Have you ever wondered how much, if at all, pop culture, politics, or other publicity influences how parents name their babies? Here are a few graphs, culled from naming data provided by the Social Security Administration that will provide ample proof that it happens. Click on the images to enlarge them.

For those who are too young or too culturally deprived to recognize the names or the significance of the dates, compare the popularity of the names with dates of: Aretha Franklin’s career; when Erica Kane (the most popular soap opera character of all time) was active on All My Children; the boxing career of Rocky Marciano and the debut of the movie Rocky; and when Frozen became a smash hit (the main character is named Elsa);

The height of each bar represents the popularity of the name for that year as measured by the percentage of male or female babies who were given that name in that year. Popularity varies so much that the different graphs may be scaled differently. The number at the bottom gives the value of the highest bar for any given graph.