I chose to visualize the counts of baby names with male and female divisions in New Zealand from 2001 to 2010 (the data are derived from this dataset). I used the chord diagram from Rawgraphs.io. The chart shows the name at one node pointing to the baby’s biological gender. The thickness of the arrows corresponds to the counts of each name. I changed the color of the arrows to give a more prominent and eye-catching visualization.
The visualization can bring about questions such as whether a name node has arrows pointing to both categories and whether there is a gender-neutral name that is not visible. DH relies on data visualization to investigate and illustrate a narrative that delves into social and cultural factors.
4 thoughts on “Data Visualization: Most Popular Baby Names”
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You’ve chosen an interetsing visualization method. I’ve also experimented with visualizing the total number of names over a 10-year period, as a word cloud. What sets your visualization apart is its focus on gender. I believe your approach is particularly well-suited for a DH project, as your exploration of names and their connection to gender could provide valuable insights for scholars in the field. One potential drawback could be that the graph may not be immediately intuitive to viewers upon first glance; perhaps presenting it in animated form could enhance comprehension.
I wanted to make a comment on this post because you chose a very interesting graph that caught my attention. At first glance I was a bit confused about what information you were comparing, but after I looked at it a bit more it was clear that you were comparing the amount of people named a certain name for each gender.
This is a very unique graph! I love the different colors and the wheel shape. I especially love how the number is next to the name which makes it easily readable. What makes your graph stand out the most is how it’s divided by gender. Great job! I agree that DH uses data visualization to investigate and illustrate a narrative, yours definitely does!
Thank you for such an informative graph Mai! I have never seen a chord diagram before and am fascinated by how it uses thickness, arrows and circular geometry to be a more informative version of a pie chart. It is perfect to replace the pie chart in a case with a larger, more complex data set with multiple names and frequencies. Your thoughts on gender classification are echoed in my own blog post. I do think the visualization itself would be able to incorporate a gender neutral section alongside the male and female, but it is interesting that the template you (presumably) worked with did not have an option for gender-neutrality. It raises questions about the current data classification standards used in DH, and how they should be tweaked or replaced.