Jalen

Jalen’s entrance on the American male naming chart in 1992 was impressive. He made his debut at a remarkable position of #377 (pretty moderate popularity for a once obscure name). Clearly, the college basketball superstardom of Jalen Rose in 1992 and 1993 had almost everything to do with the name’s sudden fame on the naming charts. The African-American population embraced the name almost immediately, and its usage was most fashionable in the states where Blacks have their highest concentration within the population (mainly the southern states, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and the Carolinas); however, Jalen has been quite popular in Michigan as well (where Jalen Rose played college basketball) and Indiana (where he spent several years of his professional career). The height of Jalen’s popularity on the male naming charts was in 2000 – he almost even secured a spot on the Top 100 most commonly used boy names. Today, the name has dropped back down to very low-moderate levels of usage which remains quite extraordinary considering it was one young 19 year old kid who started the whole naming craze for Jalen.