With babies in mind, I came across an interesting website from the US Social Security Administration: http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames
On this website, I found an interesting chart (below) from which I propose some analysis (further below). I would like to forewarn you that my analysis should probably not be taken 100% seriously, so please don't cite my blog for a high school research paper. 
Brad's analysis:
What I find interesting is that prior to 1940, the number of female births was greater than the number of male births. However, 1940 seems to be a turning point of when male births became more frequent than female births.
Now for the scientific part - including natural selection principles. Keep in mind that the father carries the chromosomes that determine whether the baby will be a boy or a girl.
In the early 1900's the United States was booming. Life was becoming easier. This lead into the Roaring Twenties and gave rise to the girly-man who apparently produce more girls. However, when times got tough - the Great Depression in the 30's - nobody wanted the girly-man, and the number of girl producers decreased. In the late 1940's the manly-men were returning from World War II bringing with them numerous Y chromosomes. After this, the large return of those manly-men created more Y-wielding males.
Since then, there has not been any event so great to have disrupted this trend. Therefore, the manly-men genes have been passed down to today's generation (even though there may not be any true manly men left). Thus explaining why I am expecting boy number 3... not that I am a manly-man, but the recipient of manly-men genes.
2 comments:
So...the girly-men didn't make it back from the war?? interesting. You could be a science teacher or something...or maybe a stand up comic.
Yes, for sensitivity reasons, I didn't want to spell out that the girly-men didn't come back from war. I meant no disrespect.
To avoid that conversation altogether, the girly-men possibly CHOSE NOT to serve their country. When the war was over and reproduction was at its peak, the manly-men who went to war were more desirable than those who did not go to war at all.
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