Fun toys

[solitudete.livejournal.com]

I follow a screenwriting blog called Complications Ensue, and Alex recently shared some helpful name tools. These are particularly good if you're a writer looking for first and last name combinations, or period-appropriate names.

Slate Labs recently used some released Facebook data to create this chart to show correlation between last name and first name usage. For example, if your last name is Bangura, you are most likely named Ibrahim, Mohamed or Abdul. If your last name is Qing, your name is most likely Li, Xiao or Hui.

Fun huh? : ) Someone commented that you cannot see the number of names, but all you need to do is mouseover to see the actual total.

The other tool Alex shared is the Baby Name Voyager, which is probably familiar to some of you. You can enter a name (or click randomly on the graph) to see when a name saw the most use since the 1880s. I don't know where this site found its data, but it's interesting nonetheless.