  We analyze the social mechanisms that shape the popularity rise and fall of
the names given to newborn babies. During the initial stage, popularity
increases by imitation. As the people with the same name grow in number,
however, its usage is inhibited and eventually decays. This process mirrors the
dynamics of fashion fads. An activator-inhibitor dynamical model for the
interplay of the population bearing a name and the expecting couples wishing to
give it to their children provides a satisfactory explanation of historical
data from the Canadian province of Quebec during the twentieth century.
