Saturday, February 6, 2016

Stigmatizing "Hillary"

In 2008 Barack offered up one of the better debate one-liners when he told Hillary Clinton that she was “likeable enough.” One doubts that too many other politicians would have gotten away with such a withering put-down.

Whatever you think about the polls and about Hillary Clinton's lack of accomplishments, the greater truth has just emerged in data about naming practices.

You see, in the months prior to the Clinton presidency, mothers across America became far more likely to name their daughters Hillary. And yet, as the chart shows, once they got to know HRC, "Hillary" crashed and burned. It has never really recovered. If it was a stock you would have lost big on it.

The Washington Post has the chart:

 
To know Hillary Clinton is to know that you do not want your daughter to be associated with her in any way whatever. That means that, among her dubious achievements, Hillary Clinton has turned her first name into a stigma.

If you want to know how mothers really feel about Hillary, the chart tells the story. She's not even likeable enough.

1 comment:

Ares Olympus said...

Yes, a distinctive profile. I wonder if the late 80s spike was from Clinton or some other inspiration? I don't imagine Clinton had a national reputation until 1992 when Bill was elected president. It looks like the first rise was around 1976.

The most ordinary surprise in name stats in looking at name frequency is most older traditional names are in steep decline. Most of the other examples show this trend.

Here's another blog from 2013, with the variant Hilary having an even more dramatic complete drop to zero around 1993 after a steady rise since 1950. Hilary Duff's 1987 birth fits that rise, and Hilary Swank from 1974. It also contrasts the short spike of Farrah in the late 1970s.
https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/02/05/the-rise-and-fall-of-hilary-and-hillary/

Anyway, the name Hillary isn't at zero, so there's hope the decision of a few hundred mothers doesn't clearly represent any clear destiny for Hillary Clinton as a potential candidate for president.

Contrarians like me almost have to root for Hillary's election, just to spoil conservative's good days.

Apparently even NASA is supporting Hillary's bid for president, naming a Pluto Mountain range after her last summer, although they claim its because of Sir Edmund Hillary, that's surely just a cover story to avoid political liabilities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Montes