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How have American baby name tastes changed since 1920? Which names have remained popular for over 100 years, and how do those names compare to more recent top baby names? These are considerations for many new parents, but the skills you'll practice while answering these queries are broadly applicable. After all, understanding trends and popularity is important for many businesses, too!

You'll be working with data provided by the United States Social Security Administration, which lists first names along with the number and sex of babies they were given to in each year. For processing speed purposes, the dataset is limited to first names which were given to over 5,000 American babies in a given year. The data spans 101 years, from 1920 through 2020.

The Data

baby_names

columntypedescription
yearintyear
first_namevarcharfirst name
sexvarcharsex of babies given first_name
numintnumber of babies of sex given first_name in that year
Spinner
DataFrameas
usa_baby_names
variable
-- Run this code to view the data in baby_names
SELECT *
FROM baby_names
LIMIT 5;
Spinner
DataFrameas
name_types
variable
-- Use this table for the answer to question 1:
-- List the overall top five names in alphabetical order and find out if each name is "Classic" or "Trendy."
WITH name_counts AS (
    SELECT first_name, 
           SUM(num) AS total_count, 
           COUNT(DISTINCT year) AS year_count
    FROM baby_names
    GROUP BY first_name
)
SELECT first_name, 
       total_count AS sum, 
       CASE WHEN year_count >= 50 THEN 'Classic' 
            ELSE 'Trendy' END AS popularity_type
FROM name_counts
ORDER BY first_name
LIMIT 5;
Spinner
DataFrameas
top_20
variable
-- Use this table for the answer to question 2:
-- What were the top 20 male names overall, and how did the name Paul rank?
WITH ranked_names AS (
    SELECT first_name, 
           SUM(num) AS total_count,
           RANK() OVER (ORDER BY SUM(num) DESC) AS name_rank
    FROM baby_names
    WHERE sex = 'M'
    GROUP BY first_name
)
SELECT name_rank, first_name, total_count AS sum
FROM ranked_names
WHERE name_rank <= 20 
   OR first_name = 'Paul';
Spinner
DataFrameas
a_names
variable
-- Use this table for the answer to question 3:
-- Which female names appeared in both 1920 and 2020?
WITH name_years AS (
    SELECT first_name, SUM(num) AS total_occurrences
    FROM baby_names
    WHERE sex = 'F' AND year IN (1920, 2020)
    GROUP BY first_name
)
SELECT first_name, total_occurrences
FROM name_years
WHERE first_name IN (
    SELECT first_name 
    FROM baby_names 
    WHERE sex = 'F' AND year = 1920
    INTERSECT
    SELECT first_name 
    FROM baby_names 
    WHERE sex = 'F' AND year = 2020
);