Jakub, Eliška… Kevin: App spotlights first names in Czechia
What are the most common Czech first names of the last century and when have they enjoyed greatest popularity? And in recent decades what names have been inspired by Western pop culture? This information can be gleaned from an online app launched this week by the data team at the iRozhlas.cz news site. I discussed the app’s findings with one of its creators, Michal Kašpárek.
The headline of your piece asks, Was anyone named Amélie born before the film? So, were they?
“Before the movie Amélie came out in 2001 about one girl a year in the Czech Republic was named Amélie.
“The year after there 13, out of nowhere, and then the number doubled each year until reaching today’s 180 or so Amélies every year.”
You were telling me earlier that American names in general became more popular after the fall of communism. What are other names that were likely inspired by Western pop culture?
“For example Kevin became really popular after Home Alone came out, which was in the ‘90s, when American names in general got more popular in the Czech Republic.
“And our data also shows that the first Bobs were showing up in the 1960s, possibly due to Bob Dylan.
“There was also a big increase in the name Amy around that time that Amy Winehouse hit it big. That was a trend that didn’t stop after she passed away. Amy is still a really common name, and it hadn’t been before.”
Many people listening to this will want to know what the most popular female and male names over the last 120 or so years [the data is from 1900 on].
“There is no huge surprise. Over the last 100 years the most common names are Marie, Jana and Anna for women, and Jiří, Jan, or Honza, and Josef for men.
“If we focus just on the last three years, Jakub, Matyáš and Jan, again Honza, are the most common for little boys, while Eliška, Anna and Viktoria are top for little girls.”
In this app you don’t tell us the years when very rare names were registered. That’s if a name has less than 20 in total, names like Žížala, or Worm, of which I found one example, or Barbie, of which I found three. Why don’t you include those rare names?
“They are included, but the app will just tell you if the name exists. If there are less than 20 people who were given that name, it doesn’t show you the years when they were born.
“That’s because if there is only one person with a really rare name then we could find out their birth year. We think that that’s quite personal, and we didn’t want to risk someone pretending to be someone else.”
So basically you’re protecting Žížala?
“[Laughs] Regarding Žížala, maybe that was one of the glitches in the database. There were possible problems with turning paper data into digital 30 years ago; maybe Žížala was a surname, not a first name, but we don’t know.”
What about your own name, Michal – where does it come in the list of most popular names? Or when was it most popular?
“Michal was one of the biggest hits when I was born [1984], and that is actually the reason why I got this name.
“My parents just looked into some kind of ranking in a magazine [laughs] and they liked the name. I could have been Filip but in the end I’m Michal, just because there were so many other Michals.”
So you parents were data-driven, just like you?
“It seems so, yes [laughs].”
