(originally published 2014)

Hypothesis:

Tom Cruise’s movie characters have common names.

Research:

Popularity (respective to decade of movie release) of boys names in United States for each character name. Data courtesy of United States Social Security records(note: Social Security information n/a for decade of 2010s. Estimates courtesy of alternative baby name data site.) Duplicate names from sequels (i.e. Ethan/Mission: Impossible) omitted.

 

1980s

Billy                 133

David              5

Steve               25 (1960s=10)

Woody            NR (1960s=NR)

Joel                  71

Stefen             NR

Jack                 167

Pete                61

Vincent           92

Brian               16

Charlie            33

Ron                 67 (1960s=103)

 

1990s

 

Cole                 111

Joseph             10 (1890s= 6)

Daniel             8

Mitch              91

Lestat              NR (1760s=?)

Ethan              55

Jerry               192

William           18

Frank              147

 

2000s

 

David              12

John                18

Nathan           26 (1870s= 124)

Vincent           116

Ray                  190

Jasper             NR

Les                  NR

Claus               NR (1940s Germany=?)

 

2010s

 

Roy                  NR

Stacee             NR

Jack                 23

Jack                 23

Analysis:

 

Breakdown:

Jack:                3

Vincent:          2

David:              2

All others:       1

 

Avg. popularity of character names: 100.3 (NR rankings were assigned = 200)

 

 

Conclusion:

Tom Cruise’s movie character names are not extraordinarily common.