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How names move in time — SSA, ONS and Statistics Korea as dated frequency files, not as a live global leaderboard.
Key takeaways
Name the home registry office in local terms. Keep script and legal-friction notes dated teaching rails. Sample names illustrate patterns — not fortune lists. Never present trend cards as legal advice.
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Read first Registry, script and trend notes are teaching rails — not legal advice, fortune-telling or a guarantee of approval.
How to use this guide Start at the registry Open the home office and sample cards for this language market first.Check script + friction Script rules and legal-friction notes are teaching rails — not a ruling.Compare one peer topic Use compare/VS before treating trends as advice.Expert voices Registry rules beat fortune lists for real-world naming. Atlas editor Quick answers Is a trend card legal advice? No. Trend and registry rails are teaching aids; check current office rules.
Do sample names guarantee approval? No. Samples illustrate patterns; approval depends on local statute.
Key data Signal Use Local lens Market-specific framing for this language Caveat Registry, script and trend notes are teaching rails — not legal advice, fortune-telling or a guarantee of approval.
Share a naming topic with registry and script notes, not a fortune list.
Glossary preview
Home registry Office that records given names and surnames for this language market.
Script rule Allowed characters/scripts in official naming — teaching summary, not a ruling. Local systems
Home registry Office that records given names and surnames for this language market.
Script rule Allowed characters/scripts in official naming — teaching summary, not a ruling. Local examples Name the home registry office in local terms. Keep script and legal-friction notes dated teaching rails. Sample names illustrate patterns — not fortune lists. Never present trend cards as legal advice. Local FAQ Is a trend card legal advice? No. Trend and registry rails are teaching aids; check current office rules.
Do sample names guarantee approval? No. Samples illustrate patterns; approval depends on local statute.
Local terms
Home registry Office that records given names and surnames for this language market.
Script rule Allowed characters/scripts in official naming — teaching summary, not a ruling. Local systems
Home registry Office that records given names and surnames for this language market.
Script rule Allowed characters/scripts in official naming — teaching summary, not a ruling. Local examples Name the home registry office in local terms. Keep script and legal-friction notes dated teaching rails. Sample names illustrate patterns — not fortune lists. Never present trend cards as legal advice. Local FAQ Is a trend card legal advice? No. Trend and registry rails are teaching aids; check current office rules.
Do sample names guarantee approval? No. Samples illustrate patterns; approval depends on local statute.
Local terms
Home registry Office that records given names and surnames for this language market.
Script rule Allowed characters/scripts in official naming — teaching summary, not a ruling. Important caveat Registry, script and trend notes are teaching rails — not legal advice, fortune-telling or a guarantee of approval.
Editor note Registry, script and trend notes are teaching rails — not legal advice, fortune-telling or a guarantee of approval.
Sources National statistics / civil-registry naming reports Public script/orthography guidance where published Local systems
Home registry Office that records given names and surnames for this language market.
Script rule Allowed characters/scripts in official naming — teaching summary, not a ruling. Local examples Name the home registry office in local terms. Keep script and legal-friction notes dated teaching rails. Sample names illustrate patterns — not fortune lists. Never present trend cards as legal advice. Local FAQ Is a trend card legal advice? No. Trend and registry rails are teaching aids; check current office rules.
Do sample names guarantee approval? No. Samples illustrate patterns; approval depends on local statute.
Local terms
Home registry
Script rule Editor note Registry, script and trend notes are teaching rails — not legal advice, fortune-telling or a guarantee of approval.
Sources National statistics / civil-registry naming reports Public script/orthography guidance where published Who this is for How names move in time — SSA, ONS and Statistics Korea as dated frequency files, not as a live global leaderboard.
Local lens English pages frame naming with home-registry offices, script rules and trend teaching cards — not legal advice.
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Key scores Identity weight 60 Trend volatility 96 Legal friction 20 Cultural depth 55 Practical difficulty 42 Everyday reach 75 Why names matter What makes a good name Identity and names Sound and phonetics From this language English pages lead with U.S. and England & Wales public files, then Korea and Japan as named systems — not as a world ranking of living children.
Trend teaching cards United States — SSA girls, decade-ish #1 teaching list Korea — generation style, not a live rank Japan — script and kirakira as debate, not a table This atlas does not sell fortune, stroke-count luck, or destined names.
Also explore Not legal advice Do not treat registry notes, friction scores or trend cards as filing instructions or fortune slips.
Not legal advice Do not treat registry notes, friction scores or trend cards as filing instructions or fortune slips.
Naming terms
Registry Civil office that records given and family names.
Trend card Teaching card for share shifts — not a fortune slip.
Script system How names map into Hangul, kana, hanzi, Latin, Cyrillic, etc.
Legal friction Administrative cost of changing or registering a name.
Identity weight How strongly a name signals belonging, gender systems, or diaspora.
Locale pack Per-language office, samples, trends and lens — never English fallback. How to use this atlas Pick a start path — Baby, brand, legal or culture — start where your question lives.Read the locale pack — Office chip, sample names and trend cards are language-specific.Open laws carefully — Friction notes are teaching — not a filing checklist.Compare or lab next — Use Compare, VS or the lab after trends and identity chapters.Practical tools Compare naming topics
Next tool After this topic, open Name lab, then Compare.
Use this page Pick a start path — Baby, brand, legal or culture — start where your question lives. Read the locale pack — Office chip, sample names and trend cards are language-specific. Open laws carefully — Friction notes are teaching — not a filing checklist. Name trends are one of the cleanest cultural time series we have, because births are registered. The U.S. Social Security Administration’s published given-name files from 1880 are the most famous graph.
The Office for National Statistics (England and Wales) and Statistics Korea publish their own counts. Each is a jurisdiction and a year — not a world cup of names.
This page teaches you to read those files the way Lieberson did: as taste cycles. It will not announce a current global number-one, because no such official exists.
U.S. file SSA from 1880
England & Wales ONS releases
Korea Statistics Korea
Theory Lieberson taste
Rule Always cite a year
Forbidden Invented live #1
Frequently asked questions What is the SSA baby-name file? A U.S. compilation of given-name frequencies based on Social Security card applications, published from 1880 onward with a lag. It is a historical series, not a crystal ball.
Does ONS cover the whole UK? The well-known baby-name release is for England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate publications. Say which office.
What does Statistics Korea publish? Annual given-name frequency information that researchers use to watch Korean naming fashion, including shifts between Sino-Korean and native Korean names in dated years.
Why do names rise and fall together? Lieberson’s A Matter of Taste: parents want distinction inside a style, so endings and neighbours move as clusters.
Can I say what last year’s #1 was? Only if you cite the office and the year after that office has published. Do not invent a live #1 in this atlas’s voice.
Do celebrities cause the waves? Sometimes they spike a name (see celebrity-influence). Lieberson argued they are over-credited relative to internal fashion.
Are surname trends as fast? No. Surnames move with migration and law. Given names are the volatile series.
Is a rising name a good name? It is a fashionable name in that file-year. Quality is a different page.
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