The changes in the survey methods of the “Tamahiyo Rankings of Baby Names”

To conduct empirical research on names and naming, it is necessary to do analyses and have discussions based on evidence, not intuition and impression, which requires reliable data on names. In Japan, the “Tamahiyo Rankings of Baby Names,” which has continuously conducted large-scale yearly surveys between 2005 and 2021, plays a crucial role. However, the surveys changed its methods in 2019 and those changes have not been mentioned on its website. Changes in the survey methods should be precisely understood particularly when analyzing temporal changes in names and naming to distinguish essential changes from by-products of methodological changes. Therefore, this article explains the changes in the survey methods of the “Tamahiyo Rankings of Baby Names”. The surveys between 2019 and 2021 collected data from a broader layer of participants than those between 2005 and 2018, which remarkably increased the sample sizes of the surveys between 2019 and 2021. Moreover, the surveys between 2019 and 2021 displayed a narrower range of results and discussed names based on rationales independent of survey data, making it difficult to conduct quantitative analyses for this period. This information will be helpful when analyzing the “Tamahiyo Rankings of Baby Names” and discussing names and naming.