Can Twitter Predict Royal Baby's Name ?

Abstract: In this paper, we analyze the existence of possible correlation between public opinion of twitter users and the decision-making of persons who are influential in the society. We carry out this analysis on the example of the discussion of probable name of the British crown baby, born in July, 2013. In our study, we use the methods of quantitative processing of natural language, the theory of frequent sets, the algorithms of visual displaying of users' communities. We also analyzed the time dynamics of keyword frequencies. The analysis showed that the main predictable name was dominating in the spectrum of names before the official announcement. Using the theories of frequent sets, we showed that the full name consisting of three component names was the part of top 5 by the value of support. It was revealed that the structure of dynamically formed users' communities participating in the discussion is determined by only a few leaders who influence significantly the viewpoints of other users.