As the open data trend gets going, residents of cities across Canada are making sense of all kinds of counts of their activities over time.  I think this local sensemaking is super interesting, and I like that comparisons (e.g., over time and between cities) can be made.   

The brief article I’m interviewed in was written after the top 10 selected baby names for Ottawa residents from 2005-2009 were “opened. “

The article describes new parents’ debating between choosing common names and more individualizing ones for their children.  My comments are based on interviews I undertook for my dissertation; I found that for people who migrate to Canada or who are second generation Canadians, even very popular names from other countries could be challenging to use at school and work in Canada.