美国人这些年来最喜欢给女孩起的英文名：你猜

What is the trendiest baby name in American history? Jayden? Madison? Khaleesi?

在美国历史上最流行的宝宝名是什么呢?杰登?麦迪逊?卡丽熙?

The answer might not sound so trendy to you: Linda.

对你来说,答案听起来可能并不那么流行:(因为答案是)琳达。

Quantifying trendiness is tricky, since there's no universally accepted way to calculate how much of a fad a name was. But according to researcher David Taylor, Linda may very well be the trendiest name ever. Taylor devised a metric for trendiness that takes into account overall popularity as well as steepness of a name’s rise and fall. So while Mary was very, very popular, it was popular over a long time period, and therefore not trendy.

量化流行度很复杂,因为还没有一种普遍认同的方法来计算一个名字的流行度。不过,研究员大卫·泰勒表示,琳达可能是曾经最流行的名字。泰勒设计了一个衡量流行度的标准,该标准把一个名字的兴衰以及总体受欢迎程度都考虑在内。因此,虽然玛丽曾非常受欢迎,而且在很长的一段时间内都很受欢迎,但这个名字却并不流行。

In 2015, just .022 percent of all female births in the U.S. were Lindas. But in 1947, it had the largest yearly rise ever, accounting for 5.48 percent of all baby girls’ names. This sudden meteoric rise was due to the great success of one hit single: a 1946 Jack Lawrence song named "Linda."

2015年在美国出生的所有女婴中,只有0.022%的宝宝名为琳达。不过,在1947年,琳达这个名字曾有过年度最高涨幅,有5.48%的女婴被叫做琳达。突然迅速崛起是因为一首热门单曲的巨大成功:那就是杰克·劳伦斯在1946年发行的一首名为“琳达”的歌。

According to a 2009 PNAS study by marketing professor Jonah Berger, this rise-and-fall behavior may actually be the norm and not the exception: "Most names show a period of consistent increase in popularity, followed by a decline that leads to abandonment."

市场营销学教授乔纳·伯杰2009年在美国国家科学院院刊上发表的一项研究指出,这种兴衰变化实际上可能是一种惯例而不是一种例外:大多数名字的人气度都会在一段时期里呈持续增长之势,随后开始下降,致使(这些名字)被遗弃。

Will there be another name like Linda? The days when any one name could achieve 5 percent popularity for baby girls seem to be long gone. Top names for girls now hover at around 1 percent, indicative of a much greater overall diversity.

会有另外一个像琳达这样的名字吗?任何一个为小女孩所起的名字,其人气度能达到5%的岁月似乎早已远去。如今,热门的女孩名字,其人气度都徘徊在1%左右,这表明(如今给孩子起名)整体上有着更大的多样性。

What new name will emerge from 2016? Don’t be surprised if a good amount of parents watching Stranger Things this year decide to name their baby girls Eleven.

自2016年,会出现什么新名字呢?如果许多父母今年看了《怪物奇语》,那么他们决定给自己的宝贝女儿起名为伊莱文(十一)就没什么好惊讶的了。