Snow White’s Seven Dwarfs — Ranked by Google Ngram

Thanks to Google Books Ngram Viewer, Doc, Sneezy, Sleepy, Grumpy, Bashful, Dopey, and Happy are today traveling around the world.

One would expect Doc to rule them all; in fact, it’s the case only in Hebrew, German and English. And in the latter, his reign is bound to come to an end in the coming years. It’s even a worldwide trend. French and Spanish have already made the transition with the Great Shifts of 2010 and 2011; happiness rules their lives now.

Let us handover to Snow White and analyze these trends in more detail.

Photo credit: Haley Phelps on Unsplash

English — The Pursuit of Happiness

During the nineteenth century, the trend was crystal clear, Happy was due to lose its leading position in favor of Doc. It was only a matter of time. Following the Great Shift in 1878, Doc became increasingly successful, reaching a top in 1946, most likely pushed by WW2 victory. But one hundred years after the Great Shift, Happy decided to make a comeback. Since 1978, it has been growing faster than the average internet startup. It looks like Doc is in trouble.

The big surprise: Trump, although known to be the…