Methodology

How we build NamesPop

Every number, chart, and ranking on this site comes from a public dataset we can point you to. This page lays out where the data begins, how it moves through our pipeline, and what it cannot tell you.

Data sources

U.S. Social Security Administration

Coverage: 1880–present
Records: 100,000+ unique names
Updated: Annual (typically September)

Every name given to at least five U.S. babies in a calendar year, split by sex. This is the backbone of our baby-name popularity data.

View source

NYC Dog Licensing Dataset

Coverage: 2014–present
Records: 350,000+ licences
Updated: Monthly refresh

Active dog licences issued by the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, including name, breed, and licence year. The single largest U.S. city pet-name dataset publicly available.

View source

Seattle Pet Licenses

Coverage: 2015–present
Records: 48,000+ licences
Updated: Monthly refresh

Seattle-issued pet licences covering both dogs and cats — the cat data is what lets us write anything honest about cat-naming patterns.

View source

Processing pipeline

1
Fetch
Automated download of raw data from each source on its publication cadence.
2
Clean
Normalize encoding, deduplicate, handle mis-entries and extreme outliers.
3
Rank
Compute national, gender, and breed-level rankings for each slice of data.
4
Enrich
Attach meaning, origin, etymology and personality descriptors from trusted references.
5
Review
Editor sampling against source; any discrepancy blocks the dataset from shipping.
6
Publish
Publish to the database; cache invalidation rolls the new data through the site.

Meanings & etymology

Meaning and origin information draws on established linguistic and etymological references — primarily Wiktionary, the Oxford Dictionary of English Names, and peer-reviewed onomastics literature where available. Where a name has multiple claimed origins or meanings, we present both rather than choose arbitrarily.

Names are living things. Spellings drift, popular narratives displace historical ones, and cultures reinterpret names over time. Our goal is to describe each name fairly, not to settle debates linguists themselves have not settled.

Limitations & caveats

We think being straightforward about what the data cannot do is as important as showing what it can. Limitations we actively flag to readers:

The SSA dataset excludes names given to fewer than five babies in a year. Extremely rare names do not appear.
Pet data comes from two U.S. cities; it is not a national sample. Regional patterns may not generalise.
Name meanings and etymologies are sometimes contested. Where sources disagree, we note the dispute rather than pick a winner.
Our pet registries skew toward licensed dogs; unlicensed pets and smaller species are underrepresented.
We do not currently cover international baby-name registries. All baby data is U.S.-only.

Found a methodological issue or want to suggest a new data source? Write to contact@namespop.com. More on our editorial process is on the editorial policy page.