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Updated example of using baby names to illustrate bimodal distributions.

The thing about my way of teaching stats is that my cool, novel examples get old really fast. Like, pop culture is on a thirty-day cycle. Anyway, YEARS ago, 2014 to be exact, I blogged about illustrating bimodal data distributions  using baby name data from the Social Security Administration. Specifically, when an older name comes back into vogue, it has a bimodal distribution when you plot time on the X axis.  I stand by this example. However, all of the data illustrations come from 2014. When our traditionally aged college students were 6 or 7. Which makes this example feel a little stale. However, here is some data,  courtesy of Redditor  fevaah ,  showing  old names that are back in vogue through 2025 ! And Eleanor, Violet, Nora, and Hazel are here, illustrating bimodal distributions for a new generation. If you used my old baby-name data, this is a quick, easy refresh for your lectures (or a fun new addition if you didn't).  If this idea was help...

Leo DeCaprio, the ages of his girlfriends: Regression in real life.

Ok, so this from Reddit:



This, of course, inspired me to cook up an example for Psych Stats, in the catty spirit of this very judgmental regression about the life and love of Dennis Quaid.

Here is a Google Sheet that contains ALL of the data featured above, as well as a sheet that contains JUST the GF's age when they first started dating. Maybe this example is a little better for our younger students who haven't heard of Dennis Quaid. Anyway, enjoy.



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