[kuzmin]

The increase of "Alexander" starting from the mid-80s looks really weird: http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gend...

It's easy to see why names such as "Buzz" have the curves that they have (space race), but it's hard to trace any event that influenced more common names. For example, check "Jacob", "Justin". Does anybody have an idea as to why these curves have this shape?

[nl]

The Jacob and Justin rises correlate very well with the baby-boomer generation beginning to have children.

It's interesting to note that the increase in the use of Justin has a matching (if slightly lagging) increase in literature[1], while the increase in Jacob isn't[2].

[1] https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Justin&year_st...

[2] https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Jacob&year_sta...

[dm2]

"Amy" is another interesting one, what influenced that? http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gend...

I just figured out that it shows a random one when you don't enter a query, that's cool.

Other spikes: Linda, Jordan, Mason, Deborah, Beth, Paige, Laurie, Chloe, Megan, Stella, Stacey, Kim

It seems like female names are much more likely to have sharp spikes in popularity verses male first names.

[Flenser]

Little Women apparently: http://nameberry.com/babyname/Amy

The other names show similar shapes:

Meg: http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gend...

Jo: http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gend...

Beth: http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gend...

The second bump for Meg could be due to Meg Ryan?

[SloopJon]

Amy and Sarah were two of the most popular girl's names when I was growing up.

My wife dug in her heels pretty early in the pregnancy for a name that I later learned was a character on a TV show. Judging by the site, she's not the only one. The peak is still under a hundred, so not as embarrassing as, say, characters from 90210.

[cafard]

Bob Green years ago wrote about going to the "Linda Hop", a convention of boomer women all named Linda. The article traced the name back to a song popular in the early 1950s. As far as male v. female, it seems more common to name sons after fathers than daughters after mothers.

[kidsthesedays]

Jessica - http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gend...

Names (just like everything else) have fads. Fads come and go.

[maxerickson]

The spike starts before the show aired , but some of the popularity probably came from Family Ties:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Ties