Long time no Joe

The goal of this study is to uncover and model trends in the development of Czech given names in the 1952–2016 period. Our research is in line with the growing quantification in onomastics, the linguistic discipline studying proper names. We want to go beyond general assumptions of the name core not changing dramatically over time and provide a more fine-grained perspective on the issue. We analyse the 20 most popular (highest-scoring) names for both genders separately (40 in total; as of 2016). In order to model the development within the limited period, after some deliberations we use linear regression, our main goal being to determine whether the trend is an increase, a decrease, or something more complex. The results show that most of the names show a clear-cut trend, indicating that the period did not see events with a long-term impact on the top Czech namescape. More specifically, we observe a decrease in compound Slavic names (Jaroslav, Vladimír), an increase in ‘old Czech’ (actually Greek-, Latin-, and Hebrew-origin) names (Kateřina, Tomáš), and several peculiar trends, possibly linked to period-limited fashions and the modern/outdated dichotomy (Anna, Petr).