10/05/2021

Intro to “Nina”

  • “Nina” has been documented in SSA data since 1880
  • Globally, it has experienced its most notable popularity in Slavic and European countries

Popularity of “Nina”: Graph by Count

Popularity of “Nina”: Graph by Percent

Popularity of “Nina”: What are we looking at?

  • Most popular year
    • By count: 1980, with 1,889
    • By percent: 1887, at 0.18%
  • Least popular year
    • By count: 1880, with 119
    • By percent: 1978, at 0.0368%
  • Almost exclusively feminine
  • 1980 shows an interesting spike in popularity
    • This is preceded by a major slump in popularity during the 1970s
    • The count of new Ninas more than doubled…why?

Popularity of “Nina”: Interpretations

  • 1980 spike: attributed most closely with the introduction of character Nina Cortlandt in the soap All My Children, whose first appearance was in 1979
  • Let’s look more closely at the effect of All My Children on names…

Impact of All My Children on Name Popularity

  • All My Children ran from 1970-2011
  • It was the most popular in 1978-1979, ranking #1 daytime show in the US
  • Popularity continued through the 1980s
    • This began to drop in the mid-1990s
  • Did the show’s popularity effect the popularity of its characters’ names?

Impact of All My Children on Name Popularity

Impact of All My Children: Conclusions

  • There does seem to be a general upward spike in popularity (by percent) for this group of names of major female characters during the time of All My Children’s popularity, 1970s-1990s
  • “Tara” and “Erica” are especially notable in following the show’s popularity
  • I’d like to look more into this impact in further research

Resources