My favorite time of the year is when I get that statement from the Social Security Administration telling me how much money I have made each year. I’m less interested in how much I made last year as I am years ago. 1969 – $529: seven months as a page at the Binghamton Public Library 1970 – $102: I have no idea 1971 – $3,371: six months working at IBM before I went to college. This would be the most money I would make until 1978. I made enough to pay for my college expenses and to lend my parents $1500 for the down payment on a house. Tuition was cheap, and I had a Regents scholarship to SUNY New Paltz. I worked odd jobs during college, making as much as $2,661 in 1975 and $50 – $50? in 1976. 1978 – $7,434: I was a teller for the Albany Savings Bank for one month, where I was making $6,000 a year, less than what I had in my drawer on state paydays, before I quit to work for the Schenectady Arts Council, at $8,400/year. Unfortunately, that CETA job ended early in 1979. Then from 1980-1988, I could see my pay progress at FantaCo in Albany, only to drop back in 1989, when I worked for Empire Blue Cross. I mention this specifically because there were some people at the time who thought I was crazy to work at a “funny book” store, but I was making more money there than the “respectable” insurance company, thank you. I’ve been working my current job since 1992, and the thing particularly of interest is how much putting aside money for health costs alters the bottom line.
Oh, the other interesting thing on this SSA form is my estimated benefits if I retire at 62, 66 or 70. Especially heartening is this little caveat: “The law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2037, the payroll taxes will be enough to pay only about 76 percent of scheduled benefits.” Of course, I have a five-year old; I’ll NEVER retire. ROG
There’s much more at Social Security’s Popular Baby Names site such as the names of twins born in 2008, by rank: 1 Jacob, Joshua 69 2 Daniel, David 59 3 Jayden, Jordan 56 4 Ethan, Evan 50 5 Taylor, Tyler 43 6 Gabriella, Isabella 42
Interesting stuff. The problem I have with most of the the stories is that it doesn’t tell you the change in the nature of naming children.
For instance, below are percentages of boys, girls born with these names: 1880 1 John 8.1541%, Mary 7.2381% 2 William 8.0511%, Anna 2.6678% 3 James 5.0057%, Emma 2.0521% 4 Charles 4.5167%, Elizabeth 1.9865% 5 George 4.3292%, Minnie 1.7888% 6 Frank 2.7380%, Margaret 1.6167% 7 Joseph 2.2229%, Ida 1.5081% 8 Thomas 2.1401%, Alice 1.4487% 9 Henry 2.0641%, Bertha 1.3523% 10 Robert 2.0404%, Sarah 1.3196%
1930
1 Robert 5.5021%, Mary 5.4969% 2 James 4.7781%, Betty 3.2794% 3 John 4.6417%, Dorothy 2.6064% 4 William 4.1855%, Helen 1.7076% 5 Richard 2.8491%, Margaret 1.5743% 6 Charles 2.8197%, Barbara 1.5683% 7 Donald 2.5723%, Patricia 1.3507% 8 George 2.0155%, Joan 1.3280% 9 Joseph 1.8579%, Doris 1.3250% 10 Edward 1.5346%, Ruth 1.2804%
1980 1 Michael 3.7039%, Jennifer 3.2811% 2 Christopher 2.6531%, Amanda 2.0132% 3 Jason 2.5994%, Jessica 1.9064% 4 David 2.2600%, Melissa 1.7776% 5 James 2.1205%, Sarah 1.4464% 6 Matthew 2.0417%, Heather 1.1223% 7 Joshua 1.9454%, Nicole 1.1189% 8 John 1.9018%, Amy 1.1148% 9 Robert 1.8475%, Elizabeth 1.0972% 10 Joseph 1.6285%, Michelle 1.0743%
2008 1 Jacob 1.0355%, Emma 0.9043% 2 Michael 0.9437%. Isabella 0.8941% 3 Ethan 0.9301%, Emily 0.8377% 4 Joshua 0.8799%, Madison 0.8199% 5 Daniel 0.8702%, Ava 0.8198% 6 Alexander 0.8566%, Olivia 0.8196% 7 Anthony 0.8442%, Sophia 0.7729% 8 William 0.8438%, Abigail 0.7250% 9 Christopher 0.8268%, Elizabeth 0.5748% 10 Matthew 0.8061%, Chloe 0.5692%
In 1880, two boy names were used by almost one-sixth of the population, while Mary was nearly thrice as popular as the next most popular girl’s name. By 2008, the #1 names was considerably less dominant than the #10 names in 1980.
I decided to pick out some boys’ and girls’ names not entirely at random to note their trends.
Male
Roger 1880-349 1930-57 1980-134 2008-463 highest year-22 in 1945 (unsurprisingly)
Darrin not in top 1000 until 1959 1980-505 not in top 1000 since 2004 highest year-102 in 1965
Gordon 1880-233 1930-77 1980-345 2008-946 highest year-70 in 1935
Rex 1880-519 1930-233 1980-488 2008-799 not in top 1000 in 1999-2002 highest year-171 in 1951
Arthur 1880-14 1930-23 1980-147 2008-363 highest year-14 in 1880-1884, 1886-1899, 1901
Norman 1880-133 1930-40 1980-286 not in top 1000 since 2005 highest year-36 in 1931
Leslie 1880-167 1930-139 1980-354 not in top 1000 since 1997 highest year-81 in 1895
Female
Carol 1880-685 1930-54 1980-232 not in top 1000 in 1883 not in top 1000 since 2006 highest year-4 in 1941
Lydia 1880-77 1930-233 1980-287 2008-120 highest year-75 in 1883
Gertrude 1880-25 1930-96 not in top 1000 since 1965 highest year-22 in 1906
Marcia 1880-614 1930-231 1980-414 not in top 1000 in 1992 not in top 1000 since 1994 highest year-74 in 1951
Gladys 1880-370 1930-48 1980-628 not in top 1000 in 1998 not in top 1000 since 1999 highest year-11 in 1901
Karen 1880-not in top 1000 until 1881 1930-687 1980-54 2008-183 not in top 1000 in 1882-1884, 1888, 1891, 1895-1905, 1907-1911, 1913-1917, 1919-1923, 1925, 1925, 1927 highest year-3 in 1965
Leslie 1880-655 1930-601 1980-61 2008-147 highest year-56 in 1981
Note that the specific spelling matters. For instance, on the boys’ side in 2008, Arthur is #363, but, separately, Arturo is #352. Similarly, on the girls’ 2008 list, Leslie is #147 and Lesly, #447; Lesley fell off the chart in 2008.
