What is the trendiest baby name in American history? Jayden? Madison? Khaleesi?

在美國歷史上最流行的寶寶名是什么呢?杰登?麥迪遜?卡麗熙?

The answer might not sound so trendy to you: Linda.

對你來說,答案聽起來可能并不那么流行:(因?yàn)榇鸢甘?琳達(dá)。

Quantifying trendiness is tricky, since there's no universally accepted way to calculate how much of a fad a name was. But according to researcher David Taylor, Linda may very well be the trendiest name ever. Taylor devised a metric for trendiness that takes into account overall popularity as well as steepness of a name’s rise and fall. So while Mary was very, very popular, it was popular over a long time period, and therefore not trendy.

量化流行度很復(fù)雜,因?yàn)檫�沒有一種普遍認(rèn)同的方法來計(jì)算一個(gè)名字的流行度。不過,研究員大衛(wèi)·泰勒表示,琳達(dá)可能是曾經(jīng)最流行的名字。泰勒設(shè)計(jì)了一個(gè)衡量流行度的標(biāo)準(zhǔn),該標(biāo)準(zhǔn)把一個(gè)名字的興衰以及總體受歡迎程度都考慮在內(nèi)。因此,雖然瑪麗曾非常受歡迎,而且在很長的一段時(shí)間內(nèi)都很受歡迎,但這個(gè)名字卻并不流行。

In 2015, just .022 percent of all female births in the U.S. were Lindas. But in 1947, it had the largest yearly rise ever, accounting for 5.48 percent of all baby girls’ names. This sudden meteoric rise was due to the great success of one hit single: a 1946 Jack Lawrence song named "Linda."

2015年在美國出生的所有女嬰中,只有0.022%的寶寶名為琳達(dá)。不過,在1947年,琳達(dá)這個(gè)名字曾有過年度最高漲幅,有5.48%的女嬰被叫做琳達(dá)。突然迅速崛起是因?yàn)橐皇谉衢T單曲的巨大成功:那就是杰克·勞倫斯在1946年發(fā)行的一首名為“琳達(dá)”的歌。

According to a 2009 PNAS study by marketing professor Jonah Berger, this rise-and-fall behavior may actually be the norm and not the exception: "Most names show a period of consistent increase in popularity, followed by a decline that leads to abandonment."

市場營銷學(xué)教授喬納·伯杰2009年在美國國家科學(xué)院院刊上發(fā)表的一項(xiàng)研究指出,這種興衰變化實(shí)際上可能是一種慣例而不是一種例外:大多數(shù)名字的人氣度都會(huì)在一段時(shí)期里呈持續(xù)增長之勢,隨后開始下降,致使(這些名字)被遺棄。

Will there be another name like Linda? The days when any one name could achieve 5 percent popularity for baby girls seem to be long gone. Top names for girls now hover at around 1 percent, indicative of a much greater overall diversity.

會(huì)有另外一個(gè)像琳達(dá)這樣的名字嗎?任何一個(gè)為小女孩所起的名字,其人氣度能達(dá)到5%的歲月似乎早已遠(yuǎn)去。如今,熱門的女孩名字,其人氣度都徘徊在1%左右,這表明(如今給孩子起名)整體上有著更大的多樣性。

What new name will emerge from 2016? Don’t be surprised if a good amount of parents watching Stranger Things this year decide to name their baby girls Eleven.

自2016年,會(huì)出現(xiàn)什么新名字呢?如果許多父母今年看了《怪物奇語》,那么他們決定給自己的寶貝女兒起名為伊萊文(十一)就沒什么好驚訝的了。