Per capita cheese consumption in the US

As Americans have eaten more cheese per capita, they have named more babies Maverick, a correlation of 0.995 that connects dairy consumption to fighter pilot nomenclature with the statistical confidence of a Top Gun sequel. The cheese melts, the name soars, and the chart achieves a coefficient that Tom Cruise himself would find impressive. One imagines a maternity ward where the parents are eating brie and arguing about whether "Maverick" sounds better with a middle name of "Gouda" or "Cheddar."

The name Maverick surged in the US baby name charts from about 500 births per year in 2005 to over 4,000 by 2022, accelerated by the 2022 Top Gun: Maverick film but on an upward trend well before that. Cheese consumption grew from 31 to over 40 pounds per capita. Both trends are smooth upward curves across eighteen years: Maverick grows because unconventional, bold names have become mainstream, and cheese grows because pizza and snacking culture expand continuously. Two monotonic upward trends produce a near-perfect correlation. The Maverick babies and the mozzarella sticks share a demographic moment, not a delivery room.

Eighteen years of Maverick babies and cheese consumption is a correlation that feels dangerous and is entirely safe. The name climbs because culture changes, the cheese climbs because appetites expand, and the coefficient sits between them at 0.995 like a cocky pilot who has confused correlation with causation. Talk to me, Goose. The data flies, the cheese melts, and the highway to the danger zone is just a scatter plot.