Babies named Maverick (US)

Between 2005 and 2022, babies named Maverick and countries with legal same-sex marriage both increased, correlating at 0.9627 across eighteen years. Both represent the expansion of what is considered acceptable: unconventional names for children and marriage equality for couples. The correlation captures two threads of the same broader cultural liberalization—a society that is simultaneously less constrained in what it names its children and less constrained in who it allows to marry. The data is accidentally telling a real story about cultural openness; it just doesn't know which chapter it's reading.

The name Maverick grew from obscurity to the top 40. Countries with legal same-sex marriage grew from roughly 4 in 2005 to over 30 by 2022. Both are expressions of cultural liberalization growing across the same 18-year window.

Two expressions of cultural liberalization growing over the same period will correlate. The baby name and the marriage law share a cultural trajectory, making this correlation less spurious than most.