How Prescient Were My Parents?

According to the Social Security Administration, my parents were good predictors of baby name popularity for three out of five of their children:

Nicholas was the 158th most popular boys name in 1961, 123rd in 1971, 21st in 1981, 12th in 1991 and 6th in 2001, before dropping to 15th in 2005.

Claire was the 329th most popular girls name in 1962, 584th in 1972, 300th in 1982, 159th in 1992 and 95th in 2002, a position it maintains in 2005.

Matthew was the 24th most popular boy's name in 1968, 6th in 1978, 3rd in 1988, 3rd in 1998 and 4th in 2005.

Now for the two big losers:

Peter was the 43rd most popular boy's name in 1969, 53rd in 1979, 66th in 1989 and 105th in 1999. It continues to drop like a stone, currently 161st in 2005.

Martin was the 63rd most popular boy's name in 1964, 109th in 1974, 127th in 1984, 135th in 1994 and 206th in 2005. That makes Marty currently the least popularily named of all my parents' children.

My parents never picked a name that was in the top ten for popularity, and only dipped into the top 25 once. Here's a chart comparing the names by year from 1960 to 2005: