R
Randy Olson
rhiever.github.io · Personal blog · on HN since 2013
Randy Olson, a data scientist, builds data visualizations and machine learning projects, including name popularity tools and road trip route optimizers.
What HN saysHN commenters share his name age calculator and trade results for particular names, noting it estimates how many people with a name are still alive.
35HN people shared it
27linked it in comments
8stories submitted
165story points
7 years agolast shared
2013people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Optimal road trips across the world according to machine learning3 people · 2 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 2Name Age Calculator2 people · 99 points · first shared 2015 · 84 comments on HN
- 3Reddit subnetwork visualization2 people · 4 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 4The optimal road trip across the U.S. according to machine learning1 people · 30 points · first shared 2015 · 30 comments on HN
- 5Redditviz – Reddit interest network (2013)1 people · 28 points · first shared 2015 · 7 comments on HN
- 6Automating Machine Learning processes1 people · 2 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 7Brittany1 people · first shared 2015
- 8ADOLF1 people · first shared 2015
- 9Ender1 people · first shared 2015
- 10John1 people · first shared 2015
- 11Trinity1 people · first shared 2015
- 12Barak1 people · first shared 2015
- 13Sue1 people · first shared 2015
- 14Beth1 people · first shared 2015
- 15Osama1 people · first shared 2015
What HN people wrote when they linked it
rhiever · 2015-05-15
Thank you for the kind words. :-) Although that app you linked is a bit different - it's showing when names were popular over time. This app goes one step further and calculates how many of those people are still alive and makes a best guess at how old someone is based solely on their first name.
I also made a version similar to the Baby Name Wizard that look solely at name popularity here: http://rhiever.github.io/baby-name-explorer/
And I suppose it's just a matter of aesthetics for which one you prefer in that case.
Cheers!
r
kaybe · 2019-08-14
Here's an interesting visualisation for names and ages:
https://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html
yellowapple · 2015-05-16
Peculiarly, there were dozens of instances of boys named Sue prior to Shel Silverstein writing "A Boy Named Sue", which makes me suspect that the song in question might very well have been a true story.
Curiously, the popularity of naming boys "Susan" [0] also peaked more than half a decade before the song was published. ("Sue", in contrast, peaked even earlier in the mid-40's, though it seems it made a comeback in the late-80's).
[0]: http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=M&N…
madcaptenor · 2015-05-15
This happens with presidential names in general. See Lyndon (http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=M&N… or Dwight (http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=M&N…
kuzmin · 2015-05-15
The increase of "Alexander" starting from the mid-80s looks really weird: http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=M&N…
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?
mwexler · 2015-05-15
Jeremiah (http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=M&N… has an interesting rise in the 70s, but then disappears in the 80s (like so many things) but comes on strong again by the 2000s. The double humps doesn't seem to appear all that often, even clicking on the other examples in these HN comments, some of which appear to show spikes but are still normalish humps, not bimodal.
darkFunction · 2015-05-15
Wow, 'Ace' is really taking off- http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=M&N…
'Adolf' seems uniformly credited to just a few poor souls- http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=M&N…
onion2k · 2015-05-15
http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=M&N…
Interestingly, "Buzz" seems to track events and anniversaries in the space race quite neatly. Toy Story had no impact.
jyotiska · 2015-05-15
This is really interesting: http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=F&N…
karmakaze · 2015-05-15
Many of the common traditional english names drop off around 1995. Tried a few to find what's taking up the slack. Jack[1] was an unexpected one. Lots of J names in general, but few that pick up around 95.
[1] http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=M&N…
cstuder · 2015-05-15
hxmc · 2015-05-15
Thanks Johnny Cash: http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=M&N…
trumbitta2 · 2015-05-15
Sooo... Are there many American girls named after a typical old-style italian macho name?
http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=F&N…
DanKlinton · 2015-05-15
For some reason in 2001, Osama named stopped being popular
http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=M&N…
Barak in 2008 became even more popular... Soon not so much :)
http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=M&N…
rmason · 2015-05-15
Interesting, check out Madonna. The name got a second peak thanks to MTV videos ;<)
http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=F&N…
Or Elvis whose popularity as a first name looks like a roller coaster.
http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=M&N…
oaktowner · 2015-05-15
Weird, check out Brittany.
http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=F&N…
dm2 · 2015-05-15
"Amy" is another interesting one, what influenced that? http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=F&N…
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.
odabaxok · 2015-05-15
Flenser · 2015-05-15
Little Women apparently: http://nameberry.com/babyname/Amy
The other names show similar shapes:
Meg: http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=F&N…
Jo: http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=F&N…
Beth: http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=F&N…
The second bump for Meg could be due to Meg Ryan?
cbd1984 · 2015-05-15
Kathy is almost as tight of a peak:
http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=F&N…
My point is, the tightness of the peak might have nothing to do with Ms Spears.
rheotron · 2015-05-15
Anyone else think this is kind of odd? http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=F&N…
kornakiewicz · 2015-05-15
http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=M&N…
I find this funny.
maxerickson · 2015-05-15
Spears' first name is Britney. That plot is a little more particular:
http://rhiever.github.io/name-age-calculator/index.html?Gender=F&N…
WalterGR · 2015-04-01
If you're wondering why the route has some 'strange' segments (why get off I-10 to head down Orlando way if you're going to drive to Jacksonville later?):
The link goes to the "Major U.S. landmarks" road trip.
Other trips (including across Canada, South America, and Europe) are listed here: http://rhiever.github.io/optimal-roadtrip-usa/