Second Short Paper
Nina Datz
11/9/2021
Soap Mania: Supercouples and Naming
In my last paper, I researched how the character of Nina Cortlandt from All My Children impacted the popularity of the name “Nina.” I found that sources about the show usually described Nina in connection with her partner Cliff, and that their relationship is one example of a “supercouple.” These popular pairs are a staple of soap operas. For my second paper, I examined the impact of this supercouple phenomenon on naming.
I first looked at the graphs for “Cliff” and “Nina” separately to see if anything stood out. Here are those graphs:
The peak in popularity for “Cliff” occurred during the late 1950s and 1960s- before All My Children aired. While the name has generally declined in popularity since the 1960s, “Cliff” did experience a jump in popularity between 1979 and 1985. Nina’s character was introduced in 1979, so this may indicate a connection to the supercouple phenomenon (“All My Children” (2021)). Notably, the scale of “Cliff”’s jump is drastically different from “Nina.” The 1980s spike in “Cliff” was only a jump of around 60 births, from 79 in 1975 to 146 in 1981. “Nina,” however, jumped from 563 in 1978 to 1,889 in 1980- more than tripling in only two years.
I next decided to compare supercouples, choosing from the soap operas that were consistently within the top ten most-watched daytime soap operas in the United States between 1979-1990 (“List of American Daytime Soap Opera Ratings” (2021), “Ratings Archive” (2006)). I focused on pairings denoted by Wikipedia as “signature supercouples” when possible, as this indicates that viewers consider them the most prominent couple in their respective shows (“List of Supercouples” (2021)). The below graphs compare the popularity of Cliff/Nina to Victor/Nikki from The Young and the Restless, Bo/Hope from Days of Our Lives, and Luke/Laura from General Hospital (“List of Supercouples” (2021)).
From looking at these graphs alone, there does not appear to be much distinct difference or similarity between the two. The only aspect I observed is that most of the female names were trending downward by the 2010s, while most of the male names only beginning to dip or increasing- but by then soaps were much less dominant. To get a clearer picture of a possible gender-based difference, I next compared the popularity of each couple, focusing between 1960 and 2010.
First, Nina and Cliff from All My Children: 
This graph highlights the magnitude of the spike in “Nina.” It also shows that there does seem to be a similar movement in popularity of both names during the 1980s and 1990s, despite “Nina” being significantly more popular.
Next, Victor and Nikki from As the World Turns: 
Frustratingly, this graph contradicts any theory I was considering. Their popularity seems almost opposite, with “Nikki” increasing as “Victor” decreases and vice versa. Furthermore, “Victor” is significantly more popular than “Nikki.”
Thirdly, Hope and Bo from Days of Our Lives: 
This couple has one small period in the mid-1980s to early 1990s in which they slightly trend together. However, like Nina/Cliff, the female name is consistently much more popular than the male name.
Finally, Laura and Luke from General Hospital: 
This last couple I studied shows a third instance of the female name being significantly more popular than the male. They also do seem to increase at the same point in the 1970s, around 1974. This graph also depicts the reversal in popularity of names around 1996.
While a more comprehensive look into the more specific causes of these fluctuations in popularity is beyond the scope of this paper, I did gain some insights into the effect of supercouples on naming. Similarity is observable, if minor, in their trends, and I believe looking more deeply at the plots of each show will give a clearer idea of this impact (such as identifying when major events like marriages and divorces occurred). Additionally, for three of the four couples I examined here, the female name was often more popular than the male. This contradicts an idea that has repeatedly been mentioned this semester: that female names tend to be more varied and unique, while male names lean traditional and fluctuate less. In further research, I plan to expand on these ideas as there does seem to be validity in the theory.
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