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Baby Names ‘Melania,’ ‘Ivanka’ Soar in Popularity in US, ‘Donald’ Plummets

The names “Ivanka” and “Melania” are trending big time as baby names in the US, while “Donald” and “Eric” are taking a dip, according to an analysis of Social Security Administration data.
Sputnik

An AreaVibes review of Social Security data revealed that the number of babies given the name of US President Donald Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka, has spiked by 362 percent since 2015. Melania, the name of the current first lady of the US, has also seen a surge of popularity, increasing in use by 227 percent during the same time period. 

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The male name Barron, which the youngest Trump carries, has jumped in popularity by 90 percent since 2015.

But other White House names haven't fared so well.

Donald has decreased in popularity by 11 percent during the same time frame, while Eric, the name of another one of the president's sons, has dipped in popularity by 6 percent.

According to AreaVibes, the popularity of the name Hillary increased in 1992 when the Clintons took the White House, but there was "a precipitous drop in the name's popularity thereafter," although they do not provide any statistics. However, according to an analysis of Social Security data by Francis Smart, who writes for the Econometrics by Simulation blog, use of the name Hillary dropped by 90 percent after she became first lady. 

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The survey also revealed that hundreds of unique, unusual names are given to babies every year.

"Our data indicate that an average of 330 new baby names were invented annually between 1950 and 2017, but unconventional naming is now far more common than in the middle of the 20th century. In fact, 2017 welcomed four times as many unique baby names into the world as 1950, despite the fact that the total number of infants born was roughly equal in those years," the survey states.

In case you're interested, the top baby girl name in 2017 was Emma. Oliver and Liam topped the charts for boy names.

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