Baby-name remorse

[aimeecc]

The number is "usage of (name) per MILLION babies." So, it would be 550 million Susans. A popular name is Ethan, and its #4, with over 5 billion babies born in 2005 with that name. Although 550 million sound like a lot, its only 10% of the number of Ethans.
My son's name has grown in popularity over the last few years, and in 2006 there were ~440 million Miles, ranked 202. Still a lot better than 5 billion.

[monster]

Originally Posted by aimeecc

The number is "usage of (name) per MILLION babies." So, it would be 550 million Susans. A popular name is Ethan, and its #4, with over 5 billion babies born in 2005 with that name. Although 550 million sound like a lot, its only 10% of the number of Ethans.
My son's name has grown in popularity over the last few years, and in 2006 there were ~440 million Miles, ranked 202. Still a lot better than 5 billion.

5 Billion Ethans born in the USA in 2005? I don't think so.....
5,000,000,000?

United States
Population: 301,139,947 (July 2007 est.)
from here

Population Clocks
U.S. 303,168,757
World 6,641,883,975
15:28 GMT (EST+5) Jan 04, 2008
from here

[glatt]

Originally Posted by aimeecc

The number is "usage of (name) per MILLION babies."

Ignoring the math mistakes later in the post, I can find no indication from the site I linked that the figures are "per million" babies. The word "million" doesn't appear on that site anywhere. The similar sites I linked to that have only the top names for that year also don't mention the figures are "per million" babies. Where did you see that?

In 2005, there were roughly 4 million babies born in the US, so you can multiply that number by 4 if it's true. Or 2,200 Susans in the country. But I see no proof it is true.