not the book series is the direct cause of the increase of Olympian names, cannot be determined. However, it could be important to note that the two main characters of the series (“Perseus” and “Annabeth”) had a slight increase around the year 2008/2009 when the series ended.This may suggest that the book had a small direct impact.

It can also be assumed that deities that are most associated with negative characteristics will be less popular (“Hades” = death, the underworld, “Hephaestus” = the forge, disfigurement, “Dionysus” = ritual madness, wine). Additionally, the less predominant gods, like “Hestia”, also proved to be less popular.

Opposingly, the characters with more desirable traits will be more popular (“Athena” = wisdom, strategy, “Apollo” = sun, music, medicine, “Zeus” = god of the gods).

*** I decided not to use Roman Mythology names due to them correlating with planetary names, as well as the use of the name “Diana” which was already very common independent of mythology.