Baby Names in the United States from 1880 to 2011
LT – Understand how data from a government web site may be transformed
into information using Python programming and PSD Google Doc spreadsheet
charts.
SC – Use data available from the United States Social Security Office and
transform it into meaningful charts using PSD Google Doc spreadsheets, the
spreadsheet workbook file is to then be inserted into each student's
individual web site.
You are going to make a series of charts in a single PSD Google Docs spreadsheet
that show the popularity of baby names from 1880 to 2011.
Below is an example of the charts you will be asked to make. This one happens to be
for the name Scott and gender male. (As you can see, it was a rare name for a male
back in the 1930s and earlier, as well as recently.)
The Office of Social Security in the United States makes available text files for each
year from 1880 to 2011 of all the baby names by gender issued a birth certificate in
America, as long as five or more individuals have that name in a given year.
The problem is that the Social Security Office only releases this information in a
zipped folder of 132 separate text files (see National Data file at
(http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/babynames/limits.html). These files are
downloadable from one folder. Mr. Durkin has already downloaded this folder and
has it inside his Public folder on the Preston server. Directions on how to find it and
place a copy in your server folder appear on the next page.
Baby Names in the United States from 1880 to 2011
Monday, February 8, 2016
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The files from the Social Security Office web site have already been downloaded for
you and are in a folder in Mr. Durkin's Public folder on the Preston server. You will
need to copy the "names" folder and then go to your web20 folder on the Preston
server folder (your id #) and paste a copy of this folder in there.
Below is where you can find the "names" folder Mr. Durkin has in his Public folder.
(It is inside another folder inside the Public folder.) Most of you have been to Mr.
Durkin's Public folder before. Once you find it, you will right-click on the "names"
folder to copy it and then go to your folder to paste it in there.
To get a copy of the Social Security "names" folder:
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Open the Computer icon on the desktop of your computer.
Open the Preston main server called PREMAIN (T:/), I believe.
Open the Staff folder. (The one that is just called "Staff.")
Go to the folder for sdurkin. (If you type "sd" real fast you will go right to
it.)
Open the Public folder. And then open the folder inside it named "Other."
Inside Other look for the folder named: names – this is the one you need
to copy.
Copy the names folder (right-click on the folder and select Copy).
Go to your web20 folder in your Preston server folder and paste in this
folder you copied by just right-clicking in a white area of your web20
folder and selecting Paste.
You now have the files from the Social Security Office. Look in your copy
of the folder and open up one the files for any year. It will probably open
in Notepad. These are the files that will help us make our charts!
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Monday, February 8, 2016
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Without a computer program, it would take a long time to open and close all these
files all the while searching for the desired name, gender and number of people in
each file.
You will use a Python program that has already been written for you that will help
you open each file, look for the name and gender you identified, display the year and
the number of people of that gender who were issued that name, and close each file.
(This is the kind of program computer science students at Fossil write.)
1. You need to highlight and copy the Python program below – then come back to
step#2 below.
2. Open a new script window in Python.
3. Name it: names.py
4. IMPORTANT: BE SURE TO SAVE names.py INSIDE YOUR NEW names
FOLDER (where all the text files are from Social Security)– otherwise this
program won't work!!!!
5. Copy and paste in the highlighted code below into your names.py file. Save these
changes to the file.
x = 1880
name = input("Enter a name: ")
gender = input("Enter a gender: ")
years = []
while x <= 2011:
found = 0
s = 'yob'+str(x)+'.txt'
f = open(s, 'r')
for i in f:
i = i.strip();
i = i.split(',')
if i[0] == name and i[1] == gender and len(name)==len(i[0]):
t = (x, i[2])
years += [t]
found = 1
if found == 0:
t = (x, 0)
years += [t]
#print (x)
x+=1
for i in years:
print (i[0],'\t',i[1])
print ("done!")
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Monday, February 8, 2016
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After you run the names.py program and enter an appropriate name and gender, it
should display for you the year and number of people identified by you that were
born with that information. It is this output you will copy and use to make your
charts in PSD Google Docs spreadsheet.
Below is a screen shot of the Python Shell for the name "Rush" and the gender of
"M." (You have to indicate gender with a single capital letter (uppercase), either "M"
or "F." Also, the name must be entered with an initial capital letter and the rest in
lowercase. Also keep in mind that if your uncle's name is "Bob," for instance, you
will probably want to look for "Robert.")
Select and copy the lines
of output from 1880 to
2011.
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Run the program and copy the output (just the lines of output from 1880 to 2011).
Create a new PSD Google Doc spreadsheet and name it Names.
In the first sheet click on cell A1 and enter: Year
In cell B1 enter: Number of People
Click in cell A2 and paste the (1880 to 2011) information that was displayed in the
output of your Python program.
Below is a screen shot of Rush (Male). Of course, the data goes all the way to row
133.
Name this sheet RushData (change it to whatever name you identified – MaryData,
for ex.).
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Next, as you may recall, you have to highlight exactly the data in order to begin to
make a chart.
When there is a long amount of cells to highlight sometimes it is easier to use the
following keyboard trick, but you can also just select A1 and try to manually
highlight down to cell B133.
Go to cell A1.
Hold down the SHIFT key and the CTRL key with one hand.
While you keep those held down also press the DOWN ARROW KEY.
(This will highlight all the data in Column A.)
To also highlight the data in column B, keep the SHIFT and CTRL down
and press the RIGHT ARROW KEY.
If the above is done correctly, all the data from A1 to B133 should now be
selected/highlighted.
While the data is now selected/highlighted, go to the Insert menu and select Chart.
The window that shows up has a chart (see below), but the preview shown isn't
correct yet! 
?
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You have to adjust the settings in the Start tab!
In Recommended charts section, select the Combo Chart.
Also check the
Use column A as labels box.
Better!
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Next, click on the Customize tab to label the chart title and both axis.
If you would like, it is also possible to change the type to a line chart.
Insert this chart into the spreadsheet.
Move the chart to its own sheet. Rename the sheet with the chart RushChart
(change it to what name you identified).
Do at least three or four name/gender, if not many more! Carefully label each chart
and be sure to name each sheet. Just keep adding sheets as needed!
Before class is over today, please insert this
chart into your PSD academic web site! 
Please share with your family members what
you learned about the popularity of names
over the last one hundred years in America by
showing them the work you have posted on
your academic web site! 
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