Social Security Information

Posted on May 27, 2008 by Dory Sutker
I confess, I jump onto the social security website several times a day to look up various rules and/or regulations. I usually just go straight to the law and legislation section but today, for some reason, I started to browse. There is some interesting information on the website that I just didn’t expect to find.

For example, there is a list of the most popular baby names for every year since 1880. Not only that, but you can check them out by state. And, you can track how the popularity of a name has changed over time. For example, Charles was the 11th most popular name in 1958. Its rank stayed the same or dropped in popularity each year except in 1969 when it moved up one rank. Last year, it was number 69 in popularity.

Now, I was hooked.. So I checked out the top ten names in the United States for 2007. In order of popularity they are:

Male                                                                           Female

Jacob                                                                           Emily

Michael                                                                        Isabella

Ethan                                                                            Emma

Joshua                                                                          Ava

Daniel                                                                           Madison

Christopher                                                                  Sophia

Anthony                                                                       Olivia

William                                                                        Abigail

Matthew           `                                                           Hannah

Andrew                                                                        Elizabeth

Next I wanted to know, how did the metro DC area compare with the rest of the country. Well, let’s see. Females first, just because I am female.

D.C.                                                    Maryland                                Virginia

Ashley                                                  Madison                                   Madison

Sophia                                                  Emily                                        Abigail

Katherine                                             Ava                                          Emily

Elizabeth                                               Olivia                                       Olivia

Caroline                                               Abigail                                      Emma

Kayla                                                   Sophia                                      Isabella

Madison                                               Emma                                       Hannah

Olivia                                                   Isabella                                     Ava

Isabella                                               Hannah                                     Elizabeth

Abigail                                                  Grace                                       Sophia

Now, the male names:

William                                                Michael                                    William

John                                                     Christopher                              Jacob

Christopher                                          Joshua                                      Christopher

Michael                                                Jacob                                       Joshua

Anthony                                               William                                     Michael

Alexander                                             Ethan                                        Ethan

Daniel                                                   Ryan                                        James

Kevin                                                   Matthew                                   Matthew

Andrew                                                Anthony                                   Ryan

Noah                                                    Alexander                                 John

            So, what does this tell us?   sswebsite Looking at the list produces no answers for me. It only dredges up a ton of questions. Why do some names seem timeless while others seem to go in cycles? Will some of the names which have come and gone, spring up again in future generations? What makes a name have staying power?

            I showed the list to some of my coworkers. One said she didn’t believe it was accurate. We set to work to figure out why some seemingly very popular names didn’t make the top ten list. Our theory boiled down to this. Different spellings of the same name are treated as separate names not taken as an aggregate. So, for example, Aiden was number 27, Aidan was number 54, Ayden was number 102, Aden was number 264, Aydan was number 598, Aidyn was number 818, and Adin was number 983.

            Check out the information for yourself and run your own inquiries at the sswebsite.

To learn more about Social Security issues please see social secuity disability law.  To learn more about our social security disability lawyers in Maryland, please click social security disability lawyers and go to the bios of Dory Sutker or Suja Varghese..
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