America's Most Popular Boys' Names Since 1960, in 1 Spectacular GIF
An infographic depiction of the epic battle between "Michael" and "Jacob"
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Call it Jacob's ladder.
When it comes to the most popular names for baby boys in the United States, "Michael" long held sway. For most of the 1960s, and then on throughout the '70s and '80s (and almost all of the '90s!), the given name of Mssrs. Jackson and Jordan, Kors and J. Fox, was the most common in the land. And then, in 1999—probably under the influence of boredom and/or Y2K fears and/or Prince songs—Michael fell, ever so slightly, in the rankings. The go-to name for so many decades' worth of American boys was forced to give up its crown to the new name-leader: Jacob.
You may have seen the amazing GIF of the nation's most popular girls' namesthat Becca wrote about last week. Today, Deadspin GIFmaster Reuben Fischer-Baum has published the male version of that image: a single GIF depicting the