Children of the Presidents of the United

States, 1885-2014
Anna Clarkson
I chose to look at the names of the children of the presidents throughout
history. I narrowed it down to kids who were known, which in this case meant
they lived in the White House while their father was president (or spent
significant time there). The earliest president the dataset would allow me to
look at was Grover Cleveland, who was president from 1885-1889 and 1893-
1897. The most recent president I looked at was Barack Obama, who was
president from 2009-2017. A selection of the results are below.

Using R, the dataset was filtered first by name, then by year and sex (for all
names except Malia, which had no males). The data was then grouped
together and plotted. For some of the visualizations, the exact years could
not be used when coding the annotations due to the placement of the lines.
The visualizations display the popularity of the names for the five years
before their father was elected to five years after (or, in the Obama's case,
as far forward as the dataset goes).

Malia and Sasha Obama

For this visualization, I looked at the frequency of

the names of Barack Obamas children, Malia
and Sasha. The names were fairly non-existent
prior to 2007-2008, when Barack Obama became
known nationally, eventually winning the 2008
presidential election. This is one of the most
dramatic examples of how presidential kids
impact names across the country. Both their
names peaked in 2009, the year their father was
inaugurated. Before the election, Sashas name
was more popular, however, Malias took over in
late 2007 and has remained the more popular name since. In 2004, 681 girls
were named Malia; 5 years later, in 2009, 1,699 girls were named Malia.
Sasha was a more popular name before the election, with 849 girls in 2004;
however, as mentioned above, it didnt reach the same levels as Malia
1,248 girls were named Sasha in 2009. Over Top: Family portrait, 2009,
1,000 girls were named Malia from 2009-2011, Bottom: White House State Dinner, 2016
while only in 2009 were more than 1,000 girls
named Sasha.

> SashaMalia <- babynames %>% filter (sex == "F", name %in% c("Sasha", "Malia"))
> subset(SashaMalia, year %in% 2004:2014) -> SashaMaliaLate
 > Obamas <- ggplot(SashaMaliaLate, aes(x = year, y = prop, color = name)) + geom_line()
> Obamas + annotate("text", x = 2009, y = .00085, label = "Obama became president")

The result:

Jenna Bush

The next visualization looks at Jenna, one of the daughters of George W.

Bush, president from 2001-2009. There is a clear spike in 2001, which could
be attributed both to her father becoming president, as well as the
occurrence of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Due to the inauguration
and 9/11 being only eight months apart, it is impossible to tell which event
had a greater impact. From then on, the name has a steady decline, with a
plateau around 2007. The popularity of Jenna continued to decline past the
time her father left office in 2009. The decline is interesting, seeing as Jenna
is not an uncommon name. The name of her twin sister, Barbara, was not as
popular (this was also the name of their grandmother, the former First Lady,
which is why it is excluded). This is similar to Bushs approval rating, which
following 9/11 (and the resounding "rally-round-the-flag" response), saw an
almost 40% jump to 90% (the highest of any presidents approval ever
recorded by Gallup). However, this was short-lived, and his approval began
to drop shortly after, and by the time Obama was elected, his approval rating
was his all-time low, at 25%the 3rd lowest of any
president. Jenna (along with her twin sister) also
had her fair share of bumpsthey were arrested
twice while at the University of Texas for underage
drinking, and had a habit of evading their Secret
Service details.

> Jenna <- babynames %>% filter (sex == "F", name %in% c("Jenna"))
> subset(Jenna, year %in% 1996:2014) -> JennaLate

> BushJenna <- ggplot(JennaLate, aes(x = year, y = prop, color = name)) +

geom_line()
> BushJenna + annotate("text", x = 1998.7, y = .0029, label = "Bush became
president") + annotate("text", x = 2001.6, y = .00285, label = "9/11") +
annotate("text", x = 2009, y = .0011, label = "Bush left office")

Top: An inaugural ball, 2001

Bottom: Jennas wedding, 2008
 The result:

Chelsea Clinton

This visualization looks at the daughter of President Bill Clinton, Chelsea.

Clinton was inaugurated in 1993 and served until 2001. She was 13 when
she moved into the White House with her parents, and stayed there until she
went to Stanford in 1997. Her parents made a point to keep her out of the
public sphere, a feat that was easier in the 1990s than it is today. Still, she
received more press coverage than many of the previous presidential
children. Chelsea later received a masters degree
from the University of Oxford, as well as a M.P.H.
from Columbia University. The popularity of the
name Chelsea peaked around the time Clinton was
elected and inaugurated, and then started a
decline that continued at least until Clinton left
office, although it started to plateau in the early
2000s. This is in contrast to her fathers approval
rating; he is the lone president (since approval
ratings have been tracked) to leave office with a
higher approval rating than he came in with.
Chelsea has since come back into the public
sphere, playing an active role (along with her
father) in helping her mother campaign for the
Top: Inauguration, 1993
2016 presidential election, particularly when it Bottom: Hillarys US Senate oath, 2001
came to fundraising. She has also written
children's books with her mother. She also has a
major role in the family's Clinton Foundation, with
a seat on the board.

>Chelsea <- babynames %>% filter (sex == "F", name %in% c("Chelsea"))
> subset(Chelsea, year %in% 1988:2006) -> ChelseaLate
 > Clinton <- ggplot(ChelseaLate, aes(x = year, y = prop, color = name)) + geom_line()
> Clinton + annotate("text", x = 1992, y = .0083, label = "Clinton became president") + annotate("text", x = 2000, y = .
0015, label = "Clinton left office")

The result:

Caroline and Patrick Kennedy

 This visualization looks at two of the three Kennedy children, Caroline and
Patrick. John F. Kennedy became president in January 1961, following his
victory in November 1960. Patrick, the younger of the two displayed, was
born prematurely in August 1963 and died at two days old. His father, John F.
Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, just three months later in
November 1963. There is a visible spike in the appearance of the name
Patrick following both his fathers assassination and his birth and death,
presumably to honor both of them. There is also a rise in the popularity of
Caroline following her father's assassination, although it is not nearly as
pronounced as Patrick. It appears Patrick was a much more common name at
the time than Caroline, his older sister (and only living child of JFK and Jackie;
middle brother John, known as John-John as a child, was killed in a plane
crash in 1999). I chose to exclude John because it was the name of the
president as well, which skewed the data; the same thing happened with the
Roosevelts, who named their first son Theodore. However, five years after
their father was assassinated, both names remained more popular than they
were five years prior to his presidency. To get both names on the plot, I used
the merge function, allowing me to combine two names of opposite
genders.
Top: JFK with Caroline, 1960
Bottom: 1963

> Caroline <- babynames %>% filter (sex == "F", name %in% c("Caroline"))
> subset(Caroline, year %in% 1955:1968) -> CarolineLate

> Patrick <- babynames %>% filter (sex == "M", name %in% c("Patrick"))
> Patrick <- Patrick %>% arrange(prop)
> subset(Patrick, year %in% 1955:1968) -> PatrickLate

> CarolinePatrick <- merge(CarolineLate, PatrickLate, all=T)

> ggplot(CarolinePatrick, aes(x = year, y = prop, color = name)) -> CarolPatMerge
> CarolPatAnnotate <- ggplot(CarolinePatrick, aes(x = year, y = prop, color = name)) + geom_line()
> CarolPatAnnotate + annotate("text", x = 1961, y = 0.0012, label = "JFK became president") + annotate("text", x =
1964.7, y = 0.0065, label = "Patrick's birth & death") + annotate("text", x = 1963, y = 0.0073, label = "JFK assassinated")

The result:

Calvin Coolidge, Jr.

 This visualization is of Calvin Coolidge, Jr., the son of President Calvin
Coolidge, who was in office from 1923-1929, following Warren Hardings
unexpected death (he was later elected in
1924). Calvin was 15 at the time.
Unfortunately, he passed away the
following year from blood poisoning. The
combination of his young death and his
father being the new president are the likely
reasons for the dramatic spike in the
popularity of the name Calvin around 1924.
However, the names popularity was short-
lived, and it started to decline immediately,
not seeing another uptick until the 1930s.
Coolidge had another son, John, who never
lived in the White House (he attended
boarding school), and therefore was not The Coolidge family at the White House in 1924;
Calvin Jr. is next to his father
included in this data. Coolidge chose not to
run for re-election in 1928, and many
attribute this to the death of Calvin Jr.
He noted in his autobiography that, When [Calvin] went, the power and the
glory of the Presidency went with him. Coolidge died less than four years
after leaving office.

> Calvin <- babynames %>% filter (sex == "M", name %in% c("Calvin"))
> subset(Calvin, year %in% 1918:1934) -> CalvinLate

> CoolidgeAnnotate <- ggplot(CalvinLate, aes(x = year, y = prop, color = name)) + geom_line()
> CoolidgeAnnotate + annotate("text", x = 1924, y = .0043, label = "Calvin (Jr.)'s death") + annotate("text", x = 1929, y
= .002, label = "Coolidge left office") + annotate("text", x = 1921.5, y = .003, label = "Coolidge became president")

The result:
 Roosevelt Children

The final visualization is for Teddy

Roosevelts male children. Roosevelt was
president from 1901 until 1909. He had a
daughter named Ethel, whose name was
much more popular, therefore skewing
the distribution when it was included.
That graph can be seen here. Despite
Roosevelts son Ted sharing his name, it
was not the most popular of the siblings.
That was Archie, which was considerably
more popular than any of the others.
Another surprising finding was that
Kermit was not the most popular name,
despite it being the most unusual. The
least popular of the names was Quentin, which never garnered much
popularity, despite his fathers prominence. It is interesting to note that
Quentin and Kermit did not appear in
the database, which counts names with Roosevelt family in Oyster Bay, New York, 1907. L-R:
Kermit, Archie, President Theodore Roosevelt, First Lady
over 5 representations, until 1900. Ethel Roosevelt, Edith, Ted, and Quentin
Quentin was born in 1897, and Kermit in
1889.

> RooseveltsM <- babynames %>% filter (sex == "M", name %in% c("Ted", "Kermit", "Archie", "Quentin"))
> subset(RooseveltsM, year %in% 1896:1914) -> RooseveltsMLate

> RooseveltMerge <- merge(RooseveltsMLate, EthelLate, all=T)

> ggplot(RooseveltMerge, aes(x = year, y = prop, color = name)) -> Roosevelts Roosevelts + geom_line()

The result:
 Overall Findings

Overall, it appears that the names of presidential children peak shortly after
they are inaugurated, or, as in the case of JFKs children, when there are
major events pertaining personally to the president. After the first year, the
names drop, and continue to do so, in many cases past the time of the
president leaving office. It was interesting to see that in most cases, and all
of those seen here, the names were less popular before the presidency as
well. This would be expected with less popular names like Malia or Sasha, but
to see it for common names like Jenna or Chelsea was noteworthy. Going of
that, it appears that regardless of the popularity of a name prior to the
election and inauguration, the presidency impacts the popularity of the
names of his children. Further research doing a more in-depth comparison of
the name popularity with the president's approval rating would be
interesting.