Per capita cheese consumption in the US

As Americans have eaten more cheese per capita, they have named more babies Luna, a correlation of 0.996 that suggests either that dairy consumption inspires celestial naming or that the same cultural forces making artisan cheese mainstream also made astronomy-themed baby names fashionable. The cheese ages, the babies are named, and the chart ascends with the quiet confidence of a trend line illuminated by moonlight. One does not normally associate Gouda with the lunar cycle, but the data insists.

Luna entered the US baby name charts around 2005 and surged from fewer than 1,000 babies per year to over 7,500 by 2022, driven by Harry Potter (Luna Lovegood), the broader trend toward nature and celestial names, and the name's cross-cultural appeal in both English and Spanish-speaking communities. Cheese consumption grew from about 31 to over 40 pounds per capita, driven by pizza, snacking, and artisan cheese culture. Both trends are smooth upward curves over eighteen years, producing a near-perfect correlation because of their identical shape. The name and the cheese share a decade and a demographic—young, culturally engaged parents—but not a mechanism.

Eighteen years of Luna babies and cheese consumption is a correlation that achieves 0.996 through the simple mathematics of two smooth upward trends sharing a calendar. The name rises, the cheese rises, and the coefficient between them is a reminder that perfection in statistics usually means nothing in reality. The moon is full. The cheese board is fuller.