An Ode to Jalen
The NBA's Name
First off, shoutout to Danny Ball for the idea for this story. I’ve received a number of interesting questions from you all already, so I wanted to open it up more formally with a “mail bag” request: If you have any questions you think a chart would help answer, anything you notice during the NBA playoffs, the start of the WNBA season, or just in your everyday life, let me know! You can DM me on here, on Instagram (@chartinghoops), or email me at chrisgunther.writes@gmail.com. Now to this week’s post!
This year, 19 men named Jalen (or variations thereof1) played in the NBA, making it the most common name for the fifth year in a row. 19 is also the highest number of players with the same name since 21 Michaels suited up in 1989.
What makes the preponderance of Jalens interesting is that 50 years ago, the name didn’t even exist.
According to the US Social Security Administration, there were no recorded instances of babies named Jalen until 1973, when Jeanne Rose combined the name of her son’s father, James, and his uncle, Leonard, and introduced the world to Jalen Rose.
Jalen Rose grew up to be a household name, rising to prominence first as a member of Michigan’s Fab 5 in 1991, then with an illustrious 13-year career in the NBA. That fame and unique name inspired a tidal wave of mothers to use the name Jalen for their newborns during the 1990s: in 1989, 10 newborns were named Jalen; in 2000 there were over 6,000!
ESPN did a story on the rise of Jalens across sports in 2021, and cited 32 players with some variation of the name Jalen on rosters across the NBA, NFL and other pro sports, plus 80 playing college basketball. There’s even a Jaelyn in the WNBA!2
While similar naming trends have been identified in other media (like Disney princesses), this appears to be a unique phenomenon in basketball. The name LeBron peaked in popularity at just 110 newborns3; Shaquille briefly passed 1,000 in 1993, O’Neal’s rookie year in the NBA, but quickly crashed back down to less than 100. Kobe had a more prolonged effect, but not nearly to the same level as Jalen.
Not even Michael Jordan, who kids famously would like to be like, drove an increase in the name Michael. Of course, Michael was already a popular name before MJ - even in the peak Jalen year of 2000, there were five times more newborns named Michael. Statistically you’d expect a lot more Michaels in the NBA, and in fact Michael is the second most popular NBA name of all time, only behind John, and has been the most popular name 22 times in the league’s 70 years, most recently in 2019.
You certainly would not expect this many Jalens:
Not only are there a lot of Jalens in the league, there are a lot of very good Jalens. There are 75 first names that have been shared by at least 15 players in NBA history; Jalen ranks 2nd in points per game, 11th in assists, and 37th in rebounds. Put all that together with modified P+A+R and Jalen nets out as the third best name ever.
Here are some of the key players behind those averages:
These playoffs especially, it appears Jalens are the key to success. 11 of the 19 Jalens currently in the league made the playoffs, and through Round 1, the team with the better Jalen won nearly every series.
Houston’s Jalen is the sole superior Jalen to not advance, which of course is easily explained by last names, as Golden State’s superior Green (Draymond) took the series over Jalen Green.
Round 2 features the battle for king of the Jalens, as Brown’s Celtics go against Brunson’s Knicks. And whoever wins may face OKC’s Jalen/Jaylin Williams and answer the existential question - can one great Jalen beat two good ones? Which Jalen will ultimately reign supreme? We’ll find out soon.
Jaylen, Jaylin, and Jaylon. I’ll be using “Jalen” throughout to refer to all of these spellings. But not Jay or Ja. Those are different names.
Jaelyn Brown, who coincidentally went to the same college (Cal) as the NBA’s Jaylen Brown.
And one of those was LeBron’s own kid!