NEWS.md

In babynamesIL: Israel Baby Names 1949-2024

babynamesIL 0.2.3

Bug Fix: Incorrect totals in babynamesIL_totals

This release fixes a significant data bug introduced in v0.2.0.

In v0.2.0, the babynamesIL_totals dataset was inadvertently changed to compute totals by summing the filtered yearly data (which only includes years where a name was given to ≥5 babies). This resulted in substantially underreported totals, especially for less common names.

The CBS source data includes an accurate "total" column that counts all registrations across all years, including years below the 5-baby threshold. This release restores the use of the CBS total column.

Impact: Names that were uncommon (rarely reaching ≥5/year) were most affected. For example, "אביעזר" was reported as 5 (only 1 year crossed the threshold) when the true CBS total is 129. Even common names like "דוד" were slightly underreported (95,744 vs correct 97,218).

Affected versions: v0.2.0 and v0.2.1.

What changed:

• babynamesIL_totals now uses the CBS total column directly (28,626 rows, up from 7,847) — this includes names that never reached ≥5 in any single year but still have a CBS total.
• The yearly babynamesIL dataset is unchanged — it still only contains years where a name was given to ≥5 babies, as per CBS publication rules.

babynamesIL 0.2.1

Breaking Changes

• Sector renamed: "Christian" sector is now "Christian-Arab" to match CBS terminology. Update your code: filter(sector == "Christian") becomes filter(sector == "Christian-Arab").

• "Other" sector removed: The "Other" sector is no longer included in babynamesIL. Historical "Other" sector data (1985-2021) is available in the new babynamesIL_other dataset.

• 1948 data moved: The 1948 data is now in a separate babynamesIL_1948 dataset. The main babynamesIL dataset now covers 1949-2024.

New Features

• Updated data through 2024 from CBS Release 391/2025.

• New dataset babynamesIL_1948: Legacy 1948 baby name data preserved from earlier CBS release.

• New dataset babynamesIL_other: Archived "Other" sector data (1985-2021) for historical research.

• Improved documentation with comprehensive details about data sources and breaking changes.

Data Changes

• Year range: 1949-2024 (vs 1948-2023 in previous version)
• Sectors: Jewish, Muslim, Christian-Arab, Druze (removed "Other")
• Total rows: ~159K (vs ~131K in previous version)
• Primary source: CBS Release 391/2025

Internal

• Refactored data processing into data-raw/process_cbs_data.R for maintainability.
• Added archive creation script data-raw/create_archives.R.

babynamesIL 0.0.3

• Added 2023 data.

babynamesIL 0.0.2

• Added 2022 data.

babynamesIL 0.0.1

• Initial release.

babynamesIL documentation built on April 10, 2026, 9:06 a.m.