Case Study: aa ree uh
Aria Moreno
12/14/2021
aa ree uh
John and Mary: two names that have made up the norm. Now, we are far from the days when John and Mary - and much less any two names - were the standard. These days it is not easy to get a given name to be as popular as these two classics. Even though name diversity is at a high, some previously unique names have grown into relatively common names. What makes a name popular in an era where having an uncommon name is a popular trend? In this essay, I will explore the popularity of the name Aria and its popularity in the United States.
From personal experience, I have met 2 other Arias (and one of them was a dog),so I came into this research question, thinking my name was probably unique and,therefore, the data I would find for my research would be minimal. However, especially in recent times, my name has been popular enough to appear in the social security database and, when said names are grouped by states, it appears there as well. The data exists for my name in many years, albeit not much compared to other names like Victoria. In 2019, Aria was at a count of 6093 females and 15 for males.
## [1] 5 6 5 5 6 5 7 10 6 7 7 5 8 5 10
## [16] 7 6 6 5 6 7 9 5 6 5 7 5 5 5 5
## [31] 6 6 5 8 15 9 19 18 13 13 18 28 19 29 34
## [46] 30 50 49 55 6 46 41 10 56 14 77 13 77 19 91
## [61] 19 91 14 102 15 74 9 105 10 151 17 143 25 133 19
## [76] 178 14 202 17 221 16 321 33 331 17 402 17 403 17 384
## [91] 19 444 12 530 13 541 9 594 9 903 15 1982 22 3230 18
## [106] 5114 21 5925 14 6411 21 6941 16 7157 28 7417 17 7087 19 6093
## [121] 15
Using the data frame where names and which state they belong to - that was so kindly provided in class-, I found that Aria is a relatively recent name. It did not pop up until 1900. The name remains exclusive to California for many years. Over the years it, generally, rose in popularity among numerous states across the United States, but still California holds the most amount of Arias.
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Aria’s popularity is not uniform throughout the states. In that same year, Aria’s popularity is more concentrated in the states that are typically more populated: Texas, California, New York, and Florida. These states also have higher name diversity; they also tend to be more diversified in terms of race/ethnicity. In addition, many immigrants tend to live in these states as well. This point was not made to say that immigrants named Aria are contributing directly to the amount of Arias shown in this map(because this data is from social security immigrants are not recorded). It was made to say that a possible explanation to people being named Aria could be the influx of diverse names carried by diverse people. I will expand more on this when I write about the ethnic connotations in this essay. Aria is not so popular in the states of Vermont, Wyoming, and Montana. These states are almost the opposites of the previously mentioned states. In addition -with New York as an exception- , the states with the least amount of Arias tend to be northern states: (continuing from above) South Dekota, Arkansas, North Dekota, and New Hampshire.
Though there is some profession diversity with non-fictional Arias, I would have to say that Arias are more likely to be within the field of the arts. For example, Aria Abner is a poet and writer. Aria Dean is an artist and curator. Specifically, many of these Arias that are within the field of the arts, a majority of them are actresses. Aria DeMaris is an actress. Aria Wallace is an actress. Aria Cruzon is an actress.Out of the relatively famous non-fictional people named Aria, I have found over 10 Arias are actresses. Though 10 may seem insignificant, keep in mind that Aria is still a relatively uncommon name; So it is even more uncommon when you limit the observed population to famous persons. I find this interesting because the name Aria - if interpreted from the Italian language and/or a feminine lens- is a name relating to the arts. It is a musical term that indicates a solo within an opera. Obviously, I am not saying that being named Aria leads people to become singers and actresses or that first names influence occupation; that is a completely different essay. In fact, the opera term is how I got my name and I definitely do not have artistic talents or interests. I am simply pointing out that, with famous Arias, the name fits the area of occupation (the boot fits), in this case. I have yet to find any congressional members or famous scientists named Aria.
To investigate the gender connotations associated with Aria, I looked to the first graph. The first graph shows the number of Arias in Social Security over time for both males and females. Nationally, Aria is consistently and overwhelmingly female. In fact, male Arias do not even cross the 5 people boundary (that is the minimal number of people that have to be named a name for said name to show up on the database) until the 1980’s. The male Arias tend to stay minimal from then; they stay flatlined. On a state level, Aria is consistently female in many states. Female Arias have been around longer than male Arias. Aria, as a male name, only appears in the database for the state of California from its first appearance in 1988 to its most recent appearance in 2019. Gender connotations can also vary depending on ethnic background (which I will soon get to when I talk about ethnic connotations below). I also looked at general connotations to see if the attributes assigned to Aria matched up with typically feminine/mascilune connotations. This can be seen in the third graph. This thrid graph will make more sense as I talk about Arya later. But for now, we can see that Aria is considered feminine more than this primary variation. It also has some traditionally feminine attributes like being delicate, natural, and wholesome.
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## layout## `geom_smooth()` using formula 'y ~ x'The name “Aria” for females was the most popular in the year 2018 with a raw count of 7417 and a percentage of 0.4374123. The same name was the least popular in 1957 with a raw count of 5 and a percentage of 0.0002445498. Though, it should be noted that the name faded in and out of the database until 1969, so perhaps there is a time where it is more unpopular than in 1957. After 1969, Aria steadily remained in the lower end of popularity, but started increasing after 2000. The name dramatically sky-rockets around 2010. The gender associations with Aria lean heavily towards females. I feel this is due to two reasons. The first being linguistics. Languages of Latin origins often have the letter “a’’ to indicate feminine forms of words. Feminine formed words that show this are “mesa” (Spanish for table), “brava” (an Italian word used for cheering/celebrating a female performer), and “irma” (Portuguese for sister when there is a tilde on top of the “a”). These contemporary languages are all latin-origin languages. Sociologically speaking, this practice is reinforced as the number of females named Aria increases over the years and as people continue to name their girls Aria. In addition, the 2 most popular characters who have the name Aria(or at least the name is the same phonetically) are themselves female(which I will discuss later in this paper). So, this pattern is reinforced by, not only the authors of the characters, but the people who gain inspiration from these characters to name their daughters after them.
For the ethnic connotations of Aria, I looked to wikipedia for notable persons who share the name (as a first name) and used the crowdsourcing information from Behind the Name as a support (as well as a visual representation of data). Aria can have different definitions in different cultures. As stated before, Aria is a musical term - originated in Italy - for a solo in an opera. Aria can also mean “lioness”, when interpreted from Hebrew. From these two cultural perspectives, Aria is usually a female name. From a Persian perspective, however, Aria is a name for males. It means “noble” or “honorable”. So, ethnically Western Arias (American, British, Canadian, Australian) tend to be female. This shows for fictional characters as well (Aria and its primary variation which I will discuss in the following paragraph). And also so, in West Asian culture (Persian/Arabic/India), Aria is associated with masculinity. This is interesting because it provides an exception to my previous statements about how “a” ending names are feminine names. However, these connotations are not the definitive reasons for someone choosing a name, just a factor. In addition, I will discuss later in the primary variant section below, why I think a majority of people are actually choosing this name for their children. I do not believe it is for these different ethnic meanings (hint).
The name Aria is similar to Ariah, Ariya, and Arya. These names are pronounced sort of the same and spelled similarly as well. However, among these names is one name that is so similar, that the only surface difference is one letter. One might even call it a primary variant: Arya is the most similar to Aria. On the surface, the third of the fourth of each name are different: the “i” in Aria is changed to a “y” to create Arya. These two names are pronounced the same (aa·ree·uh). They have different meanings and usages, historically.
## [1] 12 7 9 20 5 18 22 5 22 30 6 30 34 7 29
## [16] 26 15 30 11 25 13 31 25 33 16 31 34 47 36 48
## [31] 54 79 71 86 120 84 113 82 159 106 200 105 205 114 237
## [46] 113 273 88 387 111 759 77 1138 77 1556 82 1644 90 1897 54
## [61] 2166 46 2552 49 3046 49 2356 43
Now, I will go into the name Arya and do some comparing and contrasting. In 2019, Arya has a total count of 3046 for females and 49 for males. This is about half the number of female Arias and more than double the number of male Arias. Arya is also a relatively new name. It did not show up on the Social Security database until 1982, making it a newer name than Aria.
On a state level, Arya did not exist in the database until 2002. It is newer than Aria and less popular than Aria. The name, like Aria, first appeared in California. Over the years it, generally, rose in popularity among numerous states across the United States, but still California holds the most amount of Aryas.
Arya has a similar trend plot as Aria, nationally. However, it does have some subtle differences that I think are worth diving into. Using the same format as in the first graph (Arya over time in both male and females), I noticed that - since the years Arya can be graphed is limited to the 1980s until 2019 - this graph is scaled so that I can see the information better. Though there is a scaling adjustment, there are 2 differences that can still be seen. The first is that the way it rises is not as sudden as Arias. Arias’ trend line rises so suddenly that I previously described it as “skyrocketing” because, like a rocket, it goes straight up. Arya’s, on the other hand, trend line is not as sudden or violent as Aria. The second difference is the presence of male Aryas; they are not completely flatlined. In fact, they have some times where they overtake female Aryas in the graph. Their line is much more active than their counterparts in the first Aria graph.
Now that I have introduced both Aria and Arya, I can now talk about how they show up in popular culture. Arya and Aria do show up in print fiction and film, albeit rarely. However, their appearance in this media has a considerable influence on naming practices. There are only 2 notable media occurrences in which the phonetic name aa·ree·uh show up. They both first show up in novels and then are adapted for television. The first is called Pretty Little Liars. This was a novel series that got its start in 2006 and ended in 2013. One of the main characters’ names was Aria Montgomery. I would not say this book series has caused an increase in Arias. This is where the graph titles PLL Names comes in. In this graph, I put the names of the main characters( Aria, Emily,and Hanna) into a popularity over time line. From the years 2000 to 2010, we can see the names Emily and Hanna decline in popularity while Aria rises. These characters are pretty much on the same team so there is not a reasonable cause that I can state between the books and Aria. The television show got its start in 2010 and ended in 2017. Looking at the popularity of these names during this time I can see that, once again, while Aria is on the rise the other two names fall in popularity. Therefore, I also would not say that this media reference is the most influential out of the two.
So, what can explain the spike in popularity for aa·ree·uh, if not the previous media reference? Game of Thrones is, as mentioned before, refers to a novel series and a television show. The novel series -which is actually named A Song of Ice and Fire- got its start in 1996. Unlike Pretty Little Liars, the series of novels is not continuously released. By that I mean that, every year after the first novel of Pretty Little Liars was released, another novel was released that followed the series. A Song of Ice and Fire novel release years are as follows: 1996, 1999, 2000, 2005, and 2011. There are still more novels that have yet to be published and released. A character named Arya Stark is among the main characters of this plot. She is a strong woman character. So, do these years have an effect on the amount of Arias and Aryas? I cannot see a dramatic spike except for the 2011 spike. So, maybe the show will supply reason. Game of Thrones first aired in 2011 and last aired in 2019. Now the question is does this show have considerable influence on aa·ree·uh s?
The answer is: Yes. To come to this conclusion, I have supplied a graph with a weighted trend line, a regular actual trend line, and a green vertical line that points out a Aryas debut on the show. After she debuts, I can see an immediate take off and sudden increase that differs from the expected trend line. I also did the same thing for Aria. This graph looks a bit unusual but it holds the same conclusion as the Arya graph: Both see considerable increase from their expected outcomes. So, I would say that there is definitely a Game of Thrones effect on these names.
To give some further evidence of a GOT(Game of Thrones) effect, I did a comparison for the aa·ree·uh s as well as other characters in the show: Sansa and Daenerys. Though the aa·ree·uh s existed way before Sansa and Daenerys, they all trend similarly. They all rise to their peak in about 2018 and then fall until 2020 (which is where the data stops).
Arya is very similar to Aria and not just in spelling and pronunciation. Arya, as stated previously, trends similarly because of the GOT effect. Also, Arya first shows up in California as well. However, there are some slight differences that I would consider important . Arya, as a male name, appears on the statewide database earlier than Aria by 5 years. “What happened at this time?” you may ask; I will discuss this when I move on to the historical portion of Arya. The most noticeable difference I see is the lag in female Aryas. Female Aryas do not appear until the year 2002. And they stay in trend throughout the rest of the years present in the dataframe. However, female Aryas soon pass their male counterparts and become more similar to Aria. In modern usage Aria and Arya are overwhelmingly feminine associated; which can be most likely attributed to the GOT effect.
So, before Game of Thrones aired, people were naming their sons Arya more frequently than their daughters from the early 1980s until 2004. So, while Aria has been a predominately feminine name throughout the years, Arya switched from being a predominately masculine name to predominantly feminine name. Now the question remains: How could this have happened? I feel, though it might be really specific, there is one plausible reason for this.
A non-entertainment media reason for the male Aryas could be immigration. Specifically, the arrival of Iraninan immigrants into the United States can account for these male aa·ree·uh s that existed before GOT or PLL(Pretty Little Liars). As mentioned earlier in this paper, Aria is a masculine Persian name meaning “noble”. Arya is also a masculine name for Iranians, Indians, and Indonesians. Arya means “honorable”. However, Arya is more common in Persian-related countries like Iran. To examine whether or not this has an actual effect on the male Aryas, I will talk about history. As mentioned earlier, this phenomenon occurs from the 1980’s until the early 2000’s so this is where I will examine immigration history.
During the aforementioned years, there was an influx of Iranian immigrants due to the Iran-Iraq war(which was from 1980 to 1988). This falls pretty well within the previous observations of time and ethnic connotations. The Iranian immigrant population continued to grow until the year 2000. Arya (as a male’s name) existed only in California from 1982 until 1997. What could California’s role possibly be in this? As it turns out, California is the state with the most people with Iraninan ancestry. That means that,not only did they migrate there, but they also settled there, which means they made families there. I think that this is a possible reasonable explanation for the male Aryas existing during this time period because it fits the time and place.
In conclusion, aa·ree·uh s have different origins, but now are used interchangeably to signify the same thing. As of recent years Aria and Arya have come into popularity because of Arya Stark, a character on the television show Game of Thrones. In the past, however, they were used differently depending on ethnic connotations. Though the data on these names have not existed in bulk for a long time, I feel there are some interesting findings here in this essay. Aria and Arya were both unique names that were slightly different and now they are the complete opposite: more common and used the same.
Bibliography
Social Security Administration. “Baby Names Index.” Accessed December 12, 2021.
“Aria (Name).” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, October 30, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aria_(name).
“Aria.” Aria - Baby Name Meaning, Origin and Popularity. The Bump. Accessed December 14, 2021. https://www.thebump.com/b/aria-baby-name.
Campbell, Mike. “Meaning, Origin and History of the Name Aria (1).” Behind the Name, April 16, 2019. https://www.behindthename.com/name/aria-1.
Campbell, Mike. “Meaning, Origin and History of the Name Aria (2).” Behind the Name, April 16, 2019. https://www.behindthename.com/name/aria-2.
Jeanne Batalova Tianjian Lai and Jeanne Batalova. “Immigrants from Iran in the United States.” migrationpolicy.org. Migration Policy Institute , August 17, 2021. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/iranian-immigrants-united-states-2021.
“Name Matching ‘Aria.’” IMDb. IMDb.com. Accessed December 14, 2021. https://www.imdb.com/search/name/?name=Aria.