Baby names data exercise (possible homework assignment)

The assignment: 
Use the Social Security Administration’s baby names dataset to examine the popularity of a name or names over time.

You’ll pick a state and download the name list at Social Security Card Applications-Data by State and District of Columbia — it contains records back to 1910.

1. Import the information into an Excel spreadsheet.

2. Pick a name to examine and sort and sift the data to answer the following questions:

• Provide a news peg for the name you selected. (i.e., two sentence story description) In other words, why are the numbers you’re finding significant?

• Find the average number of boys or girls given the name during the last 10 years.

• Find the number of boys or girls given the name in 1967 (or 50 years earlier).

• Find the year the name was most popular as either a girl’s or boy’s name.

• Create a simple chart using Excel or Google Spreadsheets about the popularity of the name.

One hint to make the data viz work out: Name the Excel document after the baby name, but remove the column that contains the name you selected from your spreadsheet.

A version of this assignment won a “Great Ideas For Teaching” award from AEJMC for Nick Geidner, who teaches at the University of Tennessee.