Red-Carpet Baby Names

We’ve blogged about Wolfram|Alpha’s name data before—but as we stroll into the 2010 movie-awards season here in the United States, we wanted to remind you about this particular tool and to point out a few interesting movie-related queries.

Marlon Brando’s breakthrough film role was 1951’s A Streetcar Named Desire, which was followed quickly by major roles in Viva Zapata! (1952), Julius Caesar (1952), The Wild One (1953), and On the Waterfront (1954), which brought him his first Academy Award. It’s hard to attribute the growing popularity of the name “Marlon” in the early 1950s to anything but his growing star power—the name just cracked the top 1000 U.S. names in 1950, but rose to #344 in 1955. His award-winning performance in 1972’s The Godfather prompted an ever bigger jump: “Marlon” became the 218^th most popular name in the U.S. that year.

The name “Dustin” didn’t register among the top 1000 U.S. names at all until 1968—one year after Dustin Hoffman’s appearance in The Graduate—when it entered at #368. The name grew steadily in popularity through the early 1980s, hovering around #42 from 1981 through 1986. Film buffs may wonder whether the legendary box-office flop Ishtar (1987) had anything to do with the subsequent decline in the popularity of “Dustin”—even though Mr. Hoffman brought home an Academy Award for Rain Man in 1988.

Even science-fiction fans might be surprised by this one: in 1999, the year that The Matrix was released, the female name “Trinity” made a startling jump in the ranks to #209, from #525 the previous year; and even though that movie’s sequels (both released in 2003) were somewhat less well received, the name stayed popular—climbing all the way to #48 in 2004.

We doubt anyone will be surprised by this one: the popularity of the name “Angelina” began rising dramatically in 2000, the year after Angelina Jolie’s Oscar-winning role in Girl, Interrupted, peaking at #43 in 2005. And for those of you who follow such things: yes, the popularity of “Angelina” began to decline in 2006, the year after her relationship with Brad Pitt became public.

Found any interesting name trends of your own? Care to predict which of this year’s crop of stars will be commemorated on birth certificates next year? Share your comments with us below—and keep an eye out for historical Academy Awards nominee and winner data coming soon to Wolfram|Alpha.