The Except Chester - ER Dude Revolution

Between the explosion of my friends with babies or about to have babies and some random thinking about the effect celebrities on how people decide to name their children I decided to explore a hypothesis, are there more boys being named something that ends with E-R?

To answer the question I put together an R Package that I will soon release which wraps theSSA Baby Names data store {I know that the infamous Hadley Wickham already has a baby names package with some of the same data but this will be slightly different and also continuously update as the SSA releases new data.}

My Instincts Were…..

Well I guess my hypothesis was correct, since the time I was born the proportion of boys with a name ending in ER has nearly doubled to a not so insignificant 7.36% of the population (or 1 in roughly 13 births). In fact, in 2015 [the most recent year of data] there had never been more little dudes born with a name ending in ER going back all the way to 1880!

Exploring Some Actual ER Ending Names

Lets look at the actual proportions for the first 9 ER ending names that came to mind, don’t ask me how or why!!

Parting Notes

Well looks like boys ending with the name ER is the new it thing to do, except if it is naming your son Chester. What is interesting about the history of Chester was the rise and fall of the name’s popularity likely in relation to people’s awareness of the late president Chester A. Arthur. The popularity really started to deteriorate 30 years after his death.

So if you want to join the pack of all the people naming their boys with something ending in ER but want to do it in a cool, data driven way name your kid Chester and tell them Alex, R, and a love for history made you do it.