The Orangery

Popular Medieval Names from Henry III's reign (1216-42)

2011-04-27T19:49:00.000Z

I don't really update this blog any more - I'm still thinking about names, but university has impeded the amount of time that I can think about other topics in depth. Still, it was with some interest that this story about the most popular names in the Fine Rolls of Henry III, dating 1216-42.

A summary article is available here.
All the male names are ordered on the project's blog here, and female names here, with extra female names from 1242-8 here. Anyone who's just interested in names for finding unusual examples or exploring 'legitimacy', then there's some interesting examples on the list such as Sapientia, Mazelina and Engeram (and Licorice).

In terms of considering naming trends etc., a few things from the press release sparked off thoughts for me:
- More diversity in female names - 57.8% of men had top 10 name compared with 51.8% of women. 9.44% of women had names that occurred only once, compared with 3.38% of men. This is a general trend that has continued to today - I don't have all the data to hand, but my general inclination says that with English names, this has always been the case. I'm now trying to think (and if you read this post and can think of an example then let me know) where there is much more diversity in male names - perhaps Biblical names? Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, Ruth, Rachel, Rebecca, Esther, Lydia -I don't think that it's being overly sensational to say that those names cover the gamut of acceptable Biblical names. By contrast, there are many more male names that are viable - even if you just use the name of the books of the Bible - Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, James, Peter, Joshua, Timothy, Samuel, Daniel - all of these names seem popular and normal, without getting to the more obscure Biblical book names such as Habakkuk and Haggai.

- Just continuing the 'Bible' theme- these lists show a time before 'Bible names' were the norm - only John and Thomas appear in the male top 10, and Isabella and Joan (and those are stretching it a bit) in the female top 10. There are only eight instances of Mary and one Elizabeth (although I wonder if this is a consequence of the pervasiveness of Latin, letting Isabella be more popular)

- Having worked a lot with Anglo-Saxon sources, where it seems that every woman is called some form of Aelf/Aethel/Here/Wulf/Ead + gyth/swith/flaed/run etc., the variety of forms of female names is interesting. And I suppose, the absence of these 'Anglo-Saxon' elements, just two hundred and fifty years after the end of the 'Anglo-Saxon' period is also testament to the pervasiveness of Norman names (and I suppose, the prestige attached to them).

- William is at the top. I'm used to seeing 'John' on old lists, and checking the list in G. Redmonds' Christian Names, which has research for 1377-81 (possibly from Pipe Rolls, but I may be making that up, I don't have the book to hand, just the list that I copied into my master names popularity document), John is the #1 name by that time. It may represent a different social milieu, but I suspect the later date has more to do with the change. Alice is #1 in the 1377-81 female list. By 1550, Elizabeth was #1, while John remained until 1700 (with William in the #2 or 3 spot).

I'm sure that there are other things I could witter on about. I suppose if I was doing research into this properly and scholarly, then I'd want to know about the social status/milieu of the people represented in the Pipe Rolls, whether any other documents from Henry III's reign can provide comparable information, what the spread of the data is (whether there are lots for certain years, or if it increases over time), spatial information (collected just from London/towns, or all over England, and whether there's any names with particularly local popularities, and if there's enough to data to do that sort of analysis). I'm sure if I had more time then I can find these things out, but as I don't, I'll just through them out as ideas to think about.

Renault allowed to name car 'Zoe'

2010-11-11T22:20:00.003Z

Since I've already posted on this issue twice - here and here - I thought I'd update about the latest development in the story.

Recap: Renault want to name their newest car 'Zoe' - it is a Zero Emission car and Zoe means 'life'. But the parents of two children named Zoe Renault (first name surname) have taken the company to court in France to try and block the name, claiming it would harm their children.

The result is that the judge has ruled that Renault can name a car Zoe. (see here).

This time, the idea of Renault naming a car Zoe sparked off in my mind ideas about created names. I was just wondering if the fashion for creating names is connected to the fashion in advertising of creating brand names from words that sound like something recognisable, but aren't actually a real word such as Pepsi Cola from pepsin and kola nuts, Popsicle from pop and icicle, Toblerone from Theodor Tobler and Italian torrone meaning 'nougat', and so on. So Kaylyn is recognisably linked to Kay and Lynn but it doesn't actually have a direct derivation from them, or Brayden from Brady and Aidan and so on. Or older names like Marlene and Darlene etc. Was there a connection between the rise of brand names from, say the late 19th century, and the rise of names that aren't directly derived from older names such as Elizabeth? I don't know, but that's what I have been wondering about.

Popular Names of England and Wales 2009

2010-10-27T12:39:00.002Z

As 2010 draws to a close, ONS have finally released the most popular names of England and Wales in 2009.

The big news in a short-term p.o.v is that Jack is no longer the #1 boys name, Oliver is. And Olivia is the #1 female name, which is rather symmetrical. There's lots of other interesting ideas contained in the articles on the site, such as Holly and Summer still being seasonal names, regional variation such as Mohammed being the #1 name in the West Midlands.

From my p.o.v., I'm most excited about the issuing of the 'Historic Names' data, which has the top 100 for every ten years from 1904-1994, which nicely fills the gap in my own data, between 1910 and 44. I need to look further, but it will be interesting to see if some of the rises that I have postulated actually happened.

Names That Stand Out - First Letter

2010-09-14T20:38:00.003Z

I was reflecting on what makes names stand out, or seem different, and if there are particular patterns that can be followed to consciously make a name stand out.

What I have begun with (if this will become a series, I don't seem to be especially good at keeping them up) is the idea of choosing an unusual first letter can elevate a more 'popular' name to standing out a little, and lower an unusual name if it begins with a popular letter.

When thinking about this, I was reminded of the experiment in Cambridge which found that as long as words began and ended with the expected letters, it didn't matter what order the middle letters took. Or it fuond taht as lnog as wrdos bgean and edend wtih the etepcexd lrttees, it dnid't mtetar waht oerdr the mldide lrtetes took. So in terms of immediate perception, it seems that the first letter of the name is important, and if that letter is one that lots of names begin with, the immediate perception may be that a certain name is more popular than it actually is.

So I used the 2008 girl's rankings for England and Wales to examine this idea. This data includes every name given to 3 or more girls born in 2008.

This is what I found.

The most popular letter was A, and the least popular was X.

Here are the results, with ranks in the first column, number of births in the second and finally the letter in the third:

1	37661	A
2	34005	E
3	31436	M
4	29769	L
5	26177	S
6	18589	C
7	14939	K
8	14141	I
9	14161	R
10	12454	J
11	11774	H
12	9537	G
13	8240	T
14	8422	F
15	8096	N
16	7597	P
17	5319	D
18	6600	O
19	6430	B
20	4163	Z
21	1863	V
22	1013	Y
23	860	W
24	317	U
25	152	Q
26	79	X

I also decided to look at the top 100 and see if the results were similar, or if certain letters' position was improved by having lots of marginal names.

This list has rank, then number of births, then number of names in top 100 then letter.

1	23913	13	E
2	17589	12	L
3	17465	13	A
4	16928	12	M
5	13370	8	S
6	10462	6	I
7	9455	4	C
8	7106	3	G
9	7033	3	J
10	6915	3	R
11	6038	4	H
12	5317	1	O
13	5148	3	P
14	3609	2	K
15	3329	3	F
16	2627	2	B
17	2127	1	D
18	1741	2	N
19	1683	2	Z
20	1596	2	T
21	0	0	Q
22	0	0	U
23	0	0	V
24	0	0	W
25	0	0	X
26	0	0	Y

A is at the top of the total list, but E is at the top of the top 100 list. This is because E has several names in the top end of the top 100 - Emily, Ella and Evie in particular. Only Amelia and Ava from A are at the higher end of the top 100, but A does have lots of more 'marginal' Arabic names such as Aaliyah and Amina, as well as several names with an unclear main spelling such as Alicia, Ashley and Abigail. E lacks lots of Arabic names - which through transliteration can have multiple 'legitimate' spellings but does have quite a few hyphenated names such as Ellie-name, Eva-name and Ella-name.

G is boosted in the top 100 list by the high popularity of Grace, O is also much higher due to Olivia being the #1 name in England and Wales in 2008, and the standing of O is solely due to Olivia, as it is the only O name in the top 100 - the next O name - Orla is at #211. K performs worse on the top 100 than on the complete list - only two K names are found on the top 100, and though both of them (Katie and Keira) are in the top 50, the lack of presence of other names means that it slides down the list. Like A, I think K suffers from the problem of a lack of clarity about the 'legitimate' spelling of a name - so there are lots of Kay-sees sound-wise, but 18 different spellings in the K section alone by my count.

So, enough picking out of statistics, which letters should you choose if you want your name to stand out?

The obvious is not A, E, M, L and S - as these all sit in the top 5 of both lists. In particular, when looking at these letters, then not Al, An, Am, Em, El, Ev, Li (with the ih sound found in Lily and Libby), Lu, Mad, Mar and So. Alastríona or Angharad may look wonderfully exotic, but they still contain familiar and popular sounds that people can catch onto (which is perhaps part of their appeal).

The end of the alphabet has always been the traditional home of unusual names - U, V, W, X and Y - but not Z, are sure to raise eyebrows. Of course, with limited usage you also get limited ideas. As a child, I was convinced that Xavier and Xanthe were the only X names that you could use, because they were the only X names in my Collins Book of Baby Names.

But I would warn that some more unusual letters still have expected beginning sounds. O is a great example of that - Onisim, Ovadia, and Obed still sound fairly exotic as there are few other names that begin with 'On', 'Ov' or 'Ob'. But Olwen, Olaf and Oleg have the familiar 'Ol' sound found in the exceedingly popular Oliver and Olivia, and so sound much less exotic.

I would say the same with 'Kay' names - there are numerous various names that involve the 'Kay' sound - Kayleigh, Casey, Kaylynn, Katie, Kate, Katelyn, Kayla etc. But there are much fewer names that begin with the 'Keh' sound - so Kester, Keturah and Keziah sound fresher, and even fewer names with the 'Kih' sound so Kimberley, Kit and Cillian are positively unusual in their sound.

But, you cry, I love names that begin with 'A'. Will I have to abandon that lovely symmetrical letter just because lots of names begin with that letter? Fear not! I have searched and found some names with unusual opening sounds that still exist under the popular letters:

A - 'Ac' names - Acacia, Acantha, 'Aj' - Ajit, 'Ap' - Apollonia, April, 'Aq' - Aqila, 'Aw' - Awiti, 'Ax' - Axel

E - 'Ec' - Echo, Eckhart, 'Eh' - Eha, Ehud, 'Eo' - Eowyn, Eoforwine, 'Ew' - Ewald, Ewan, 'Ey' - Eydís, Eysteinn, Eyvindr

L - consonant names are more difficult, as it rests on changing vowel sounds rather than a different consonant as second letter. 'Leh' rather than 'Lee' - Lech, Lemuel, Leonard, Lesley, Letitia, 'Ll' - Lleu, Llewelyn, Llinos, Llyr, 'Luh' rather than 'Loo' - Lux

M - 'May' rather than 'Mah' - Mabel, Macy, May, Maeve, Maya, 'Mee' rather than 'Meh' - Meena, Mina, 'Mn' - Mneme, Mnemosyne

S - 'Sk' - Skandar, Skye, 'Sl' - Slavomir, Slobodan, Sloane, 'Sm' - Smadar, Smiljana, 'Sn' - Snorri, Snezhana

And some popular letter combinations or names for unusual letters:

Y - 'Yah' as in Yasmin, Yaroslav

X - 'Xan' as in Xanthe, Xander

W - 'Wil' as in William, Wilfred

V - 'Vi' as in Violet, 'Ver' as in Vera, Verity and Veronica

U - 'Un' as in Unity, Una

Q - 'Qui' as in Quincy, Quinn, Quirina

Julia

2010-06-22T14:56:00.013Z

I'm on holiday (or 'vacation') from uni at the moment, so have time to write some posts. I'm going to try to dedicate an hour each day to blog posting, and thought I'd examine various names from a statistical point of view, trying to identify what made the name popular in the past.

I randomized the US top 1000, and ended up with Julia, so that is where I am starting. As a first post, this may end up being a little uneven, but hopefully I'll be able to communicate some interesting points. Some of my favourite blogs for names are Appellation Mountain and Legitimate Baby Names. My own approach of looking at individual names will focus more on their usage through time and space rather than meaning or bearers (though these will be brought in when appropriate, to illustrate various themes of use).

Julia

Feminine form of Julius, possibly from Greek ιουλος/ioulos 'downy-bearded'.

Period of usage: from Roman to present day, centred in Italy

Roman usage: Was the nomen used by all female members of the gens Julia patrician family, so acted more as a family name or surname (though such distinctions aren't thoroughly accurate when dealing with Roman name forms) than a personal name. Famous branches of the gens Julia include the Julii Caesares and the Julio-Claudian dynasty, the Roman emperors. Ultimately the name Julia held a distinction that it was connected with the Roman emperors, and with the decline of Roman name forms (nomen, cognomen and praenomen) Julia was adopted as an independent first name.

Julia was one of the members of the Roman church greeted by Paul at the end of his letter to the Romans (Romans 16:15), although she is not particularly singled out, this may have added later credence to the name as having a Christian origin, as well as a Roman origin. Julia's Roman location means it is difficult to judge whether Julia was her nomen or not, other names in the list such as Nereus, Olympas and Philologus are not, although this may be due to their Greek origin.

Post-Roman and Medieval usage: Saint Julia of Corsica or Carthage was a 5th century Catholic saint. There is little reliable evidence about her life, so it is difficult to judge whether Julia was her nomen or whether she bore it as an independent name. However, the growth of her cult may have encouraged the use of Julia as an independent first name. There may have been a revival in her cult in the 8th century, when her relics were transferred to Brescia, a monastery on the pilgrimage route to Rome.

Saint Julia of Mérida was a child martyr of the 4th century. Her cult seems to have been somewhat overshadowed by that of Eulalia of Mérida.

Use of Julia, Giulia and Giulio seems to have been limited in Medieval Italy and Europe, though this is going by a small corpus of evidence. In England, Julia seems to have been overshadowed by Juliana and Julian (as a female name), possibly due to the popularity of the cult of Julian of Norwich, or Julian's name being indicative of a general trend towards the 'an' ending of the Juli- stem. Julian was #11 in G. Redmonds' top 20 for 1377-81 from poll tax returns.

Renaissance and Reformation Use: It is again, difficult to tell the level of Julia's use during the Renaissance and Reformation, but it never seems to have been in the top tier of names - alongside Mary/Maria, Anne/Anna or Jane/Joan/Juana. Julia's position as a New Testament name, may have ensured its continued usage after the Reformation when non-Biblical saints' names seem to have declined.

It at least held the credence of being an Italian name for William Shakespeare, who used it as the name of the beloved of Proteus in his 'Two Gentlemen of Verona'. Of course, the 'Juli' name more readily associated with Shakespeare is that of Juliet, in 'Romeo and Juliet', as well as 'Measure for Measure', which is set in Vienna, though most of the characters have Italian names (Claudio, Angelo etc.). There is also 'Julius Caesar'.

The poet Robert Herrick wrote various poems addressed to a Julia in the 17th century, although they were not especially popular at the time. Julia seems to fit in the pattern of more classical names favoured by poets such as Ben Jonson (Celia), Richard Lovelace (Lucasta, Althea) and Thomas Carew (Celia again). Julia also appears in poems of this period by William Averell and a play by William Haughton (it may be notable that both these works employ Julia in a Welsh setting), as well as the play Love's Sacrifice by John Ford.

Julia does not enter the top 20 in the data compiled by S. Smith-Bannister for 1550-1700, nor did appear in W. Camden's name list in his C17th Remains Concerning Britain. Overall, the picture of Julia in the C16-17th is that though it was heard of in England, it seems that this was in a more classical literary sense than as a name used on real people. Outside of England, there seems to be even less evidence for use of Julia, though it may have survived in Italy and Spain through continued awareness of the cults of St Julia.

Use in 18th century: Julia appears in the 18th century as a literary figure once again, though there is evidence (possibly due to better record-keeping and survival) that by the end of the 18th century, Julia was becoming an accepted given name. Literary examples of Julia include Edward Lovibond's mid-century poem 'Julia's Printed Letter', Frances Brooke's 1763 novel 'The History of Lady Julia Mandeville', a minor character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's 1775 play 'The Rivals', Robert Jephson's 1787 play 'Julia: Or the Italian Lover', Helen Maria Williams' 1790 novel 'Julia', George Colman's 1791 play 'Surrender of Calais', Miles Peter Andrews' 1795 play 'Mysteries of the Castle', William Beloe' 1798 poem 'Julia, or the last follies' and so on.

Julia does begin to appear sporadically as a given name in this period in England and USA, though it is difficult to judge its spread of use due to lack of widespread record-keeping. There does seem to be an increase towards the end of the 18th century, and it is possible that the name Julia survived through continued family usage - this is anecdotal, but Sir George Shuckburgh married Julia Evelyn in 1757, his second wife, they then named their only child Julia, and Vincent Stuckey married his cousin Julia in 1801, and their daughter was named Julia. Founding Father Benjamin Rush also married a Julia (Stockton) and had a Julia amongst their 13 children.

Use in the 19th century:

The 19th century is where we can begin to quantify the usage of Julia, especially in England (where I have gathered information), but also, towards the end of the century, in USA (post-1880). I'm including most of the USA data analysis in with the early 20th century post, as its easier to see trends stretching over 70 years than over 20 years.

I'm going to focus away from the English-speaking countries for a little while now (unfortunately, most of my information, understanding etc. come from English-speaking sources so the analysis is a little one-sided). Anyway, looking at France for a moment now. The 'Juli' names especially associated with France are of course, Julie (and Julien). Indeed, it seems silly to examine Julia in respect to France, as Julie has always seemed to be dominant and fits in with the French theme of 'ie' names rather than 'ia' - Amélie rather than Amelia, Emilie rather than Emilia, Lucie rather than Lucia and so on. However, J. Besnard in La Cote des Prénoms claims that Julia as well as Julie was popular in the 19th century. My presumption with Julia, is that its use was both riding on the back of Julie - possibly in the parts of France that border Italy, such as Provence, as it is today, as well as being a result of the naming laws brought in on 1st April 1803/11 germinal XI in Napoleonic France that, as well as other laws, decreed that names that had not had previous usage within France could not be used, unless they were names of Greco-Roman antiquity or mythology, or certain foreign names, or fulfilled various other criteria. Julia may have had a boost from the vogue of Greco-Roman names such as Aristote, Socrate, Agrippine etc., as well as its plausible status as a foreign name, in a time when name choices were somewhat restricted and so originality had to be found by looking back into the past rather than combining pleasing sounds.

A brief sojourn to Scandinavia is next. Swedish poetess Julia Nyberg, 1784-1856, was active in this period, though she published under the pen-name of Euphrosyne. I can't tell if her name was especially popular in Sweden at the time she was born, but lack of evidence makes me think it was not. There is the suggestion that children born near Christmas time may have been given a 'Juli' name due to jul being Yule or Christmas in Norse. Nyberg, however, was born in November so a Christmas meaning is perhaps stretching it a little, though it may be associated with a Christmastime baptism. In Norway, in the 1880s - where records seem to begin, Julia seems to have been rare, with Julie having (and still having today) more of a presence.

I'll have a little focus on USA before switching back to England. Though it is difficult to assess the popularity of Julia prior to 1880 and the beginning of the SSA records, when it entered at #26 and then fell in rank for the rest of the 1800s. This was Julia's highest ever ranking, and it is possible to presume that Julia was even more popular in the mid 19th century. A few notable Julia's emerge in this century - Julia Ward Howe, born 1819 (and the daughter of a Julia), wrote the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic', Julia Dent Grant, born 1826, was the wife of US President and Union commander Ulysses S Grant, and Julia Gardiner, born 1820, was the wife of US President John Tyler. The first two have especial links with the Union during the Civil War, and it may be interesting to see if that had any effect on regional naming practices. Julia Tyler supported the Confederates, but she seems to have been more out of the public eye by the Civil War.

Okay, now to England and exciting things like charts and stats. Julia is the 40th most popular name in the 1881 census, as calculated by K. Tucker. As I mentioned in my previous post comparing the census and my own data, it can provide a snapshot of names looking back to before Birth, Marriage and Death records began in 1837. However, I have found that trying to compile name popularities from census records is difficult. Principally, the databases that hold such information are rather unwieldy with their counts, and it becomes rather time-consuming trying to ensure that such counts include only people with the first name of say 'Mary' rather than those with Mary somewhere in their name. Anyway, K. Tucker places Julia as 40th, with 56, 621 individuals with that name alive in England in 1881. This may seem impressive, but compared with Mary's 1, 870, 086 individuals, Julia is rather small fry, comprising just over 0.4% of the female population.

My own data is based on birth data, so produces information similar to what is released by governments, what names were given in a certain period of time, rather than what names were popular throughout the population (as census data shows). For ease of gathering information, I collected information of everyone with the surname Smith and looked at 5 year groups of information (eg Mar 1840-Dec 1844, Mar 1845-Dec 1849 and so on). To counteract the problems associated with population increase, the names were ranked in order of popularity (eg #1, 2 etc.) and these are the numbers down the left hand side of the graph, so Julia begins in 1840-4 as #32, rises to #29 in 1844-9 and so on .

So Julia's graph:

Julia starts off popular, but declines throughout the century, until it is almost unknown by 1900-5, with just 37 births. Julia is never wildly popular, but does seem to be visible throughout the period, especially 1840-55. This seems to correlate with the number of notable Julia in England I've noted for this period. These are the Julias who appear in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography born between 1800-1900.

1800-9: Julia Pardoe (1804-62, writer), Julia Charlotte Maitland (1808-64, writer and traveller)

1810-9: Julia Goodman (1812-1906, painter), Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-79, photographer), Julia Bainbrigge Wightman (1817-98, temperance activist and author), Julia Clara Byrne (1819-94)

1820-9: Julia Kavanagh (1824-77, novelist and biographer), Julia Bachope Goddard (1825-96, children's author and animal welfare campaigner)

1830-9: (Frances) Julia Wedgwood (1833-1913, novelist and writer), (Julia) Augusta Webster (1837-94, poet)

1840-9: Julia Prinsep Stephen (1846-95, celebrated beauty and philanthropist)

1850-9: Julia Mary Cartwright (1851-1924, art historian and biographer), (Julia Sarah) Anne Cobden Sanderson (1853-1926, socialist and suffragette), Julia Matilda Cohen (1853-1917, community worker and educationist), Julia Frankau (1859-1916, novelist)

1860-9: Julia McMordie (1860-1942, politician and philanthropist), Julia Emilie Nielson (1868-1957, actress and theatre manager)

1870-9: Julia Varley (1871-1952, trade unionist), Julia Bell (1879-1979, geneticist)

1880-9: none

1890-9: Julia Myra Hess (1890-1965, pianist), Julia de Lacy Mann (1891-1985, economic historian and college head)

A side note about famous bearers from the 19th century. It is notable that Julia is barely used among European royalty in this period. Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine married Julia Hauke in 1851, she was the daughter of a Germano-Polish general, but was not considered of sufficient rank for any of her children to qualify for succession to the Hesse and by Rhine throne. However, her children did marry into major European royal families, include her son Henry marrying Princess Beatrice of England, and from this marriage came the later queen of Spain - Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena, and her son Louis marrying Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, and bore Victoria Alice Elizabeth Julia Marie, who later married Prince Andrew of Greece and was the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. In all the cases of Julia's grandchildren and so on, her name was not used as a first name, rather tucked among the various honouring names - possibly showing that Julia was not royal enough to be honoured among the first names.

Use in the 20th century and today:

Let's start with the USA, principally because there is good info available, also because my English data has a gap from 1910-44.

A more detailed breakdown can be found on the NameVoyager, the above graph takes the % of births for each of the decades (on left/y axis). So Julia begins in the US comprising about 0.7% of births, at a position of #26, it then falls and is now resurging steadily in the 2000s. This graph also demonstrates how the % of babies named with the top names has decreased. In the early 2000s, Julia was at a similar chart position as it was in the 1880s - in the 30s. But the number of births in the 2000s comprises nearly 1/2 that of in the 1880s. Julia is now falling again, after such a peak in the early 2000s, and was #50 in 2008. I've explained the early 1880s peak in the previous section. The decline (though Julia never fell out of the top 150) can be considered both a consequence of previous popularity (becoming a 'grandmother' name), and the growth in popularity of Julie, which has an almost opposite popularity curve to Julia - not very popular in 1800s, peaking quite dramatically in the 1960s, and declining quickly.

Julia's resurgence may be seen as it shaking off the 'grandmother' image - it begins to rise around 100 years after the peak in 1880, as well as a response to the popularity of Julie. My presumption is that Julia also received a boost from the Hispanic population, however, I am not certain whether that is correct. Today, Julia's highest popularity is in New England - #9 in Connecticut (it was #2 there in 2001), #12 in Massachusetts, not in the south-western heavily Hispanic populated states of New Mexico and California. This trend is evident from the late 1990s, and seems that Julia may have more of a 'WASPy' feel to it than Hispanic. From the 1960s to mid-1980s however, it was more popular in the mid-western coastal states moving into the mid-west, as well as the south-east, with no particular emphasis in the more heavily populated 'Hispanic' states. While Julia has maintained a presence in these states, it is much more popular in the North-east (it should be noted that Julie was never especially popular in the north-east, its popularity seems to have emanated and centred in the north-west).

Famous American Julias have included cook Julia Child (1912-2004), comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus (b.1961), actress Julia Roberts (b.1967) and actress Julia Stiles (b.1981).

Let's go to France next. I don't really have much to say about France, principally because Julie rules supreme there (was #1 for a year in 1987), and it seems a little silly to be talking about Julia. Still, as mentioned before, Julia is not unheard of in France. J. Besnard informs me that 1 girl in 400 is now named Julia - about the same as Chiara, Anna and Emilie. You can get a nice little graph for Julia on prénoms.com, which is somewhat similar in shape to the US graph, except that Julia is now peaking at more than was found previously, rising in the 1980s, and then more rapidly in the 2000s. Prénoms.com provides a list of Julia's popularity in each département, but it is number of births and isn't very useful as it doesn't take into account relative population size. Instead, I've gone through their top 50s for each département and recorded where Julia is in the top 50. The pink you see on most of the map is for ranking between #30-50, the dark purple in the right hand corner is because Julia is in the top 10-20.

As you can see, Julia in France is defined by the borders or coasts - most popular on the border with Italy, Spain and Germany/Belgium - all areas where Julia is popular. Julia is less popular in the central regions, where I presume there is less cultural contact with regions where Julia is both linguistically acceptable and popular.

Onto Germany. I'm going to examine the graph and distribution map from beliebte-vornamen.de, which doesn't provide a complete sample but does seem to at least give an indication of trends and styles that seem fairly accurate (my knowledge of general German name trends prior to 2000s is fairly limited), and is very helpful considering that the Germans don't provide official statistics. Julia was #1 or in the top 10 in Germany between about 1977 and 2000, and has since tapered off in popularity. It was fairly unknown in Germany prior to the 1940s. Such a peak coincides with that in the USA and France, although the popularity in Germany was much higher. It seems to be particularly popular in northern and western Germany, possibly due to the popularity of Julia in Scandinavia, especially Sweden.

That makes a nice move into Sweden, which is another place where Julia has been exceptionally popular in recent years. Julia was #7 there in 2009, and in 2001 it was #1. It has flitted around the top 10, but is possibly now declining, which fits in with the general trend of this name. Looking at the rest of Scandinavia, Julie is more popular than Julia in Norway, though Julia is just in the top 50 and peaking in popularity. In Denmark, Julie is also in the top 20, with Julia absent from the top 50. In Iceland, Júlia is #10 of the names given to girls 0-4 years, but is absent from the top 100 of the population, so appears to be a recent import.

Looking around the rest of Europe, Julia is also popular in Austria, where it was #6 in 2008, Poland, where it was apparently #1 in 2009, Hungary, where Júlia was #50 in 2008. In Spain, Julia is most popular among the whole population in the mid-western area of Castilla y Léon, Extramadura, Madrid, Castilla la Mancha, and in the north-east in Catalonia. In the 2000s, its highest popularity is in Catalonia in the north-east. In the Netherlands, Julia was #3 in 2009. In Ireland, Julia was #34 in 2008. Julie is more popular in Belgium (#5 in 2008). Giulia was #1 in Italy in 2008.

I'll finish Europe off with the UK . My data is primarily for England and Wales, this graph shows from 1944-2008. I have information for every 10 years from 1944-94, and then every year from 2003-8. Like my previous UK data, this graph shows ranks rather than % of population with such a name.

Julia is steadily in the bottom half of the top 100 from 1944-74, it then drops out of the top 100, only reappearing in 2007, and climbing slightly in 2008. It will be interesting to see if Julia climbs any more in 2009. Julia is much more peripheral in the 20th century than in the 19th. It also interesting that it does not follow the same trend in England and Wales as it does elsewhere such as USA and Germany - rising in popularity in the 1980s, and now beginning to decline.

Julia is not a name that figures highly among the names favoured by those who post their birth announcements in the Daily Telegraph in 2008. From my data collection, I found that Julia came in at #100 with 3 girls given that first name (among several other 3 births including Claudia, Francesca, Gabriella, Katherine, Tallulah and Victoria). While it did have a presence, the position in the Telegraph names is broadly close to its position in the England and Wales national statistics, and does not have a big change, unlike say Alice, which was #46 in the national charts in 2008, but #2 in the Telegraph lists.

Julia was #79 in Scotland in 2009, falling by 10 from 2008, and #69 in Northern Ireland, rising from #97.

Across to the Americas. Apparently Julia was #3 in Brazil - though familyberry don't give their sources so I'm always somewhat sceptical, possibly #6 in Uruguay. Julia appears in the top 50 in various Canadian provinces.

Here is a handy map to help see where Julia is popular throughout the world:

I think the general trend is popular in Germanic-speaking countries, fairly popular in Romance-speaking countries, and not really that popular in English-speaking countries. Yuliya is popular in Russia, and Yulia in Ukraine, and Giulia in Italy. I included these stats as I think they are close enough to Julia to make an impact (but did not include Julie names).

So how would I define Julia? In Roman times - a regal family name, in medieval times - cultic and Christian, in Renaissance to 19th century - literary, surviving on real people as a family name, in the 19th century, being adopted as a first name in English-speaking countries but not by royalty, and in the 20th century we can see its international spread and current popularity.

More thoughts on the Renault Zoe

2010-05-21T13:38:00.003Z

I wrote last November about the Renault Zoe, the story has not died completely. A Zoe Renault has hired lawyers to try to persuade Renault to scrap the name. The article (and I find it somewhat amusing that the journalist is a Zoe as well) brings up some interesting points about the danger of naming - mainly, you don't know what a name is going to be associated with in the future.

While the Renault family were probably well-aware of the car company when they named their daughter, they still avoided any of the Renault car names at the time - Espace, Fuego or a number (not exactly names you would choose anyway) or any other the more viable as name former car names eg Ondine, Dauphine or Floride. But they couldn't avoid the possibility that Renault may choose Zoe in the future - that was a gamble they had to make.

Of course, with the surname Renault, you would be aware that the danger of a different association primarily came from the car company. However, there are various other examples of simply a popular name (Adolf being the classic example) gaining a stigma because of an unexpected event/person/product. Of course, can you avoid that? Choosing a popular name, say Isabella, might avoid getting a product named after you - most popular products tend to choose more unusual names, but may end up with a famous or infamous figure in twenty years due to the higher proportion of Isabellas being born at the same time. Of course, that's ignoring what is partly responsible for pushing Isabella into its high popularity at the moment, Bella Swan from Twilight.

The answer could therefore to be to choose a completely obscure name, lowering the possibility of name being used elsewhere, but also increasing the danger that if it is used elsewhere then this will become solely associated with that thing (say actresses - Merle - like Oberon? Gwyneth - like Paltrow? Gabourey - like Sidibe? Angelina - like Jolie? Charlize - like Theron? etc.).

Now this is cool...

2010-05-09T15:18:00.003Z

The SSA are you letting download a zip file that contains docs for each year back to 1880, which contain all the names that have 5 or more recorded instances. So I can see that in 2009, 7 females named Bryony were born, #1001 was Nyasia, 173 Cordelias were born and 5 boys were named Zyvion.

Awesomeness - hopefully will be able to use it to track historical trends when names dip out of the top 1000.

SSA Top 1000 released

2010-05-07T21:28:00.002Z

I've been thinking about this all day (another distraction from revision, what with the election and general busyness of life) and haven't yet formed any firm conclusions, so this post is going to be a splatter of thoughts and musings, with a few links to more concise conclusions.

If you don't have a grip on the naming world, then you may be unaware that May 7 is Name Day, or the day that the SSA Top 1000 names are released (aka, we get to see what names were 'hot' in the US last year).

What's really 'hot' are the so-called Twilight names - Isabella topped the girl's name charts - not just by accident, but by GAINING around 3500 births. For a name that dropped its number of births last year, that's fairly impressive. More than that, for the first time since 1949, there is a female name as the #1 name in the US.

Of course, the situation is very different from 1949, when the top names comprised almost 100 000 births, but as a name nerd, such changes make me rather excited.

Isabella of course existed before Twilight, and when the first book was published in 2005, the name was #6.

But what about the rest of the Twilight crew? This is where the Twilight effect is especially tangible - Cullen is the fastest male riser, going from #782 to 485, a surprising number but just a growth of 0.013%. Members of the Cullen family also rose - Emmett from #547 to 332, Jasper from #449 to 337, Alice from #327 to 258. Rosalie and Esme did not chart, and Edward rose just 11 places to #137, though this represented a % change of 0.013% again. Jacob's already at the top, and Bella rose 58 places.

It's generally been a good year for the 'Bella' names - all examples rose in the charts: Isabella (of course), Arabella, Annabella, Izabella and new entry Anabella.

Presidential children Sasha and Malia were among the fast risers, with Maliyah being the quickest riser of them all.

New entries (or reentries) that I've noticed include June, Bristol (the Palin effect or admiration for the West country port?), Kloe (on the back of Chloe), Analia (the telenovela effect), Leighton (Meester?), Milan, Calleigh, Adelynn, Taraji (P. Henson - Oscar nominated in '09), Eloise, Raelyn, Taya (Parker?), Leona (Lewis?), Kellan (Lutz?), Sylas, Jaxen, Dilan, Westin, Garrison, Juelz, Maddux, Cain, Hugh, Stone and Amos.

Places to read more: Babynamewizard, You Can't Call it 'It', Appellation Mountain for now.

Oh and Mary fell out of the top 100.

Product Names and Female Names

2010-03-27T15:22:00.004Z

Little project I'm working on at the moment is to look at where products use female names as their brand names - I have posted about the Renault Zoé car in the past, Allegra is often brought up as a brand of allergy medicine, Flora is a margarine, Lenor is fabric softener and Ariel is a detergent. But I want to look beyond the more famous examples, to look at what names are used for general products. Wedding dresses are frequently brought up as an example of female names being used as product names - I have thus far compiled the information for Maggie Sottero dresses and Vera Wang. Furniture ranges can also have female names - though they often also use place names as well, so I've looked at John Lewis furniture. I've looked at Clarks' Shoes as well, and car names.

I would hypothesise that you can make some kind of socioeconomic judgement based upon the names used for various products, whether more prestigious type names are used by more premium products. Some thing like wedding dresses may be a good guide for this, though I currently haven't found any prices to be able to make such judgements.

Some names that are used for numerous different products include: Amelia (John Lewis Furniture, Vera Wang dress), Anna (Maggie Sottero dress, John Lewis furniture), Ashley (Maggie Sottero dress, John Lewis furniture), Blossom (Maggie Sottero dress, Vera Wang dress, Clarks shoe), Carla, Carmen, Carrie (all Maggie Sottero dresses and John Lewis furniture), Cassandra, Claudette (both Maggie Sottero and Vera Wang dresses), Daisy (John Lewis furniture, Clarks shoes), Diana, Dominique, Dylan (all Maggie Sottero and Vera Wang dresses), Elise (John Lewis furniture and Lotus car), Elizabeth, Greta (both Maggie Sottero and Vera Wang dresses), Iris (John Lewis furniture, Vera Wang dress), Laura (Maggie Sottero dress and Skoda car), Madison, Margot, Marilyn, Mia (all Maggie Sottero dress, John Lewis furniture), Natalie (Maggie Sottero dress, Clarks shoe), Odessa (Maggie Sottero dress and Vera Wang dress), Olivia, Ophelia, Patricia, Riley, Ruby, Skye (all Maggie Sottero dress, John Lewis furniture), Stella (Maggie Sottero dress and Subaru car), Tatiana (Maggie Sottero dress and Vera Wang dress), Vanessa (Maggie Sottero dress, John Lewis furniture), Victoria (John Lewis furniture, Ford car), Zinnia (Maggie Sottero dress and Vera Wang dress) and Zoe (Maggie Sottero dress and Renault car).

Data thus far.

Names and Authenticity in Historical Fiction (1980s)

2010-03-18T20:06:00.004Z

This is part 3 of the Names and Authenticity in Historical Fiction, meant to be helpful posts to see if a name chosen for a novel is particularly apt or jarring for fiction set in the 1980s. The 1940s can be found here, and the 1960s can be found here

UK:

Popular: Sarah, Laura, Gemma, Emma, Rebecca, Claire, Victoria, Samantha, Rachel, Amy, Jennifer, Nicola, Katie, Lisa

Emerging: Lauren, Emily, Sophie, Jessica, Holly, Jade, Eleanor, Abigail, Alice, Georgina, Chloe

Dated: Anne, Mary, Jacqueline, Christine, Jane, Susan, Anita, Ann, Beverley, Carol, Denise, Diane, Gillian, Janet, Linda, Patricia, Sandra, Sharon, Tracy

USA:

Popular: Jessica, Jennifer, Amanda, Ashley, Sarah, Stephanie, Melissa, Nicole, Elizabeth, Heather, Tiffany, Michelle, Amber, Megan, Amy

Emerging: Emma, Hannah, Olivia, Abigail, Alexis, Alyssa, Brianna, Jasmine, Morgan, Julia

Dated: Susan, Linda, Donna, Sandra, Deborah, Tammy, Pamela, Lori, Brenda, Barbara, Sharon, Debra, Teresa, Nancy, Cheryl

France:

Popular: Aurélie, Émilie, Céline, Virginie, Élodie, Audrey, Stéphanie, Julie, Laetitia, Sabrina, Mélanie, Jennifer, Laura

Emerging: Alice, Alicia, Alison, Cassandra, Charlotte, Clémence, Émeline, Gwendoline, Juliette, Laurène, Lucie, Marie, Maxime, Mélissa, Pauline, Priscilla, Sarah, Solène

Dated: Agnès, Anne, Béatrice, Carole, Catherine, Christelle, Christine, Corinne, Delphine, Fabienne, Fabrice, Florence, Isabelle, Karine, Magali, Muriel, Nadine, Nathalie, Pascale, Patrice, Patricia, Sabine, Sandra, Sandrine, Séverine, Sonia, Sophie, Stéphanie, Sylvie, Véronique

Australia (Victoria):

Popular: Sarah, Jessica, Rebecca, Melissa, Lauren, Emma, Nicole, Amanda, Kate, Laura, Michelle, Amy, Lisa, Stephanie, Samantha

Emerging: Olivia, Chloe, Sophie, Zoe, Lucy, Caitlin, Ashleigh, Ashlee

Dated: Susan, Karen, Julie, Sharon, Leanne, Helen, Debra, Wendy, Sandra, Linda, Tracey, Robyn, Donna, Deborah

Norway:

Popular (peaking): Camilla, Caroline, Hanne, Iselin, Karoline, Kristine, Line, Lisa, Mari, Maria, Sandra, Silje, Stine

Emerging (growing): Amalie, Amanda, Andrea, Aurora, Eline, Elise, Emilie, Hanna, Helene, Hilde, Ida, Ingrid, Julia, Julie, Kaja, Malin, Maren, Marte, Martine, Oda, Pernille, Ronja, Sara, Sarah, Sofie, Sunniva, Synne, Thea, Tiril, Victoria, Vilde

Dated (declining): Anita, Ann, Anne, Bente, Elin, Ellen, Eva, Hege, Heidi, Irene, Kristin, Lene, Linda, Marianne, May, Mette, Mona, Monica, Nina, Tone

Names and Authenticity in Historical Fiction (1960s)

2010-02-06T23:04:00.001Z

This is part 2 of the Names and Authenticity in Historical Fiction, meant to be helpful posts to see if a name chosen for a novel is particularly apt or jarring for fiction set in the 1960s. The 1940s can be found here.

UK:

Popular: Susan, Julie, Karen, Jacqueline, Deborah, Tracey, Jane, Helen, Diane, Sharon, Tracy, Angela, Sarah Alison, Caroline

Emerging: Sarah, Joanne, Nicola, Michelle, Donna, Louise, Andrea, Suzanne, Lisa, Claire, Melanie, Clare, Rachel, Rebecca

Dated: Sylvia, Pamela, Joyce, Jean, Eileen, Doreen, Brenda, Dorothy, Linda, Elizabeth, Carol, Janet, Christine, Anne, Patricia, Mary, Margaret, Ann, Barbara, Kathleen, Valerie, Maureen, Joan

USA:

Popular: Lisa, Mary, Susan, Karen, Kimberly, Patricia, Linda, Donna, Michelle, Cynthia, Sandra, Deborah, Tammy, Pamela, Lori

Emerging: Jessica, Jennifer, Ashley, Amanda, Sarah, Nicole, Tiffany, Amber, Megan, Rachel, Danielle

Dated: Betty, Shirley, Dorothy, Joan, Helen, Doris, Ruth, Virginia, Marilyn, Jean, Frances, Lois, Alice, Dolores, Phyllis, Norma

France:

Popular: Sylvie, Catherine, Christine, Isabelle, Véronique, Patricia, Corinne, Nathalie, Martine, Brigitte, Laurence, Florence, Pascale, Chantal, Dominique

Emerging: Christelle, Karine, Stéphanie, Sophie, Céline, Sandrine, Virginie, Séverine, Delphine, Carole, Patricia

Dated: Françoise, Monique, Nicole, Christiane, Anne-Marie, Danielle, Jacqueline, Jeannine, Yvette, Simone

Australia (Victoria):

Popular: Susan, Jennifer, Karen, Michelle, Julie, Lisa, Sharon, Leanne, Maria, Helen, Debra, Elizabeth, Joanne, Christine, Catherine, Wendy

Emerging: Nicole, Melissa, Kylie, Rebecca, Sarah, Belinda, Samantha, Natalie, Jodie, Emma, Melanie

Dated: Margaret, Judith, Lynette, Barbara, Pamela, Lorraine, Beverley, Janice, Joan, Heather, Maureen

Norway:

Popular (peaking): Anita, Ann, Anne, Elisabeth, Ellen, Grete, Grethe, Hanne, Heidi, Hilde, Irene, Kristin, Marianne, Mona, Monica, Nina, Tone

Emerging (growing): Camilla, Elin, Eline, Hege, Kristine, Lene, Linda, Line, Lisa, Mari, Marian, Marte, Stine

Dated (declining): Agnes, Anna, Astrid, Aud, Bente, Berit, Eli, Eva, Inger, Ingrid, Jorunn, Kari, Karin, Kirsten, Liv, Marit, May, Mette, Randi, Sissel, Tove, Unni, Wenche

Names and Authenticity in Historical Fiction (1940s)

2010-02-02T22:53:00.002Z

I'm sure if anyone reads historical fiction, they will know this point of contention. A female main character born in the 1940s named Addison or a group of friends born in the 1980s called Beryl, Clara, Daphne and Doris. All names that were known in the 1980s, but the probability that there would be no Sarah, Rebecca, Laura or Gemma in sight is highly unlikely, considering they were 4 of the most popular names in 1984 in UK.

Thus I present, the 1940s (yes, hopefully the first in a series). What was emerging and would become very popular in the next few decades (and was known in that period, not names that gain sudden popularity such as Addison), what was popular (the top 10/15/20), and what was dated and gone (past popular names, now sliding down the popularity charts). Data is from where it is available. Norway, USA and Victoria, Australia are online. UK is from 'First Names' by E. Merry and my own stats for 1900s to work out dated names, and France is from 'La cote des prénoms en 2007' by J. Besnard.

UK:

Popular: Margaret, Patricia, Christine, Mary, Jean, Ann, Susan, Janet, Maureen, Barbara, Valerie, Carol, Sandra, Pauline, Elizabeth

Emerging: Diane, Angela, Catherine, Yvonne, Helen, Elaine, Jane, Lesley, Maria, Lynda, Denise, Marian, Teresa, Sally, Sarah, Julie, Caroline, Lorraine, Lynn

Dated: Mary, Elizabeth, Dorothy, Frances, Marjorie, Evelyn, Emily, Vera, Alice, Lillian, Phyllis, Doris, Florence, Ellen, Annie, Edith, Elsie, Gladys, Hilda, Ivy, Lily, Winifred

France:

Popular: Monique, Nicole, Danielle, Michèle, Jacqueline, Françoise, Jeannine, Christiane, Marie-Thérèse, Josette, Annie, Chantal, Anne-Marie, Martine, Arlette, Claude, Claudine, Éliane

Emerging: Martine, Dominique, Brigitte, Catherine, Sylvie, Patricia, Annick, Béatrice, Élisabeth, Fabrice, Florence, Ghislaine, Isabelle, Myriam, Nadine, Pascale, Sabine

Dated: Marie, Jeanne, Marguerite, Marie-Louise, Germaine, Yvonne, Madeleine, Louise, Suzanne, Marcelle, Alexandre, Alice, Camille, Joséphine, Juliette, Lucie

USA :

Popular : Mary, Linda, Barbara, Patricia, Carol, Sandra, Nancy, Sharon, Judith, Susan, Betty Carolyn, Margaret, Shirley, Judy, Karen

Emerging: Michelle, Cynthia, Deborah, Pamela, Laura, Julie, Jennifer, Angela, Debra, Teresa, Christine, Denise

Dated: Anna, Florence, Mildred, Ethel, Lillian, Gladys, Edna, Emma, Bertha, Minnie, Bessie, Grace, Mabel, Ida, Gertrude

Australia (Victoria):

Popular : Margaret, Judith, Helen, Patricia, Lynette, Barbara, Pamela, Lorraine, Beverley, Jennifer, Sandra, Elizabeth, Janice, Mary, Joan, Heather

Emerging: Robyn, Christine, Cheryl, Dianne, Karen, Vicki, Kerry, Debra

Dated: Dorothy, Valerie, Betty, June, Joyce, Jean, Lorna, Norma, Valda, Thelma, Audrey

Norway:

Popular (in this case, not necessarily the most popular names, but the names that peaked in the 1940s): Gerd, Grete, Inger, Jorunn, Kari, Karin, Kirsten, Marit, Randi, Reidun, Turid, Unni

Emerging: Anita, Ann, Anne, Aud, Berit, Eli, Elin, Elisabeth, Eva, Hilde, Marianne, May, Mette, Mona, Sissel, Tone, Tove, Wenche

Dated: Agnes, Alma, Aslaug, Borghild, Ella, Gudrun, Gunvor, Helga, Inga, Ingeborg, Ingrid, Johanne, Karen, Karoline, Klara, Kristine, Maren, Margit, Marie, Martha, Mary, Mathilde, Olga, Ragnhild, Ruth, Signe, Sigrid, Sofie, Solveig

More on Victorian names and statistics

2010-01-19T22:29:00.004Z

I've been considering the 1881 census as a source for studying the naming habits of the Victorians. Due to the nature of the source - a snapshot of the names and location of the inhabitants of Britain over a certain day, then it isn't very useful for the kind of name popularity progression that I have mapped using the Birth record data. Though it can show which names are popular in certain sections of the population, it is skewed in that not everyone born will be present on that day in 1881. The average life expectancy in Victorian Britain was around 40 - meaning that anyone born before 1841 was over life expectancy. Child death- though not every child birth may have been recorded- still means that children born only a few years before could fail to appear on the record.

An example of this can be seen in the name Mary. My birth record data suggests that Mary began to decline after about 1870-4, having experienced similar numbers of births in the preceding decades (this graph goes from 1840, whereas my next graph goes from 1785):

The line on the census records graph shows where the birth records graph begins. As can be seen here, the census records graph suggest that Mary started declining in the 1850s, whereas the birth record graph suggests that the major decline only began in the 1870s. Prior to 1850s, there is a steady increase in the numbers of Marys, possibly caused by the decrease in population as you get towards 1791, rather than the increase in popularity of Mary. However, the line graph is useful for showing the trajectory of new names, rather than ones that have had sustained popularity. My favourite for the Victorian period always has to be Florence.

In order to work out the popularity of a name using census data, then perhaps it is necessary to look at the proportions of names used - say (and these are not actual figures) 6.7% of women born between 1785-90 were called Mary, whereas from 1850-55 only 3.4% had that name. This is a line of inquiry that possibly needs to be pursued further.

Alternatively, pie charts of the ages of the percentage of people given a specific name could be made, like so:

Though all the purple is making my eyes go slightly fuzzy, it does show a decent progression from 1791-1881 rather than random colours, and shows that most Marys were born 1831-81, and that though there was a decline, the proportions were all still fairly similar (though of course, this does not take into account the fact that if you were born in 1851, you had 30 more years to die in than if you were born in 1880).

Another method would be to rank all the names from popular to least popular. Thankfully, D. Kenneth Tucker has already done that.

Censuses for UK are available 1841-1901 so far (and 1911 should be widely available next year, though it is searchable) so could be used instead of birth records for charting the popularity of names over a 50 year period. Indeed, as it runs for the same period as birth records, then the two could be compared - perhaps removing the room for error by only looking at the decade preceding when a census was taken. The 1841/51 censuses are valuable tools for looking at the popular names of the late 18th century, that are not recorded in birth records.

For some kind of 'exciting' name statistic project, I suppose the longevity of various names could be compared using censuses and birth records in conjuction - what proportion of X name born in 1841 were still alive in 1901, and whether certain names guaranteed the bearer a longer life. However, the problem with that with female names is that when women got married in the 19th century, they would change their surname, altering the data. However, it may be possible for male names - for example, in 1841, 694 John Smiths were born. In 1901, there were 261 John Smiths living who were born in 1841. That is 37% of the John Smiths born in 1841. There were 722 William Smiths born in 1841, but in 1901, there were only 294 living. That is 41% - 4% more Williams had survived from 1841 to 1901. (Hmm...I do feel a study coming on...)

Masculinity and Female Names

2009-12-07T15:28:00.002Z

In this post, I am aim to look at the changing nature of how masculinity is achieved in female names, with particular attention being given to US. My instinct tells me that in the late 19^th and early 20^th century, masculinity was found through the feminisation of male names – common examples being Frances, Julia and Josephine, which could be shortened to unisex nickname such as Fran and Joe. Nowadays, the emphasis has shifted to wholesale adoption of male names and surnames on females such as Madison, Alexis and Taylor. Such an adoption has led to a decline in the feminisation of female names, as masculinity can be acquired from adopting male names instead. Through looking at the top 1000 names for the decades of 1900s, 1950s and 2000s, I intend to prove the veracity of this assumption, as well as think about reasons why there has been a change.

For each name, I intend to assign whether they are a 'female name', 'male name or surname', 'feminisation of a male name' or a 'word name'. These categories can be defined and explained as followed:

Female Name: These are names that do not have an obvious masculine connection. For example, Elizabeth, Sarah, Catherine and Jasmine. Flower and plant names are included in this category, as they are inherently feminine.

Male name or surname: These are included together as surnames have traditionally been adopted by males, and more recently have made the cross-over into female names. It can be difficult to separate whether a name was chosen because it was a surname, or because it was associated with being a 'male name'. Examples include Madison, Jordan, Jocelyn and Kennedy.

Feminisation of male name: These are male names that have been feminised, usually through the addition of 'a', 'etta', 'elle', or 'ine'. For example, Olivia, Gabrielle, Makayla and Josephine. This category also includes more masculine nicknames that could have come from female names, such as Terry (from Teresa or Terence), Mattie (from Matilda or Matthew) and Allie (from Alexander or Alice). Male nicknames that do not seem to directly derive from any common female name such as Jamie, Jimmie, Tommie and Johnnie are included in the male name or surname category.

Word name: These are words and places that have been adopted as names, and do not carry such obvious original gender biases as female names. For example, Destiny, Robin, Brooklyn and Amber.

There are various names that do cross categories, and having to organise 3000 names into these categories means that there is room for human error. The intention of compiling these statistics is to look at the broad trends not at individual names, so this should not make much difference to the broad trends.

The organised data can be found here.

What it shows:

First, the obvious – between the 1900s and 2000s, there has been a decline in the % of children being given names in the top 1000. In 1900s and 1950s, around 90% of children were given a top 1000 name, in the 2000s this has declined to 69%. This has the effect that while analysing the top 1000 for 1900s and 50s will be fairly accurate for general name trends, it is difficult to tell whether in the 2000s, if names outside the top 1000 follow the same trends and separate into the same proportions in terms of categories as the names outside the top 1000.

It should also be noted that, before I start, the top 1000s from 1900s and 1950s contain male names such as James, William and Charles. The appearance of these names is generally put down to incorrect data input at birth, and assignation of the wrong gender to various names, and studies of other records from the period such as censuses show that that hundreds of parents were not naming their sons Elizabeth and daughters James. In the case of the 1900s records, incorrect assignation of gender comprises less than 0.1% so I have included them, as they make little difference to the overall percentages.

'Female' names have the largest percentage in each of the three time periods, although this proportion decreased over time. In 1900s, almost ¾ of names fall into the 'female' category. By 2000, only close to 40% fall into this category – although 31% of names were not recorded in the top 1000.

Similar proportions of feminised names are found in the 2000s and 1900s – around 12%. However, this doubles to 24% in the 1950s. The 1950s seem to be a bridge between the more old-fashioned feminisations such as Ernestine and Alberta, and the newer ones such as Christine and Stephanie.

Male names and surnames, and word names barely feature in the 1900s lists. Male names and surnames are mainly bolstered by the appearance of Evelyn – been used as an elaboration of the name Eve and so is one of those names that is difficult to categorise. Word names in the 1900s are formed mainly of jewel names- such as Pearl, Ruby, Opal and Jewel itself, as well as a few place names that have mainly fallen out of use now, such as Missouri and Florida.

In the 1950s, male names and surnames, and word names have both increased to 3% each. Male names and surnames is mainly made up of 'y' ending surnames such as Shirley, Beverly, Kimberly and Kelly. Word names are more a mix of places such as Sharon and Shannon, nature names such as Robin, Dawn and Ginger, jewel names, and abstract virtues such as Joy, Faith, Gay and Hope.

In the 2000s, there has been a large increase in the number of surname and male names, which now comprise 13% of names. Unlike previously, several male names feature prominently such as Alexis and Morgan. Additionally, the majority of surnames have previously been used as male names such as Ashley, Taylor and Sydney, while there is a small minority that seems to solely have emerged as a female name, such as Madison, Hailey and Courtney. The highest position of a male name or surname in 2000s is #2, held by Madison, and there are three other names from this category in the top 20. In 1950s, the highest position was Joyce at #29, and in the 1900s, it was Evelyn at #38 (or Vivian at #129, or if you want a solidly male name, Bertie at #235).

Word names comprise 5% in 2000s, and there seem to be more place and landscape names such as Savannah, Brooke, Sierra, Brooklyn and Brittany. More abstract ideas such as Destiny, Trinity, Genesis and Serenity have also appeared, and these appear arguably to be less connected to traditional virtues.

Here are some pie charts that portray visually what I have clumsily tried to explain in words:

A few more things to look at, before trying some actual analysis. First, the top 20s. In the 1900s, 18 names from the top 20 fall into the 'female' name category, with the other two – Frances and Bertha, being feminisations. In the 1950s, 5 of the top 20 are feminisations – Patricia (at #3), Sandra, Carol, Brenda and Janet, and one is a word name – Sharon. The rest are female names. The 2000s are much more of a mix- 13 of the names are still 'female', but there are 4 male names or surnames – Madison (at #2), Ashley, Alexis and Taylor, and 2 feminisations – Olivia and Brianna.

Some analysis:

First, does the gender affiliation of a name really mean anything? We live in a time when gender differences are being downplayed, in favour of equality and women (and men) are told that we can do whatever we want, regardless of the gender divide. Can the way that we choose the names of our children reflect that – that there is now much more emphasis on the choice of both an individual name, and a gender neutral name. Thus the increase in masculine surnames, and male names on females. Of course, there is also the problem that boys are not being given female names – Elizabeth or Mary are not charting as male names. Should we care about such gender differences? Isn't the adoption of masculinity actually an adoption of having the power to determine one's own life rather than being submissively feminine? I am not here to answer such big questions, my interest remains in issues of naming, and I can so I can only see this current spate of adoption of male names on females as a bad thing because it is so one sided. Rejecting female names in favour of male names would be fine if male names were rejected for males in favour of female names, but instead, we are in danger of losing female names.

In the 1950s, feminisations of male names were popular – such as Patricia, Sandra and Christine – all of which can be shortened to more masculine nickname such as Pat, Sandy and Chris. Why so? Was this a way of honouring fathers, or a way of giving females stronger nicknames, or a way of increasing the name corpus without resulting – as we have in recent years, to adopting abstract words, male names and surnames.

Is the adoption of male names and surnames an attempt at gaining more individuality? Through adopting say, Alexis – known on boys, but originally unknown on girls. These names are recognisable but originally unexpected on girls, similar with the word names such as Destiny. Better communication – especially the internet, means that people are more aware of the popularity of their name in the wider national and global community, and so may aim to have a more individual name for their child. Additionally, there are studies that suggest girls with more feminine names avoid 'masculine' subjects such as maths and science (see here) – desire for girls to have wider opportunities and not tied into their 'feminine' names (of course, you can argue the other way, that women with more masculine names are biased against choosing feminine subjects).

Another look at the subject of femininity and masculinity in names is found here . Hopefully, this post provides some information to help look at the subject.

Elizabeth Through the Ages

2009-12-05T11:06:00.002Z

*I wrote this post a few months ago for something else, that thing has not materialised so I am publishing it here*

Elizabeth Through The Ages

‘The name boasts more diminutives than it has letters’ – Sophy Moody, 1863

From Ellie to Lizzie, Beth to Lisa, and beyond, one of the name Elizabeth’s strengths is its wide variety of nicknames. Whilst Elizabeth has remained a popular choice since the 15^th century, its nicknames and diminutives have gone in and out of vogue. This article principally focuses on such trends in the USA, though there is some reference to UK and other worldwide trends as well.

Popular 19^th Century nicknames

Eliza, the earliest nickname for which I have data, was a popular nickname in the UK in the 1840s, when it was in the top 10. Indeed, this popularity was likely reflected in the USA, as its highest position was during the 1880s, when SSA records began.

The other names popular in the late 19^th century include Bess and Bessie, which were originally used as nicknames in the 16^th century – for example, as an epithet for Queen Elizabeth I of England as ‘Good Queen Bess’, as well as other notable figures such as Bess of Hardwick and Bess Throckmorton, wife of Walter Raleigh. Though Bessie may now elicit response of ‘suitable for a cow rather than a person’, in 1889, the name ranked 9^th in the USA, being given to 1.2% of girls born that year and was more popular than Alice, Grace or Sarah.

Another trend for late 19^th century nicknames was an ending of ‘-ie’ – Bettie, Elsie, Libbie, Lissie and Lizzie all had their highest popularity in the late 19^th century. This was not a trend confined to nicknames of Elizabeth. The US top 50 for 1890 includes Minnie, Annie, Nellie, Carrie, Lillie, Hattie, Jennie, Mattie and Jessie. Lillie and Jennie in particular rank above their more common forms today of Lily and Jenny.

Ella and Elsa were also popular in the late 19^th century. Ella was revived in the 19^th century by the pre-Raphaelite writers, and ranked #13 in 1880. Elsa is a German diminutive of Elizabeth, and like Elsie, was popular in the 1890s.

The First Half of the 20^th Century, and the ‘Bet-’ names

During the first half of the 20^th century, ‘Be’ names were really at the fore of the popular Elizabeth nicknames. Betty took over from Bessie as the most popular Elizabeth nickname in the 1910s, while Bette, Bettye and Bettie all experienced continued popularity. From 1928 to 34, Betty was the 2^nd most popular girl’s name in USA, just after Mary and surpassing Elizabeth. Betsy and Beth had later surges of popularity, being most popular in the 1960s and 70s.

Betty was not quite as popular in the UK – in 1944, it was only #68, compared with #10 in the US. Influences on Betty’s popularity from the period include the ‘Betty Crocker’ food company, formed in 1921, and the cartoon character Betty Boop, who first appeared in 1930.

Latter half of the 20^th century, and the ‘Li-‘ names

Lisa is the name or nickname of Elizabeth that really dominates the latter half of the 20^th century. Lisa was #1 in the USA from 1962 to 69, taking the top spot from Mary – a spot that Mary has never regained. As is usual with a popular trend, various other ‘Li-‘ names grew in popularity during the period that Lisa was #1, including Liz, Liza and Lisette. Interestingly, Lissie did not re-enter the top 1000 during this period.

Lisa arrived in the UK a little later than the US, charting at #54 in 1964, but #5 in 1974.

21^st century – return of the ‘El-‘ names

While Bessie, Betty and Betsy remain out of style at the beginning of the 21^st century, there has been a recent resurgence in the popularity of other late 19^th century nicknames such as Ella, Eliza, Elsa and Libby. Elise, which has remained steadily popular throughout the 20^th century, is beginning to climb the charts, while a new nickname in the form of Elle has emerged.

In the UK, Ella and Ellie are becoming less popular after a surge in popularity in the early 00s that brought Ellie to the #2 spot. Ella is also a nickname that crosses language borders – appearing in the top 100s of Sweden, Belgium and Norway. It is also very popular at the moment in Australia and New Zealand. Back in the UK, Libby has also climbed into the charts, and was #62 in 2008 in England and Wales.

Isabel and especially Isabella are very popular at the moment in the USA, though I did not include them in this study as they are more derivatives than nicknames. Lily – also a nickname for Elizabeth, is also popular though it is difficult to tell whether this is due to the flower, or due to parents wanting another nickname for Elizabeth (indeed, many are unaware of the link at all!)

What’s next?

After the ‘El’ names have run their course, one can ask which nicknames will return or arrive. It seems likely that the ‘Be’ names will begin to rise again – Betsy and Betty in particular seem to have attracted a vintage chic. This may lead to modern respellings of the names such as Betzi and Bettee. Parents may seek out new nicknames for Elizabeth – Lisa was once unknown, and there are nicknames such as the Cornish Eppow out there waiting to be discovered. Parents may look to the sound of the name, as with Elle, and embrace Isa, Zab or Eth as nicknames.

Renault name car 'Zoé'

2009-11-24T17:43:00.002Z

I accidentally clicked on this article on the Times' website, and found it rather interesting - Renault have named their latest car Zoé - which has sparked some controversy among parents of children named Zoé. Car names and real names are quite interesting - some names are utterly tied up with the car - Mercedes, and perhaps Portia (though Porsche use a different spelling). Others have it as an ancillary, names you possibly wouldn't associate with the car unless you had one - Renault Clio, and Skoda's Fabia, Octavia and Felicia. Then there are car names that sound like they ought to be names, or almost are - Vauxhall/Opel's Corsa, Meriva and Zafira, Citroen's Xantia and Xsara. And then there are the companies that avoid giving their cars proper names altogether- Peugeot and Rover spring to mind (and many hours of trying to remember the make of the new car that a family member had got).

More thoughts on England and Wales Popular Names - Percentages

2009-09-08T15:52:00.004Z

345, 731 baby girls names were recorded when making the popularity charts for 2008, and 362, 908 baby boys.

The #1 girl name was Olivia, with 5317 births. This accounts for 1.54% of all girl names given.

The #1 boy name was Jack, with 8007 births. This accounts for 2.21% of all boy names given.

The top ten girl names gives 44255 births, and accounts for 12.8% of all girl names given.

The top ten boy names gives 59555 births, and accounts for 16.4% of all boy names given.

If Olivia was in the male top 10 then it would chart at #7. There is also much less diversity in boy names given - 26815 different boy names were registered, while 34043 different female names were registered.

Just comparing with the US, the top names for 2008 -Jacob and Emma accounted for 1.04% and 0.9% of births respectively, and the top 10 boy names only accounts for 8.8% and girl names 7.7%. With boys, this is almost half of those in the UK.

The top 100 girl names account for 47.4% of girl names given, and the top 100 boy names account for 57.7% of boy names given. This certainly isn't the same as it was in the 17th century, with three quarters of boys being named John. But also there seems to be more conservatism in use of names in England and Wales than I expected.

Hurrah - England and Wales stats are back

2009-09-08T10:43:00.004Z

Here and here.

A few changes from before - they are published by ONS rather than GRO (Office of National Statistics instead of General Register Office, so may differ slightly from before. There is the ONS data from 1998 and 2007 as well, but a gap between '99 and '06.

Jack and Olivia are number one, while Ruby was, according to this data, #1 in 2007. Ffion, Seren and Megan are in the top 10 in Wales. In particular interest are the tables that list most popular names for each month - Holly is #1 in December and Summer is in the top 10 in June, July and August.

Dylan and Rhys are in the top 10 in Wales, a quick glance doesn't reveal any large monthly variations on names given. Regional information is also interesting - Mohammed is #4 in Yorkshire and the Humber, #3 in London and #2 in West Midlands but doesn't appeal at all in the top 10s for E Midlands, N East, E England and S East.

New entries to top 100 include: Lexi (fastest mover), Florence, Emilia, Maryam and Esme, and Blake, Ewan and Zak. Other quick climbers include: Evie (from #15 to #10), Ava (#39 to #21), Summer (#44 to 23), Isla (#65 to 36), Matilda (#62 to 43) and Lacey (#77 to 60), and Oscar (#41 to 30), Riley (#57 to 33), Alex (#58 to 47), Theo (#73 to 58) and Leon (#74 to 62). As ever, there seems to be fewer dramatic changes in the boys list than there is in the girl's list.

Fast fallers include: Amy (#23 to 34), Caitlin (#34 to 44), Georgia (#42 to 52), Madison (#36 to 56), Rebecca (#47 to 64), Maddison (#63 to 74), Skye (#67 to 77), Aimee (#76 to 86) and Courtney (#79 to 98), and Cameron (#34 to 46), Jamie (#36 to 51), Ben (#48 to 57), Kyle (#51 to 69), Kieran (#61 to 73), Aidan (#78 to 92) and Billy (#89 to 98). Is it just me, or is there a Scottish/Irish flavour to these falling names? Callum, Connor, Finlay and Sean have also fallen. But Ryan, Liam and Finley have all risen.

Also interesting are new entries from 1998, names that have become top 100 in 11 years include: Ruby, Evie, Ava (rose 508 places), Summer, Isla (333 places), Scarlett, Eva, Brooke, Matilda, Keira, Lola (322 places), Lilly, Gracie (529 places), Madison, Amelie (2641 places!), Lacey, Sienna (1060 places), Libby, Layla, Maya, Lexi (4917 places!), Maddison, Sofia, Skye, Lexie (4911 places!), Faith, Martha, Eve, Julia, Evelyn, Maria, Tilly, Florence, Emilia, Maryam and Esme.

Jayden, Oscar, Archie, Riley, Lucas, Leo, Finley, Logan, Noah, Mason, Theo, Freddie, Finlay, Harley, Kian (436 places), Hayden, Zachary, Luca, Ashton, Bailey, Sebastian, Gabriel, Evan, Taylor, Reuben, Blake, Louie, Ewan and Zak. There are much fewer dramatic rises for the boys.

Fallen out of the top 100 are: Rose, Victoria, Rachel, Shannon and Madeleine, and Andrew, Frederick and Dominic.

90s names (US, Australia and Europe)

2009-09-03T10:20:00.003Z

I wanted to compare certain regions on names - looking at whether they were rising or falling at the same time. I considered using 2000 data - enough time to see sufficient change in the popularity of names, and then realised that the amount of data was so much that I would get lost under it all. So I downscaled, back to 1994, where data is scarcer but trends can still be seen.

So the aim was to see whether various regions, with similar (European) naming cultures, experienced the same popularity of names at the same time, or at least influenced on another, leading to names rising or falling popularity.

The countries I chose (due to there being available data) were UK (England and Wales, at least), USA, France (La cote des prénoms by Besnard), Victoria in Australia, Austria, Denmark and Norway.

I took the top 10 girls names for each region in 1994, except Norway - as it was not available, and France - where I had to take the 1990-4 data, and then compared whether the names were rising or falling in the other regions.

Some notable names:

Amanda - while it was #8 and falling in the USA and had fallen off the popularity charts in UK, it was rising in the other places it appeared - Victoria, Denmark and Norway.

Anna - rising in popularity in USA, Victoria, France and Denmark - though Anna was not in the top n20 in any of these countries. Austria - where Anna was in the top 10, at #8, had Anna falling, as did the UK, where it was #49 - having peaked in 1970s and 80s at #40. In Norway, there was little change in Anna's popularity in the years preceding and succeeding 1994.

Charlotte - peaking in France and Norway, but falling or staying in a stable position everywhere else. It was #4 in UK.

Elizabeth - falling or having little change, #9 in USA.

Emily/Emilie - rising in USA (#3), Denmark and Norway, but little change in UK and Victoria. Emilie was unfashionable in France.

Emma - rising in USA, Victoria, France and Denmark but falling in UK (discussed in previous post about Emma).

Jessica - #1 in USA and Victoria but falling, #3 in UK and rising, unfashionable in France but rising in Austria.

Laura - falling in the English-speaking countries but rising in France, Austria and Denmark.

Lisa - falling for some time in USA, UK and recently in Austria, where it was #2, but rising in France, Victoria and Norway.

Samantha - falling in English-speaking countries and France.

Sarah - falling in USA, UK and Austria, but rising everywhere else. Its lowest numeral position is in UK, where it was #12.

Sophie - rising in USA, UK, Victoria and Austria but falling in France, where it is seen as unfashionable.

Stephanie - falling in all countries where it ranked (not Austria or Norway).

Some themes:

France is generally a little more independent of the other countries included in this study. Julie, Laura, Sarah and Melanie in its top 10 are found in other countries' top 10s, but other names from its 10 - Marine, Camille, Elodie, Marion, Pauline and Anais are not really found elsewhere. Also it bucks the rising trend with Sophie (which is, in essence, a French name!), Jessica and Emilie/y are popular elsewhere but unfashionable in France, and shares peaking Charlotte with Norway. Just looking at the popular names on meilleursprenoms.com for 2006, France still seems to maintain its mix of international and independently French names - international such as Emma, Sarah and Jade, and French names - Lea, Manon, Camille and Oceane.

The English-speaking countries share more names in common than the non-English speaking countries. Especially seen with Laura, Samantha and Sophie. USA and UK tend to have more in common with each other than Victoria, Australia. Share top 10 names Emily and Jessica, and top 20 names Sarah, Samantha, Lauren and Hannah.

Most of the names found from other countries in Norway are rising. Only Cecilie, Christina, Katrine and Elizabeth are falling.

New Names pt 2

2009-06-24T13:27:00.002Z

A link to begin - Nameberry today have done an interesting post with a 'Baby Name Timeline', US-focussed but very interesting. Reminds me of the great lists in J Besnard's 'La Cote des Prénoms' which show the most popular names in France over specific decades - an easy way to see the trends.

Back to the 'new' names idea. I just have a graph(because pictures are fun!) to show:

This is the number of names from US top 100 in each of the books. As mentioned yesterday, very few female names are in Camden in 17th century, while Baby Name Wizard has almost all of the names - Camila is the only one that is missing. I haven't included any names that were listed for the wrong gender (e.g. Avery or Aubrey as male names, rather than female). The Collins book by J Cresswell is the only book where there are more of the female top 100 than male - I find this rather surprising, especially as it is such a small book.

Of the books that are close in date: Yonge seems more extensive than Moody, and Withycombe than Weekley. The Baby Name Wizard - possibly due to its focus on style and US names, is the most up-t0-date of the 2000s books. There is quite a leap in coverage between Withycombe, published in 1977, and Dunkling, in 1983. For more details on these books see my previous post.

'New' Names

2009-06-23T19:05:00.003Z

What is a 'new' name? A general definition would be a name that has been newly adopted by parents, that was not previously used as a first name - the likes of Cooper, Nevaeh and Addison. These names may have history as surnames (Cooper, Addison), occupations (Cooper, Mason - often also surnames), place names (Brooklyn, Savannah, Sydney) or words (Chase, Destiny, Savannah - and I suppose, Nevaeh). One way of identifying a 'new' name is to look at its popularity over time - when it first emerged. One of my favourite posts from Laura Wattenberg on the Baby Name Wizard was looking at the false antiqueness of Olivia and Ava (also this post) - though they are seen as 'vintage revivals', they were never that popular to begin with.

Another way of looking at this problem, and one I intend to address in this post, is to look at the appearance of names in 'baby name books' and 'name dictionaries'. I have used a selection of name books over time, plotting the appearance of names from the US Top 100 (yes, it pains me not to use the UK top 100, but US has a lot of 'new' names in it) in the book, as well as noting whether they are being used for the right gender (Alexis, Avery and Sydney, for example, swap gender). The appearance of a name in the book assumes that the name is being used enough for the author or compiler to have sufficient information to write about it.

The books I used are:

William Camden's Remains Concerning Britain - this is available on snippet view on Google, which means some names may have been missed. It was compiled in 1605 and published in 1623 and is considered to be one of the first attempts to list names with etymological comments, saying that he chose the names 'most usual to the English Nation' (for more info see the introduction to Dunkling and Gosling's New American Dictionary of Baby Names).

Charlotte M Yonge's History of Christian Names - available on limited view on Google, though the search seemed fairly accurate. This was published in 1863 and revised in 1884. It comprises two volumes, is fairly wide-ranging, and has interesting discussion on current international name trends.

Sophy Moody's What is Your Name? - available on full view on Google, also published in 1863. Less extensive than Yonge, but still indicative of the time.

EG Withycombe's Oxford Dictionary of Christian Names, published 1945 and revised in 1950 and 1977, is less extensive than Yonge or Moody's works, but includes interesting research on the medieval origins of certain names. Its concern with such medieval origins, as well as aristocratic names does lead me to suspect that there is less interest in more contemporary and up-and-coming names in the 70s. However, inclusion of a name in this work does suggest it was fairly well cemented as a 'name'.

Ernest Weekley's Jack and Jill: A Study in Our Christian Names is available on limited view on Google. This was published in 1974. It is more of a discussion book than a name dictionary, grouping names into their respective styles and categories rather than alphabetically.

Leslie Dunkling and William Gosling's New American Dictionary of Baby Names was published in 1983. In the introduction, the authors announce that they compiled their dictionary based on statistical evidence, rather than whether their predecessors included the name.

Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges' Oxford Dictionary of First Names from the Oxford Names Companion, published in 1990. This is included in a volume that has a Place Names and Surnames section, so it may have been

Julia Cresswell's Babies' Names, published in 2004 as a Collins Gem. This is a small volume, so less extensive and less coverage of names - really has to be cemented as a 'first name' to be included.

David Pickering's Penguin Dictionary of First Names, published in 2004. More extensive than Cresswell.

Laura Wattenberg's Baby Name Wizard published in 2005. Though this contains an alphabetical listing, it is not a traditional dictionary. Wattenberg has more interest in trend and styles, so includes more names of marginal popularity. Also more US focussed than the other books.

Patrick Hanks, Flavia Hodges and Kate Hardcastle's Oxford Dictionary of First Names published in 2006, second edition of the previous Oxford Dictionary. The most modern, but in the dictionary style nonetheless, also quite UK focussed.

The Names that Appear in All the Books (by US popularity):

Emma* Sophia Elizabeth Sarah Anna Audrey Rachel Mary

Jacob Michael Joshua Daniel Alexander Anthony William Christopher Matthew Andrew Joseph David James John Gabriel Benjamin Jonathan Samuel Nicholas Caleb Isaac Evan Luke Robert Aaron Thomas Adrian Owen Jason* Julian Charles Adam Nathaniel Henry Brian*

Emma, Jason and Brian probably appear in Camden

A remark often made is that the top males names are less changeable than the girls, this list also shows that they are more traditional: names that have been in name books since the 17th century are much more frequent on the male list.

Names Not Appearing Until 2000s:
Madison Addison Taylor Kaylee Savannah Nevaeh Makayla Brooklyn Destiny Kaitlyn Mackenzie Trinity Aaliyah Katelyn Camila Payton Genesis

Jayden Landon Brayden Wyatt Brody Jaden Ayden Caden Colton Kaden
Is it a surprise that the girls' list is longer than the male list? Male names are not only traditional, there is also less variety in their 'new' names - 6 of the 10 are 'ayden' names, and only two do not end with 'n'. The girls list is a mix of surnames (Madison, Addison, Taylor), places (Savannah, Brooklyn) and words (Trinity, Destiny, Genesis) as well as respellings/foreign spellings (Makayla, Kaylee, Kaitlyn/Katelyn, Camila and Aaliyah). There isn't a dominant common theme.

A few names with appearances in books that surprised me:

Ava - doesn't appear until Dunkling in 1983, though Gardner was active in the movies until the 1940s.
Olivia - appears in all books except Camden, 'Twelfth Night' was written in 1599. Too new for Camden? Jessica is the same, 'Merchant of Venice' was 1596-8
Alexis - appears as a male name until Dunkling, and a female name thereafter.
Ashley - appears for neither gender until Dunkling, where it is a unisex name.
Lauren - not until Dunkling, though Lauren Bacall in films from 1940s.
Avery - first appears in Dunkling as a m name, as a female name from Baby Name Wizard (BNW) Riley has a similar pattern
Aubrey - a male name until 1990 Oxford
Morgan - a male name until Dunkling
Evelyn - a male name in Yonge, but female in Moody
Ariana - appears in Moody as a Persian name, but not again until BNW in 2005

Ethan - doesn't appear until Withycombe, 1945 but is a Biblical name
Aiden - appears in Dunkling, and then not til BNW
Dylan - not until Dunkling
Angel - in Yonge, not Camden or Moody. 'Previously male' in Oxford 1990 - Angel Clare as in 'Tess of D'Urbervilles' rather than Spanish origin.
Kevin, Connor- in Yonge and Withycombe, but not Camden, Moody or Weekley
Hayden - not until Dunkling, and then under Haydn in Penguin and Oxford 2006

Natalie, Leah, Claire, Jennifer, Sara, Gavin, Isaiah, Justin, Lucas, Jordan, Aidan, Tristan, Alex, Dominic - in Yonge, but not Camden or Moody

Isabella, Abigail, Hannah, Amelia, Grace, Victoria, Julia, Angelina, Ella, Zoe, Alexandra, Vanessa, Charlotte, Faith, Caroline, Isabel, Noah, Nathan, Elijah, Christian, Austin, Jeremiah, Carlos, Sebastian, Ian, Eric, Josiah, Eli - all except Camden

Data here

Emma

2009-05-10T17:29:00.006Z

It has been a while since I have written a post on a single name, but with Emma being crowned the most popular US female name, overthrowing Emily, I thought that this was deserved. Anyway, for such a short name, Emma has some interesting history.

I'll start with a comparison:

Emma in the UK:

Here in Britain, Emma's on a downwards turn - particularly popular in the 1970s and 80s when the name was #4, and the 1840s-70s when Emma was in the top 10. In the 2007, Emma charted at #26 - not unheard of, but not the popularity experienced in USA.

USA (I'm being a little lazy and using a screenshot from Laura Wattenburg's fantastic Name Voyager - if you're really interested in Emma's graph, then this great tool allows you to check out the # in certain decades. The Name Mapper is also quite awesome - Emma seems to have originated in terms of popularity in the NE/New England area).

Though Emma is #3 in 1880s, this counted for a larger percentage of babies compared with today. It fell to #448 in 1970s, before rising to #2 in 2000s, and #1 in 2008.

It's a bit of an unfair comparison to show the US data, which runs from 1880 to 2008, with my UK data, which runs from 1840 to 2007. To try and rectify that, I've cut the UK

data back to 1880 (bare in mind that 1910-44 I have no data, so have no idea what Emma was doing!)

In both countries, Emma falls from a high position in 1880, to obscurity in the early 20th century. However, in the UK, Emma rises back to popularity in 1970s, whereas it is in its deepest trough in the US at that point. Obviously, Emma's cycle of popularity in the UK is shorter than in the US, or at least, shifted to a different era.

So, where to begin with Emma?

With most names, people tend to associate names with a particular person or thing. Some will be universal - a literature, historical, movie, celebrity reference, others will be more personal - mother, girl from school, friend's daughter etc. For me, Emma is associated primarily with Emma of Normandy, wife of two rather differing kings of England.

Emma was a political pawn - a way of these kings of England to cement an alliance with Normandy. Her first husband was Aethelred the 'Unready', the second was his opponent Cnut the 'Great' of Denmark, who conquered England. Emma was known in England as Aelfgifu - which was also the name of the first wives of Aethelred and Cnut, but is primarily known by her first name, Emma, now due to her biography: the Encomium Emmae. This highly selective work ignores her marriage to Aethelred, though is happy to highlight the rise of her son by him, Edward the Confessor. Emma is also one of the very few, if only, person living before the Norman Conquest whose residence can be located - God Begot House in Winchester, which is now a pizza restaurant. She was, for the period, a highly remarkable woman and compared with other women from the period, she was highly visible in records.

What is the point of writing about Emma of Normandy? Well, she introduced the name to England, where it was used throughout the Middle Ages, particularly in the one syllable form of Emm. My assumption is that like the other popular female name from pre-Norman conquest England, Edith, Emma was superceded by Biblical names such as Mary, Sarah and Elizabeth from 12th century onwards. Redmonds has a list in his 'Christian Names in Local and Family History' which has found the most popular names from some records (poll tax? I think) from 1377-81, where Emme comes in #6 - above Sarah, Elizabeth and Mary. Other Emmas from before the 18th century revival of the name include Emma of France, daughter of Robert I; Emma of Italy, daughter of Lothair II and mother of Louis V of France; Emma of Provence, daughter of Rotbold III; Emma of Hauteville, daughter of Robert Guiscard; Emma de Guader, Countess of Norfolk and daughter of William Fitz-Osbern; St Emma of Lesum; St Hemma of Gurk and Emma of Altdorf, wife of Louis the German.

We now have to skip forward to 1761 and the birth of another Emma. Or Emy, as Emma, Lady Hamilton was born, she later adopted the name Emma. The mistress of Lord Nelson, Emma was the first in a group of 18th century namesakes. I've mentioned this before, but E.G. Withycombe attributes Emma's reburst of popularity to the poet Matthew Prior (1664-1721), who wrote the poem Henry and Emma. Though Emma Hamilton was the first of a group of famous Emmas, that does not necessarily mean that she was original in her new name choice.

Another 'Emma' that precedes Emma Hamilton was Emmanuel College, Cambridge, founded in 1584 and known today as 'Emma'. Whether it was known as Emma prior to the revival of the name is not known by me.

I'm going to move onto the Emma now, that novel by Jane Austen. A brief interlude, to stay somewhat chronological, is to say that Emma Darwin, wife of Charles, was born in 1808 into the Wedgwood family. However, she was no child prodigy, so if she had any effect on the popularity or perception of the name, it would not occur until later in her life.

Emma Woodhouse, of Emma, written 1815, is a striking, beautiful, witty heroine who is a disastrous matchmaker. Despite her matchmaking failures, the book has been extremely popular. Emma also appeared as Emma Bovary in Flaubert's 1857 Madame Bovary, but by then the name was fully revived.

Thinking about Emma's revival in Britain in the 1970s, I'd like to propose that Diana Rigg's character Emma Peel in The Avengers was at least partly responsible. The name was a play on M Appeal or Man Appeal, rather than an effort to revive the name of Emma Woodhouse, Hamilton and Bovary. Emma Peel first appeared in 1965 - as my data comes from 1964, then the sudden change to not being in the top 100 in 1964, to #4 in 1974 is very obvious.

Nowadays, there are numerous pop culture and celebrity references that can be used to try and explain the popularity of Emma: perhaps it's actress Emma Thompson, Spice Girl Emma Thompson or Ross&Rachel's daughter in Friends. Or maybe it's none of them: it is conceivable that American audiences have become accustomed to Emma as not being primarily associated with anything in particular at the moment. Emma's historical, literary and pop culture, whilst not being overwhelmingly any of those.

Will Emma stick at the top in the US?

Hmm, well there was only 200 births between Isabella and Emma, and as pointed out by Laura Wattenburg, if Emma had had that number of births in 2007 it would only have been #3 - there by the grace of the decline of Emily and Isabella. But Emma didn't fall last year - it has been but it increased by 300 births between 2006 and 7. It very much seems that Emma's position depends on its neighbours - Isabella could still push up to the top, or perhaps Sophia - which is the most popular name in terms of sound. Emily does however, seem on the way down. Roll on 2009!

Being On Trend with Syllable Names

2009-04-27T18:30:00.004Z

Or let's put the data I have for decades to good use and find out when certain one syllable names (which seems to be bringing all the hits to the blog) were most popular. Hooray!

Let's start in 1550, you're a trendy Tudor namer searching for the perfect name for your little girl (who you are rather obviously disappointed is not a son and heir). As she's not that important in terms of succession, you want to call her something easy, forgettable and preferably, one syllable. What do you choose?

Joan - yes, this name catches your eye. As there aren't any statistics to inform you that Joan is actually the 2nd most popular name in England according to baptisms, you happily inform the vicar that that is your chosen name. You could have gone with Anne (#7) or Jane (#8) but that would make you a bit ahead of your time.

Dashing on through time to the 17th century, and your descendant has decided that as the perfect choice for her little girl. Anne. Too bad that it was the #3 name from 1600 to at least 1700. Well, she's a girl, and you've already used up Mary and Elizabeth on the other fortune-drainers.

The fourth daughter comes along in 1650, and your husband decides that Jane is a good choice. Honours that ancestor Joan, born 100 years ago. Unfortunately, the 1650s were the years that Jane peaked at #4, having remained a solid #5 for the rest of the 15th century. You could have called her Margaret, the previous #4 but that is beginning to sound a little old-fashioned.

1690, and as you look forward to the 1700s, you reckon you have a great, fashion forward name: Grace. And you are totally on trend, as Grace has risen to #10 that year - indeed, it may have risen even higher in the 1700s!

We skip forward now to the Victorian age, and the family name has become Smith, through a series of social marriages. Mother Smith's 1845 search for the best one syllable name has led her to Jane, yes, again! Jane has falls in popularity throughout the Victorian age, and so Mother Smith has chosen the name at the last available 'trendy' moment!

Many years pass, and Jane Smith gives birth to twins in 1875. After much contemplation, she names them Ann and Kate, Ann being a good, solid traditional name and Kate being a sweet, short nickname. Both have risen and subsequently fall right in the middle of the Victorian era.

In 1880, Ruth is born, while 1885 brings Maud - a name unheard of at the beginning of the Victorian era! Nell and Rose come in 1895, Nell - a name, like Maud, having no Smith births until 1855, while Rose a pretty floral. May in 1900 and Olive and Grace again in 1905 complete the Victorian (and Edwardian) age.

We move on to 1944, year of the D-Day landings. In this time of struggle, no wonder that the one syllable names have returned to popular traditionals: Joan and Ann both peak in this year, along with new entries: June and Jean.

1954 is a return to peace and Joy is popular. Parents show their love of 'e's by adding them to popular favourites Anne and Lynne, while Lynn is also popular.

1964 is really the decade of the one syllable names - Ruth and Jane return to popularity, while Dawn, Kim, Kay, Gail and Jill all reach their own heights of popularity.

1974 is the year of Claire, and Clair, and Clare.

The 1980s aren't a good decade for one syllable names, only Kate peaks in popularity in 1984, while the rest begin to slide off the charts.

1994 brings lots of new one syllable names: Beth, Paige, Sian and Jade.

And 2007? Well, it was all about Grace, returning with its highest popularity yet to #1. Meanwhile, Skye, Brooke, Eve, Niamh, Faith and Rose were all in the UK top 100.

The future? Well, Anne and Ann both increased in popularity by about 46% between 2006 and 7 in UK, so they may be in the way back up. For new names - Belle increased 80% between 2006 and 7, and may increase even more due to all the exposure Bella is getting due to the 'Twilight' series. Elle has been rising in USA, but it seems to already be falling here in UK. Looking atthe campaign of Obama, Hope may be the next best thing - but it's been falling in US for a while, and barely moved in UK in 2007. Joy meanwhile, rose quite a bit so may be experiencing a revival. Jane rose 28%, so may join Anne as a revival of vintage 1 syllable names.

Luz is gaining ground in US, but the lack of large Hispanic community in the UK makes me doubt that it will catch on. The Polish population is growing the UK, but a quick scan of Polish names shows that they are many syllabled, and I can't find an obvious one syllable Polish name.

Fascination with Irish names in USA means Maeve is on the up, but that doesn't seem to be reflected in the UK yet. Olive may return due to the popularity of Olivia - it made a comeback to the top 1000 in the US in 2007, and increased 37% in UK. Quinn is used on girls in the US, but not in substantial numbers in the UK yet. Rose has stagnated as a middle name, but is rising as a first name - especially in cutesy combinations such as Ellie-Rose and Lily-Rose.

Looking outside the English speaking world - Noor, Jade, Fleur, Kaat, Fien, Laure, Lien, Roos, Britt, Lou, Tess, Floor and Lise all grace the top 100 of Belgium. Tess, Maud and Fleur are all also in the Dutch top 20. Merle and Kim (and possibly Jule and Jette if they are 1 syllable) are in the German top 100. Linn and Liv are both near the bottom of the Swedish top 100. Nur and Malk were in the top 10 for Muslim and Druze girls in Israel in 2006.

This makes me happy.

2009-04-04T16:02:00.007Z

Short post. Mainly because I'm not sure how to write out how this all works.

Let's just say, UK statistics from 1550-2007. Ranks. Graphs.

Grace:

Isabel:How to read the graphs:

Y (Left hand) axis = rank. #1 is most popular. If there is a gap then the name doesn't rank for that year. Lack of information for the early years means that I can't calculate % so the Mary graph is rather boring.

X axis = year. There are gaps in information from 1690-1840, and 1910-44 so that is why there are long straight joining lines between each.

They're not perfect. But they're decent, they're better than what there is already for the UK. And they make me happy.

Now, does anyone know where there are stats for the 1700s and interwar period?

One syllable names

2009-03-25T12:56:00.003Z

One syllable names are somewhat useful - I suppose they are the names where you are really aware of their syllabic structure, they're short, generally snappy (though one could contest that statement with the lazy, drawn-out drawl of Charles or Blanche) and theoretically nickname-proof (though once again, Charles is an exception to the rule). They also tend to work well as middle names - many are of the the filler type eg Rose, Lynn, Ann, Grace and James.

So here's a list, because it has been part of my 'Names' collection for a while, but I have not yet posted it:

Girls:

Anne Belle Blanche Blythe Brooke Clare Dawn Eve Faith Faye Fern Fleur Gail Grace Gwen Hope Jane Jill Joan Joy June Kate Liv Lux Lynn Maeve Maud May Mor Neve Niamh Noor Paz Pearl Rose Ruth Sian Tess Wynne

Boys:
Abe Bede Bjorn Blaise Bram Bran Bryn Cael Cai Carl Chaim Charles Cian Colm Dan Dean Drew Finn Ford George Giles Glen Grant Guy Heath Hugh Jack Jake James Jett Joel John Josh Juan Jude Klaus Kyle Lance Lars Leif Luke Mark Miles Neil Niles Noel Paul Paul Piers Quinn Rhys Sean Serge Seth Shane Tadhg Thor Yves Zane Ziv

The Victorian Smiths - how realistic?

2009-03-07T11:41:00.001Z

So I have acquired the top 20 for the 1881 census, and what do I want to do with it? Compare it with the Victorian Smiths of course!

If you want to know about censuses in the UK then there's a wikipedia page, and things on the Office for National Statistics and GENUKI. The 1881 census is the only one that is available completely free and can be searched on Family Search. The top 20 list that I have is from an article by Dr Kenneth Tucker published in Onoma, the actual article has a lot more information and analysis.

What does this mean? Well, the 1881 census includes pretty much everyone alive in 1881 - so they could be born in 1852 or 1820 or 1881 itself (as long as it's pre April), so I've added up all of the totals. Unfortunately, this excludes everyone born pre-1840 or born outside of UK. But as the life expectancy was lower than it is today (around 40-50 seems to be what I am finding) then this should affect it less than if it was studying the 2001 census where the life expectancy is longer. Also, there was an increase in population (14 mil to 24 mil 1840-80) that means that a significant proportion of the population will be under 40.

Anyway without further ado:

1881 census:

1	Mary
2	Elizabeth
3	Ann
4	Sarah
5	Jane
6	Ellen
7	Eliza
8	Alice
9	Annie
10	Emma
11	Margaret
12	Emily
13	Hannah
14	Martha
15	Louisa
16	Maria
17	Catherine
18	Harriet
19	Edith
20	Charlotte

Victorian Smiths 1840-80:

1	Mary
2	Elizabeth
3	Sarah
4	Ann
5	Alice
6	Jane
7	Emma
8	Ellen
9	Emily
10	Margaret
11	Annie
12	Hannah
13	Harriet
14	Eliza
15	Martha
16	Florence
17	Ada
18	Edith
19	Louisa
20	Clara

Mary, unsurprisingly, tops both lists with Elizabeth in second place. There is some shuffling around in #3 to 5 with Sarah, Ann and Alice in that order in the Victorian Smiths, while Ann, Sarah and Jane are in that order in the census list. Alice is #8 on the census, as Alice peaks in 1870s while Jane peaked in 1840s this probably represents that Jane was more popular pre-1840.

Eliza similarly is in quite a different position - #7 in census, and #14 in Victorian Smiths. As Eliza peaked in 1850 and has a large fall (see 1850 graph), this probably means that there were more Elizas pre 1840.

Harriet is much higher on Victorian Smiths list - #13 compared with #18, this is another 1850 name so should really be the other way around. However, the 1850 graph shows that Harriet's popularity stayed fairly level from 1850 to 75 and started off lower, so this probably counts for its higher popularity on Victorian Smiths.

A few names on census list that aren't on Victorian Smiths top 20: Catherine, Charlotte and Maria. Starting with Maria, which peaked in 1840 and then fell fairly steadily throughout the period - that isn't really a surprise, and one wonders if Maria had actually peaked pre1840 and one of the limitations of the Victorian Smiths is only being able to go back to 1840. Catherine and Charlotte both peaked in 1870. In Catherine's case, there is an obvious growth to the 1870 peak, whereas Charlotte seems to have the same number of births throughout the period. Charlotte definitely feels like a Regency name to me, so that could account for its popularity. I am not sure whether in compiling the census list whether separate spellings were taken into account, for I think that is what decreased Catherine's share.

A few names on the Victorians Smiths list that aren't on the census top 20: Ada, Clara and Florence. Ada and Clara are both names that peaked in the 1870s, and had very few births at the beginning of 1840s - their appearance shows the Victorian Smiths emphasis upon post-1840 popular names. Florence is #21 on the census list, and as I have written about a lot here, doesn't peak until 1895 when it dramatically ties with Mary. The Victorian Smiths is obviously foreshadowing such an event more than the census list.

If anyone has anything on the Victorian Smiths that they would like me to look into, then please post! If not, this may be the last post on the Victorian Smiths though I am thinking of using the data for a longer spanning project.

New Banner & Middle Names

2009-02-02T09:27:00.006Z

Hurrah. Yes, I have a new banner. Am at university at the moment, so my output will be rather slow (hence no posts since Jan 1). So much snow here.

I'm still poking around with the Telegraph/Times names lists, but here is the top 10 girls middle names (any position) for Telegraph:

1	Rose	101
2	Elizabeth	69
3	Grace	62
4	Mary	48
5	Jane	37
6	Alice	32
7	Charlotte	26
8	Louise	26
9	May	25
10	Ann	22

I'm surprised that Ann isn't higher (though Anne is #14, two spellings may have dented Ann's popularity a little) - it feels much more like a middle name to me than Charlotte. Still, this list proves that Rose reigns surpreme.

Times girls:

1	Rose	64
2	Elizabeth	41
3	Grace	33
4	Mary	33
5	Alice	23
6	Jane	18
7	Anne	17
8	May	17
9	Charlotte	16
10	Florence	13

Sorry for the strange spacing. Once again, Rose is #1. Alice & Jane have swapped places, while Anne is up in #7 (Ann is #12). Louise has dropped all the way down to #15, and so Florence (#12 Telegraph) is up to #10. There are fewer births in the Times list, so that accounts for the fewer middle names.

Number of middle names - Telegraph girls:

No. Of mns.		%
4 mns	10	0.85
3 mns	333	28.34
2 mns	736	62.64
1 mn	96	8.17

2 mns are the most popular, but more than a quarter of Telegraph parents chose 3 mns.

Telegraph boys:

		%
4 mns	16	1.256874
3 mns	540	42.41948
2 mns	624	49.01807
1 mn	93	7.305577
	1273

Two middles is also still the top for the boys, but the margin between 2 and 3 is not so large, as well as there being a larger % with 4 middle names.

Times and Telegraph Births

2009-01-01T20:56:00.003Z

The complete list of first names is available here. I'll be adding middle names and other stuff later.

Top 10 for each category:

Telegraph Boys:

1	William	77
2	Thomas	50
3	James	43
4	Oliver	42
5	Charles	41
6	Henry	41
7	George	37
8	Edward	35
9	Harry	33
10	Alexander	30

Telegraph girls:

1	Emily	30
2	Alice	26
3	Charlotte	26
4	Matilda	26
5	Olivia	25
6	Amelia	22
7	Isabella	21
8	Sophie	19
9	Daisy	18
10	Poppy	18

Times boys:

1	William	39
2	George	30
3	Edward	29
4	Henry	28
5	Alexander	26
6	James	26
7	Oliver	25
8	Charles	23
9	Thomas	23
10	Oscar	21

Times girls:

1	Emily	17
2	Isabella	16
3	Matilda	16
4	Olivia	16
5	Alice	15
6	Elizabeth	15
7	Sophie	15
8	Poppy	14
9	Charlotte	13
10	Imogen	13

UK Popular Names

2009-01-01T12:09:00.007Z

Or, humph, it seems that the Office of National Statistics are not publishing a top 100 this year. Anyway, the following lists seem to be the best available:

1) Bounty list - the website isn't working at the moment, but a summary can be found on the BBC or the Times. This is a survey of 380 000 babies (I can find that around 650000 babies were born in 05, so this is about 1/2 of babies born). Its top names are Olivia and Jack (as ever). Possibly the best list available if ONS aren't going to publish a top 100.

2) Telegraph list of the around 2500 births announced in the Daily Telegraph. I myself have been making a note of these births (and those in the Times) and will be writing up a proper analysis when I have time. A little different from the Bounty list - William and Emily are the top names, with Matilda as #2 - though it is #47 on the Bounty list.

3) Scotland list - at least the General Register Office in Scotland aren't cost-cutting. They also release a complete list of all names used. Jack and Sophie at the top.

4) N Ireland list (pdf) - both N Ireland and Scotland's lists tend to be a little different from England and Wales, though Jack reigns supreme in both countries. Jack and Katie at the top in N Ireland. Little surprised to see Oisin as #4 in the Western Board, though it isn't in the top 20.

A late addition to the list: The Times. A little different to mine - they possibly included middle names, or names that were not published on the website.

The Names We Choose For Ourselves

2008-12-27T14:39:00.003Z

Or changing names by deed poll. As reported in the Daily Telegraph today:

Record numbers change names by deed poll

A record 46,000 people changed their names by deed poll this year, including one man now called Happy Adjustable Spanners after losing a drunken bet.

By Matthew Moore

Other eccentric names adopted by Britons this year include Luscious Lemons, General Ninja Ant and Aron Mufasa Columbo Fonzerelli Ball In A Cup Boogie Woogie Brown.

A 61-year-old woman from Exmouth in Devon changed her name to Saxon Knight to mark her retirement. Mrs Knight, formerly Janice Glover, said: "To me retirement is the start of a new life so I decided I would get a new name too. I chose Saxon because I love the UK.

"I have changed it on my driver's licence and passport too. People seem to like it."

The number of people who changed their legal names in 2008 was up 15 per cent on the previous year, due to the increasing number of divorces and a rise in the number of older people applying online.

Mike Barratt, chief executive of the UK Deed Poll Service, said they expect a surge of applications next month as family rows over Christmas cause couples to separate.

"January is hectic because thousands of people have a 'new name for the new year' attitude and also because there are many marital breakdowns over the Christmas period resulting in separated women wanting to revert to their maiden name."

Although most people adopt a new name for marital or relationship reasons, hundreds made the change to bring a bit of cheer to their lives.

There is now also a Mr Tintin Captain Haddock Confused Brewer, a N'Tom TheHayemaker Haywardyouliketocomebacktomine and a McLovin, the latter named after the lead character in the teenage film Superbad.

Mr Brewer, a 25-year-old stockbroker from Leeds who used to go by the name Chris, chose Tintin due to his receding hairline. Captain Haddock is another Tintin reference.

Seasonal Names

2008-12-23T16:07:00.004Z

This is a short post. If I write this at the start, then it will be and I will not get carried away.

Yes, it is the Christmas season, which brings me onto thinking about seasonal names and whether one should use them - I'm thinking of naming a child born on Christmas day or in the Christmas season a name such as Noel, Holly or Emmanuel etc., or Pascale at Easter and so on. Should it be done? It gives a name significance to their special birth date for sure, but is it too expected..tacky almost - that the parents are only giving the name because of the birth date rather than choosing a name that they love. Naming can be a process fraught with emotion, and perhaps using a seasonal name takes away the difficulty of choosing a 'beloved' name by both parents.

Should one use a 'seasonal' name if one is not born on that day? It's a double problem, you see - a Noel sounds a little tacky and overly expected on Christmas day, but is misplaced on any other day of the year. One can extend it to names such as Summer and Autumn - season names - that hold the same problem - a Summer born in winter can be a little strange. Alternatively, if one loves a name, then should one be bound by propriety? Yes, that does lead onto the question of how far one should take someone else's views intoa ccount when choosing a name. I'm not going into depth on this subject, lest to say - they should neither be completely ignored, nor followed to the extent that 0ne forgets one's own loves.

So, seasonal names. If this hasn't become clear from this post, my own view is choose the names that you love, and if you love a name because it fits in with the season and because of the meaning/sound/origin/flow etc., then that's fine, but don't choose a name solely because of its seasonal connections.

Merry Christmas!

And the final Victorian Smiths post is coming soon...

New Background and Some Other News

2008-11-22T11:54:00.004Z

Yes, the background is now vaguely orange themed. I've been fiddling with the text colours as they were very pale at the start. However, getting a blog theme from an outside site means that they end up with the annoying 'get our backgrounds' thing at the top. It's also shifted the links to the bottom.

I have changed the links a little, so I would just like to highlight why I've chosen them here (and they're in alphabetical order to avoid favouritism):

Appellation Mountain: Really interesting blog that explores in quite considerable depth a different name each day. Also has links to a couple of other name blogs, but they are fairly new so will wait to see how they prove themselves.

Baby Name Map: Seriously useful tool this, type in a name and it gives you the popularity all over the world (it's not complete but has all the core places). Very good also for spatial awareness eg seeing where in the US a name is popular.

Baby Name Wizard: Very insightful blog with the Name Voyager (very interesting popularity graph), NameMapper (spatial over time) and Namipedia (encyclopedia of names, possibly the weak spot of this site - it's very new so not tried and tested). Problem? Exceedingly US-centric.

Baby Names World: The names database on this site was having a complete rehaul when it was bought by Nickelodeon. It used to be very good and becoming better, now it's stuck at very good. Tends to have interesting facts not found elsewhere, and the pronunciation key is useful.

Behind the Name: Generally thought to be the best, most reliable names dictionary site on the net. Not really aimed at parents, which is part of its appeal. On the right hand side of each name entry, there is a little list of useful links for popularity, related names etc. Message boards also populated by more serious 'name nerds'.

CM Yonge's History of Christian Names ebook 1 and 2: Click on 2 to get two, click on 1 for one. 1 isn't a complete view. CM Yonge is widely credited as one of the first people to seriously tackle names from a more etymological view. Whilst this book is very outdated, and some of her etymologies are plain wrong, it is an interesting look at a Victorian view of Christian names. On the ebook trend, one may also be interested in Sophy Moody's 'What is your Name?' published not long after Yonge.

England and Wales Statistics: From National Statistics, the official source, the top 100 girls and boys names in England and Wales for the past 5 years.

England and Wales Top 2000: A downloadable file that has (or claims to have) the top 2000 girls and boys names and number of births for 2007. Useful. Wish I had known about it when constructing my top 10 of English-speaking world.

Free BMD: I used this extensively when creating the Victorian Smiths series. Useful for family history and counting names in the Victorian period/

Nameberry: Fairly new name site, by Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz - authors of the popular 'Beyond Jennifer and Jason' series and others. I wouldn't go there for etymologies, but some of their views are entertaining and it's always good to have a new, regularly updated name blog to read.

Portuguese Approved Names: A while ago I did a series looking at 5 names, and one of the criteria was 'approved in Portugal' - basically, if the name isn't on this list then you're going to have a hard time trying to persuade the Portuguese authorities to let you name your baby that. Also just an interesting source for Portuguese names.

US Statistics: The SSA (government) site with the top 1000 names for each year, and can find out how a name has risen in popularity over time.

US top 1000 organised by sound: One of the limitations of the SSA site is that it lists each spelling of a name, and doesn't take account of shared sounds. And so Aidan's huge popularity is masked by the fact that there are 10 different spellings. So this is useful.

Wikipedia's list of most popular given names: One of, if not the best, things about this page is the list of links at the bottom - saves me from placing all the links here. As it's Wikipedia, some of the top 10s may be a little wonky, so going by the official government sites listed then you can be sure to get more accurate stats.

On an aside, a new post on the Victorian Smiths may be coming soon. Have found the top 20 from 1881 census and so will be looking at how that compares with the Victorian Smiths

The Victorian Smiths - an overview

2008-09-13T17:34:00.012Z

The Victorian Smiths changed in their naming habits between March 1840 and Dec 1909. Though Mary stayed steadfast at the top throughout most of the Victorian era, by Edwardian times it had been overtaken by Florence, with Doris snipping at its heels.

The number of girls given the top names also decreased - Mary's best period was 1860-4 when 3248 Smiths were named Mary. By 1905, the top name, Florence, charted merely 1250 births. This is an even bigger decrease when you look at the po pulation statistics for England in that time. In 1861, the population of England was almost 18.8 million, by 1901 it was 30.5 million and in 1911 it was 33.6 million. This population growth did not come merely from immigrants - born elsewhere so that their birth and name records would not be counted - it came from more children surviving infancy and so breeding more children to survive infancy - an improvement in healthcare and sanitation, without contraception.

However, I understand that the birth records take into account the births of children who never reached maturity (eg died age 2) and so does not exactly correlate with the population growth (and I think my data also included Scotland and Wales). However, the change is shown over the generations - if one generation has five children (all baptised, all included in my data) but two die before having children of their own, and then the three go on to have five children each then I will note twenty names overall. But if none of the children die, and they all have five children then that gives thirty names overall. So there should be some effect on the names.

Basically, the reduction of Mary (and the top names' in general) popularity from 3000 births to 1000 births is even more dramatic considering that there should be more births.

Anyway, onto graphs. I wanted to see if names that peaked in the same decades had the same arcs of popularity. I think that the graphs speak for themselves.

1840s: Maria (blue), Jane (red) and Caroline (green).

1850s: Eliza (dark blue, diamonds), Hannah (red), Martha (green), Emma (purple) and Harriet (light blue, stars)

1860s: Mary (blue), Elizabeth (red), Sarah (green) and Fanny (purple).

1870s: Emily (dark blue, diamonds), Louisa (red, squares), Catherine (green, triangles), Charlotte (purple, x), Isabella (light blue, star), Ann (orange, circle), Alice (light blue, line), Ada (red, straight), Margaret (green, straight), Clara (purple, diamond), Kate (light blue, square), Frances (orange, triangle), Lucy (light blue, cross), Isabel (pink, cross) and Eleanor (light green, circle).

1880s: Ellen (dark blue), Rosa (red), Ruth (green), Beatrice (purple), Maud (light blue) and Bertha (orange).

1890s: Annie (dark blue, diamond), Ethel (red, square), Mabel (green, triangle), Daisy (purple), Florence (light blue, star), Edith (orange), Elsie (light blue, line), Lily (pink) and Nell (green). Eh, ok something to point out - they all start from nothing.

1900s: Dorothy (dark blue, diamond), Rose (red), May (green, triangle), Jessie (purple, cross), Doris (light blue, star), Gladys (orange), Winifred (light blue, line), Hilda (pink), Ivy (green, straight), Violet (purple, diamond) and Olive (light blue, square). Like 1890s, these come from nothing to their dizzy heights of popularity.

The Victorian/Edwardian Smiths in the 1900s

2008-09-11T19:51:00.011Z

What this is all about. Data.

1900-4:

1	Mary
2	Florence
3	Ann
4	Annie
5	Edith
6	Alice
7	Elsie
8	Doris
9	Dorothy
10	Elizabeth

So Mary has regained or reassured her top position, pushing Florence down into #2. No change until #7 where Elizabeth has slipped down to #10. Ethel has slipped down to #11 and Doris has jumped up from #21 to #9.

A little note before we go onto peakers. It is about Eliza. Whilst we have seen, to an extent, the fall of Mary and Elizabeth, the fall of Eliza has not yet been documented. Eliza was #7 in the 1840s, and remained in the top 10 in the 1850s. By the 1900s, Eliza has the least number of births of any of the names that is seriously being studied (Victoria was merely to see how the name did, and I thought Joan would end up with many more births). Eliza has been pushed away to make room for Elsie and has followed Elizabeth down in popularity - just a little more dramatically. Fun graph (the numbers are the numbers of Eliza Smith births, years along the bottom):

Anyway, onto the peakers: Dorothy, Rose, May and Jessie.

Dorothy was a new entry to the top 10 in 1895-9, and has already been eclipsed by Doris. A Greek name, once pronounced with a hard 't' rather than a 'f/th' sound. Dorothy was fairly popular in the 16th century - it appears on the Redmonds lists consistently between #10-#15 from 1550-1700 so it was fairly antiquated by the Victorian age, and in 1840-4 had been reduced to 25 Dorothy Smith births. I consider Dorothea to be the more Georgian of the Dorothy names - it was borne by George I's wife Sophia Dorothea of Celle, and by his daughter Sophia Dorothea of Prussia. Anyway, back to Dorothy - a notable 19th century bearer was Dorothy Wordsworth (b. 1771), sister of the poet William and author of the Grasmere Journal.

Rose is another in that long line of Victorian flower names. It was previously used (Norman times onwards) as a German name meaning 'horse' or 'fame', but close to the Victorian age it was used much more for the flower rather than the meaning. It's Middle Ages usage may also be due to its association with the Virgin Mary (and may account for its decline in the 16th century onwards in Protestant England, and revival as simply a flower name). Borne by author Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter Rose Wilder Lane (b. 1886) and novelist Rose Macauley (b. 1881) - whose first novel was published in 1906. More on Rose.

May - both a month name, and a nickname for Mary and Margaret etc. which contributed to its popularity (Mary and Margaret both being popular Victorian names). Also a nature name - the hawthorn is also known as the may, mayblossom or maythorn as it flowers in the month of May. In 1900-4, Mary or May of Teck was the Duchess of York then Princess of Wales, and from 1910 she was the Queen of England. May was a childhood nickname that survived to adulthood - relating to her birth month.

Today, Jessie is best known as a nickname for Jessica. However, in Victorian times it was more frequently used as a Scottish diminutive of Janet or Jean then adopted as an independent name in its own right. It was used in literature, Withycombe notes that its early uses in England were as characters in Charlotte Brontë's Shirley (pub. 1849) and Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford (pub. 1851-3), though there appear to be no particularly notable bearers of the name in the Victorian period.

1905-9:

1	Florence
2	Mary
3	Doris
4	Ann
5	Edith
6	Dorothy
7	Elsie
8	Annie
9	Alice
10	Gladys

You know the 1895 list that I said appeared groundbreaking but wasn't? This 1905 list appears groundbreaking and is. Florence has overtaken Mary with 34 more Florence Smiths being born than Mary Smith. More than that is the rather meteoric rise of Doris - #21 in 1895-9, #9 in 1900-4 and now #3. Elsewehere there is a lot of movement: Edith is into #5 with Annie slipping down to #8, Dorothy up to #5, Alice down to #9, Elizabeth leaving the top 10 to #11, and Gladys rising from #12 to #10.

I was vaguely interested in what would happen for 1910-4 if these birth numbers continued the same way. So I subtracted (or added) the change between 1900-4 and 1905-9 to the 1905-9 numbers and got this:

1	Doris
2	Florence
3	Mary
4	Dorothy
5	Gladys
6	Ann
7	Edith
8	Winifred
9	Elsie
10	Ivy

I'm not saying that that is how the top 10 does look for 1910-4- names do tend to slow down in popularity after a large leap, but I do think that it's quite likely that Doris overtook Florence in some time over that period. This list looks totally different to what I would call the traditionalism of 1840-4.

Anyway, onto the peakers. There are a lots - mainly because some of them may have peaked in later decades, but as they have not been studied then it is difficult to tell. They are: Doris, Gladys, Winifred, Hilda, Ivy, Violet and Olive. To be honest, to me most of these names sound like 'grandmother' names (not Ivy or Violet) - names that haven't been revived. I suppose that is due to being the most 'recent' of the list, and may not have peaked for another 10 years - placing them into the grandmother age range.

Doris is the Edwardian (post 1905, I doubt that I can get away with calling the era Victorian any more) skyrocketer. Doris seems to have come to popularity for a number of reasons - a more 'modern' sounding version of Dorothy, it is a Greek nymph name, a combination of Dorothy and Phyllis (or Iris/Francis/Alice etc.), and an alternative to Dorcas/Dorcis. There doesn't seem to be steadfast reason why Doris became popular.

Gladys is a Welsh name, used in Wales since the Norman Conquest but only taken up in England in the late 19th century. Featured in some (minor - never widely popular) literature - Puck by Ouida (pub. 1870), Gladys of Harlech by Welsh novelist Anne Beale (pub. 1858) and Gladys by Edith M Dauglish (all from Dunkling and Gosling). Continued in popularity until the 1930s and then pretty much disappeared.

Winifred is the second Welsh name - from Gwenfrewi. Used in Wales, but not in England until the 16th century. Most of the Winifreds listed on Wikipedia seem to be born prior to 1905-9 so it's interesting to see it peaking in this 5 year period. Winifred is a name that comes from very few births until 1870 to 771 in 1905-9.

Hilda reminds me of Ethel - a short form of the variety of 'Hild' names (Hildegard, Hildred etc) but unlike Ethel it was actually used independently prior to the 19th/20th century - an example being St Hilda of Whitby, and in the Whitby area it seems that Hilda was continually despite dying out elsewhere in England in the 13th century. Revived in the 19th century - Dunkling and Gosling attribute this revival to Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Marble Faun (pub. 1860), of which Hilda is a main character, whilst Withycombe attributes it to the Tractarian revival of Anglo-Saxon names. The reality is that it is probably a mixture of both influences - but the first Hilda Smith was born in 1860-4 (in Halifax, quite a way from Whitby) soon after the publication of Hawthorne's novel. For more on Hilda see here.

I am going to tackle Ivy, Violet and Olive together. Victorian flower names that began the period with very few births and end with much, much more. Ivy is the 'newest' of the three names - not being used at all prior to the Victorian age. Violet was used in Scotland from the 16th century onwards. Olive is related to Livia - used in Roman times, and Olivia - used by Shakespeare, and Oliva - a saints name, and was used sparingly from the 16th century onwards. It was not until the 19th century that it became anywhere near 'common' or 'recognised'. For more on Ivy see this earlier post. And for Olive - here.

And that is it. I think there will be a final post on this subject (with graphs hooray) and then finished!

The Victorian Smiths in the 1890s

2008-09-04T12:13:00.010Z

1890-4:
What this is all about. Data.

Top 10:

1	Mary
2	Ann
3	Florence
4	Annie
5	Elizabeth
6	Edith
7	Alice
8	Ethel
9	Sarah
10	Elsie

Lots of change here. The previous top 4 had Elizabeth and Alice as 3 and 4. These have now been pushed down to 5 and 7 - replaced with Florence (from 5) and Annie (from 7) - a swap. Ethel has entered the top 10 at #8, as has Elsie at #10. Sarah has fallen from 6 to 9, and Ellen and Emily have left the top 10 - though E is still the most popular letter.

A few peakers this time: Annie, Ethel, Mabel and Daisy - a manageable amount to go through. I have reacquired Withycombe from the library, and so can again consult that book's wisdom.

Annie is instantly recognisable as a nickname or diminutive - of Ann (the oxymoron being that Annie - the nickname of Ann - is actually longer than the name it is nicknaming) or of Anna or other 'An-' names. It doesn't really seem to be used independently as a name until the 19th century, and does fall in with the 'nickname' trend of the time - along with Elsie, Nell, Jessie, Kate and Fanny. As Annie has had the most popular thus far of any of the 'nicknames', it can be considered the most 'successful' - Ann (and Anna) are popular names, and unlike Elizabeth - where there are many nicknames - Annie is the easiest and most obvious of the Ann nicknames and so the most commonly used- coupled with the popularity of Ann, making it popular. (A note on Anna - as it is only one letter off Ann, I believe that it was counted, along with Anne, on the BMD counts and that is why it is not noted in these lists - so the popularity of Ann may have increased due to the inclusion of Anna). A few books (Pickering's Penguin Dictionary, in particular) link Annie's 19th century popularity to the Scottish song 'Annie Laurie' popularised in the 1830s. The modern association of the red-headed orphan Annie originated with the 'Little Orphan Annie' comic strips, started in 1924 (though the concept for the title came from the 1885 poem 'Little Orphant Annie'. Another 19th century association is social reformer Annie Besant (b. 1847).

Ethel is a name that is rather maligned in 2008 - a grandmother name on par with Gertrude and Bertha, that hasn't yet reached that vintage chic that Edith now seems to embody. Ethel is indeed a dimunitive - of all those great Angl0-Saxon Ethel-/Aethel- names eg Æthelthryth, Æthelswith, Ethelfleda and Æthelgiva. A little OTT, even for the Victorian Anglo-Saxon revival. I can also (and this is mere speculation) see Ethel as an alternative to Elizabeth. Anyway, it was used several times in literature in the mid-19th century - by Thackeray in The Newcomes (1855) and CM Yonge's The Daisy Chain (1856). Yonge went on to write History of Christian Names in 1884, though she barely mentions Ethel.

Mabel is next. A Medieval name that was never exceedingly popular in Medieval times, that Withycombe states had a resurgence in the late 19th century - as seen here. Once pronounced to rhyme with 'gabble', but now to rhyme with 'able'. Borne by illustrator Mabel Lucie Attwell (b. 1879). Annie Besant, named earlier, also called her daughter Mabel.

Daisy - part of the late Victorian flower name trend. Also helped by the fact that it is a nickname for Margaret (marguerite being French for Daisy). Dunkling and Gosling also state that 'daisy' was a late Victorian nickname for an 'excellent person or thing' - certainly not something that would discourage use of the name. The song 'Daisy bell' was written in 1892, at the height of Daisy's popularity. Daisy Miller - a novella by Henry James, of which Daisy is the heroine, was written in 1878, and was an immediate and popular success.

1895-9:

1	Florence
2	Mary
3	Ann
4	Annie
5	Edith
6	Alice
7	Elizabeth
8	Elsie
9	Ethel
10	Dorothy

First, this list appears groundbreaking - Mary has been replaced at the top by Florence. But...looking at the data, Mary and Florence actually share the top spot - both having 1497 births, Florence is earlier in the alphabet so comes first. Anyway, Florence is extremely popular and has risen from #3. Mary has also fallen from it's untouchable spot in the mid-1850s where it had over 3000 births, down to merely 1500. Elizabeth has slipped down to #7 from #5, and is now far from her #2 and 3 spot held until 1890 - quite a fast fall. Edith and Alice are both pushed up by Elizabeth's fall. Elsie is up to #8 and Ethel is already falling, down to #9. Dorothy is a new entry at #10 (from #12) and Sarah has departed from the top 10, for the first time, to #16.

Quite a few peakers for this period: Florence, Edith, Elsie, Lily, Nell and Victoria.

Florence was really the anme that started this whole study for me - I had known that it was popular in the late Victorian period, but I had wanted to know HOW popular, and to compare it with names like Mary, Elizabeth, nicknames like Annie and Elsie, Anglo-Saxon revivals such as Edith and Ethel, and florals like Daisy and Lily. The most famous Florence, and the woman to whom it's popularity is attributed, is Florence Nightingale - the 'Lady with the Lamp'. Prior to her, it is fairly uncommon: see below:
Nightingale became famous during the Crimean war - 1854-6. I had, prior to this research, assumed that Florence had become popular very, very quickly after the war, but this graph shows that the growth in popularity was quite gradual. Aside from Nightingale, Florence had been used by some as the Anglicised form of the Irish name Finian - as in Florence MacCarthy.

Edith is a name that is experiencing a revival in the UK at the moment - it has a certain 'vintage chic', mainly aided by it's nickname Edie. An Anglo-Saxon name, like Ethel though actually used then. Edith survived into the Middle Ages, but was gradually phased out from the 16th to 18th century. It appears on only one of Redmonds' lists - 1538-49 at #10. It experienced a revival in the 19th century as part of the trend for Anglo-Saxon names. The majority of its bearers had their accomplishmeents after the Victorian period, but Edith (E.) Nesbit (b. 1858) published 'The Story of the Treasure-Seekers' in 1898/9 and (probably her most famous work) 'The Railway Children' in 1906.

Elsie is a nickname for Elizabeth from the Scottish name Elspeth (Elisabeth-Elspeth-Elspie-Elsie). Dunkling and Gosling state that it has been used independently since the 18th century, and was reintroduced into England in the 1870s. It was used by Oliver Wendell Holmes in his 1861 novel Elsie Venner but I can find very little information on this novel so I doubt that it was a complete and lasting bestseller.

Lily is both a flower name and so fits in with the late Victorian trend for flower names, and Lily is a nickname for Elizabeth - or, more strictly, Lillian is a nickname for Elizabeth and Lily is a nickname for Lillian. Lilies also had the Christian association of being symbols of purity. Phew. Like Edith, all of Lily's notable bearers made their impact after the Victorian period. There was, however, a popular music hall song Lily of Laguna that was written in 1898.

Nell is a nickname for Ellen - which has been seen on the top 10 lists for previous decades, and for Helen and Eleanor. Nell Gwynne, mistress of Charles II, is probably its most famous bearer. In Victorian times, it was also known as the heroine of Charles Dickens' book The Old Curiosity Shop, published 1840-1. However, this does not seem to have had an immediate effect (if any) of the Victorian naming habits - no Nell Smiths were born until 1855-60.

Victoria is a name that I have slipped in. It does not actually 'qualify' to be in the lists as it has much fewer than 1000 births - only 216 but I wanted to see how the popularity of the monarch's name changed throughout her reign. Victoria experiences a true peak in popularity from 1885-1905 - indeed this was the part of Victoria's reign when she was most celebrated - with her Golden Jubilee in 1887, Diamond Jubilee in 1897 (which falls in this post's time period) and death in 1901. It took fifty years for Victoria's subjects to embrace her name, and it never soared to the heights of her contemporary Florence Nightingale, but indeed, it did change over her reign.

An apology

2008-09-02T21:01:00.001Z

1890s Smiths should be coming soon. Have been quite busy with other projects, but do now have some time and renewed enthusiasm for the project. If anyone wants to request/suggest any posts that I could write afterwards, then please feel free to comment.

The Victorian Smiths in the 1880s

2008-07-16T10:49:00.005Z

Click here for what this is about. Data here.

1880-4:
Top 10:

1	Mary
2	Ann
3	Elizabeth
4	Alice
5	Florence
6	Sarah
7	Annie
8	Edith
9	Ellen
10	Emily

Sarah has been displaced at #4 by Alice. Florence has continued her rise up, and Annie has been pushed down to #7. There are no new entries, though Ethel has shot from #21 to #12, and Gertrude from #23 to #16. This is also the first 5 year period when all the names chosen have at least one birth.

And now onto the peakers. There are much fewer this time - just top ten staple Ellen, and Rosa and Ruth.

Ellen was used fairly interchangeably with Helen in Medieval times, to the point that it was overused and thus judged a name for the lower classes. The 19th century marked a revival for Ellen. It does not appear on any of the Redmonds lists. A notable example from the 19th century is actress Ellen Terry, though considering that Ellen was in the top 10 for many years in this period, it is interesting that there are not more bearers. This may be a result of it being used principally by the 'lower' classes and thus more difficult for its numerous bearers to become famous.

Rosa is, I believe, the first of the 'botanical' names that came to the fore at the end of the 19th century. Rosa doesn't quite follow the same path- most of these botanical names (Daisy, Lily, Rose, Olive, Violet, Ivy) are unheard of at the beginning of the period, and highly popular by the end. Rosa follows a fairly bell shaped curve - uncommon to more common to uncommon again. Rosa is the Latinate form of Rose, and Withycombe notes that it came into use in the 19th century. Used by Dickens in 'David Copperfield' (not a good depiction) and 'Bleak House' (a better depiction).

Ruth is a solid Biblical name, and one of my own favourites. Used in particular by the Puritans - as a Biblical name, and as a virtue name - ruth meaning compassion. Revived in the Victorian era particularly due to its use by various novelists and poets - Elizabeth Gaskell's novel 'Ruth' was published in 1853, and Dunkling and Gosling note that poems were written by William Wordsworth, Thomas Hood and Felicia Hemans about Ruth. The popularity of Ruth Smith doesn't really change over the period - starts with 56 births, ends with 97 and peaks at 122 - so that's less than 100. The increase could merely be due to population increase. More on Ruth.

1885-9:
Top 10:

1	Mary
2	Ann
3	Elizabeth
4	Florence
5	Alice
6	Annie
7	Edith
8	Ethel
9	Sarah
10	Ellen

So, no change at the top here. But Florence slips in at #4, pushing Alice down. I noted Ethel's rise last time (a name much maligned today), and here it goes into the top 10 at a comfortable 8. Sarah is declining now, Edith is up to #7. Outside the top 10, I have noted the rise of Lily from #19 to #14.

Another manageable number of peaking names this time - Beatrice, Maud and Bertha.

Starting with Beatrice. Used in the 12th and 13th centuries, fell out of favour and revived in the mid 19th century, probably as a result of Queen Victoria naming her youngest daughter Beatrice - prior to 1857, birth of Princess Beatrice, there was one Smith named Beatrice, following it experienced a time of revival. Outside of Princess Beatrice, there are several literary bearers - Beatrice Portinari - who guides the reader through Paradise in Dante's 'Divine Comedy' and was based upon a real person, and Beatrice in Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing'.

Going on with Maud. This contracted form of Matilda was, to an extent, used interchangeably with Matilda in the Medieval period - 'Queen' Matilda or Maud was the daughter of Henry I and challenged King Stephen for the English throne. Withycombe puts its revival down to the Tennyson poem 'Maud', published 1855, and it is also associated with the song 'Come into the garden, Maud'. Used by Edward VII and Queen Alexandra for their youngest daughter, born 1869, who later became the Queen of Norway (from 1905).

And now Bertha, which has received a fairly bad press recently. I suppose, naming a World War One artillery gun 'Big Bertha' doesn't do much to help the popularity of a name. However, prior to that Bertha was a name used since at least Norman times in Britain, declined in the late Medieval period, and was revived by the Victorians.

The Victorian Smiths in the 1870s

2008-06-26T12:39:00.004Z

Post 5. To find out what this is all about, go here. Data.

1874-9:
Top 10:

1	Mary
2	Ann
3	Elizabeth
4	Sarah
5	Alice
6	Annie
7	Emily
8	Ellen
9	Emma
10	Jane

Ann has pushed past both Elizabeth and Sarah to be #2, Annie has gone up to #6. Emma has fallen down to #9.

There are quite a few names that peaked in this period, so I apologize about the length of this post, and apologize if some of the less popular names do not get the amount of exposure that they truly deserve. So the 'peaking' names are Emily, Louisa, Charlotte, Catherine and Isabella. Phew!

Start with Emily, as it's in the top 10. A Georgian name, one could say, as Withycombe states that it's rise to prominence came with George II's daughter Amelia being nicknamed Princess Emily. Borne by two notable unmarried writers - Emily Brontë and Emily Dickinson (though I don't think that Dickinson would have had much effect at the time, her poetry was not published until later).

Onto Louisa, it's 1870s peak is mentioned by Pickering in the Penguin Dictionary of First Names. Louisa is the Latinate form of Louise, whose bringing to prominence in England is usually attributed to Louise de Kérouaille, French mistress of Charles II. The name had been used in France for longer as a female form for Louis - eg Louise of Savoy, mother of 16th century French king Francis (or François) I. Louise was also the name given by Queen Victoria to her fourth daughter - Louise Caroline Alberta. Most of Louisas 'important bearers' seem to be Americans - author Louisa May Alcott and Louisa Adams - wife of American President John Quincy Adams - are the most prominent.

Charlotte is another very 'Georgian' name. It is French in immediate origin (ends up tracing back to Old German, but Charlotte is a French form) and the one of the first 'English' bearers was a French woman - Charlotte de la Tremoüille who married James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby. However, its popularity really took off with the marriage of King George III to Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1761. I assume that she was named after her father, who was a Charles. Anyway, Charlotte and George III added to the British contingent of Charlottes with their own daughter - Charlotte, later Queen of Württemberg. Their son, George VI, also had a Charlotte who, had it not been from her early death in childbirth, would have become Queen regnant of Britain. I think it's also necessary to mention the author Charlotte Brontë, born in the Georgian period but not famous until late 1840s. The fact that Charlotte has its peak in the 1870s rather than the 1840s or 50s does surprise me slightly and this may be a result of increased population by that time. Charlotte does have a fairly steady popularity until the 1870s, after which it declines noticeably.

Catherine. This was a name that I was surprised didn't have higher popularity. Whenever anyone mentions 'timeless' names my own mind leaps to Mary, Ann, Margaret, Elizabeth and Catherine. But it appears in Victorian times Catherine experienced popularity similar to Charlotte and Lucy rather than the very popular Mary and Elizabeth. From 1550 to 1700, Catherine or Katherine lingered around #10. Most of the influential bearers of the name of Catherine were much earlier than Victorian times - the 3 Catherine wives of Henry VIII - of Aragon, Howard and Parr, the French queen Catherine de' Medici, and Catherine the Great of Russia (died 1796 so closest to Victorian times). A contemporary Victorian bearer could be considered as Catherine Booth, wife of William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army.

Isabella is a name that is currently receiving a lot of attention, in Victorian times it had a fairly steady popularity among the Smiths - having a range of less than 100 births. The Queen of Spain at the beginning of the Victorian period was Isabella II, though she abdicated in 1868. It is the Latinate form of Isabel. Historically borne by several 'strong' queens - Isabella of Castile and Isabella of France, wife of Edward II of England - 'she-wolf of France'.

1875-9:
Top 10:

1	Mary
2	Ann
3	Elizabeth
4	Sarah
5	Alice
6	Annie
7	Florence
8	Edith
9	Ellen
10	Emily

No changes to the top 6, but two new interesting entries at 7 and 8. I see this as the emergence of the names that will define the late Victorian period - Florence and Edith. This also marks the disappearance of Jane from the top 10 and Emma - they are now down at #13 and 14.

There are so many names that peak in this period, so again, I apologise for the length of this post. Ann, Alice, Ada, Margaret, Clara, Kate, Frances, Lucy, Isabel and Eleanor. So, lets get on with it.

Ann. I have examined most of the Biblical background to Ann in Hannah. Anne or Ann was consistently #3 in the period 1600-1700, and only rose up a few places from 1550 to reach this spot. Most of the royal Anns are from the period 1450 to 1650 - Anne of Brittany, Anne of Cleves and Anne Boleyn - wives of Henry VIII, Anne of Denmark - wife of James I of England and VI of Scotland, Anne of Austria - wife of Louis XIII of France and mother of Louis XIV, the 'Sun King'. In Britain, Queen Anne reigned from 1702 to 14, and was the last of the Stuart dynasty. Closer to the Victorian period, it was borne by Ann Radcliffe - Gothic author and author Anne Brontë.

Alice. A name that was fairly prominent in the Medieval period, though was later overshadowed by more 'religious' names - Mary, Ann, Elizabeth. George Redmonds lists Alice as the most popular name in the period 1377-81, and it appears as #3 in 1550-9, then declining into the lower echelons of the top 10, and finally as #12 in 1690-1700. As seen here, Alice has risen into the #5 spot. Withycombe states that the name was regarded as old-fashioned and country in the 17th century, but was revived in the 19th century. For a more modern example, I'm thinking Abigail - fell out of favour in the 19th century as a maid's name, but is now experiencing a strong revival in the USA. Anyway, 19th century examples of use include Queen Victoria's second daughter, Alice of Hesse, born 1843, 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' by Lewis Carroll, published in 1865 - the Alice being named after Alice Liddell, born 1852, and the Australian town of Alice Springs - formed due to the opening of the Overland Telegraph Line in 1872, and the discovery of alluvial gold in 1887, 100km to the east of the town. Alice Bell (born roughly 1837) was the wife of Charles Todd, who helped set up the telegraph lines. More on Alice.

Ada. Personally, I associate Ada with Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, who described Charles Babbage's early 'computer' - the analytical engine. Ada was a name imported by the Germans - through the Georgian kings, a name in it's own right and a nickname for Adelaide - the name of William IV's wife. More on Ada.

Margaret. I consider Margaret to be a heavyweight timeless name - along with Elizabeth, Mary, Ann and Catherine. However, it's probably the name that is on the periphery of that group. It's heavy consonants have not translated wonderfully into this new Millenium, but is still experiencing use due to its variety of nicknames - Maggie, Margie, Peggy, Megan etc. Early use was due to its popularity as a non-Biblical religious name - borne by the childbirth patron saint Margaret of Antioch. It experienced especial use in Scotland where it was borne by the 11th century Scottish queen St Margaret. Withycombe states that Margaret was out of fashion in the 16th to 18th centuries, and revived in the 19th century. Margaret's high point in the Redmonds lists were from 1580-99 when it was #2, below Elizabeth. Fro, 1660-1700 it was #6. It appears as #10 in 1860-4, but by 1875-9 is #12.

Clara. Latin form of Clare, according to Withycombe arrived in England in the 13th century as both Clara and Clare (I think the assumption that Clares were called Clara on Latin documents, similar to Marys being Marias). Clara then came into fashion in the 19th century - there are a few sympathetic characters in Dickens' David Copperfield (published 1850) named Clara.

Kate. Nickname for Catherine, a common nickname in the 16th and 17th centuries, and then revived again in the middle of the Victorian period. At the beginning of the period, Kate has very few usages - not unknown but there is a big difference between 11 and 413 births, by the end it has declined from its peak.

Frances. I have been through Fanny, so Frances is fairly similar. Appeared in the Tudor period, often used to honour a male Francis (eg Frances Brandon in honour of her godfather Francis I of France). In the Redmonds list, Frances appears at the bottom - around #18 from 1600-1700. Its highest point is #13 in 1690-1700.

Lucy. Became popular due to St Lucy of Syracuse, a popular Medieval saint - so popular in Medieval times. Dunkling and Gosling state that it had a peak in Britain in the 1870s - obviously supported by this Smith data, and this was followed a generation later in USA (which does beg the question - how long is a generation?). Most of the notable bearers I can find are pre- or post-Victorian - Lucy Lockit in 'The Beggar's Opera' - first performed in 1728, Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of the 'Anne of Green Gables' series - born 1868 but 'Green Gables' was not published until 1908, and Lucy Westenra from Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' - just in the period by 4
years as published in 1897.

Isabel. Having recently read 'The Portrait of a Lady' by Henry James, I associate this name with Isabel Archer. Obviously the name has a history prior to 1880-81 when that novel was serialised. Came to England in the 12th century, and used interchangeably with Isabella and Elizabeth until 16th century. On the Redmonds list, Isabel is #10 from 1560-1600, and then declines from 1600 to 1700 to the bottom half of the top 20. More on Isabel.

Eleanor. Traditionally considered to have been brought to England by Eleanor of Aquitaine, and popularised by Eleanor (or Leonor) of Castile. Eleanor pops up and down between 10 and 20 in the Redmonds lists from 1550-1700, making it difficult to make and solid conclusions there. With the Smiths, Eleanor stays fairly consistently 'popular' (or more 'recognisable' - not super-popular, not uncommon) gaining less than 100 births between its trough and peak. More on Eleanor.

The Victorian Smiths in the 1860s

2008-06-26T10:56:00.003Z

Post 4 - to find out what this is about go here. Data is here.

1860-4:
Top 10:

1	Mary
2	Elizabeth
3	Sarah
4	Ann
5	Alice
6	Emma
7	Ellen
8	Jane
9	Emily
10	Margaret

A few changes here, Alice continues its rise up: into 5th position, and Jane tumbles to #9. Margaret joins the top 10 as Eliza leaves.

The top 3 names peak in these years. As I've already discussed Mary and Elizabeth, I will go through Sarah.

I'm not entirely sure whether with the surname 'Smith' if Sarah is over or underrepresented. On one hand Smiths may have chosen not to use Sarah to avoid alliteration, on the other hand, they could have chosen Sarah directly to get alliteration. Sarah is an Old Testament classic, Withycombe states that she arrived in England in the 12th century (along with other Hebrew/Biblical names - Mary, Anna, Elizabeth), but really took hold after the Reformation and return to more Biblical names. According to Redmonds' lists, Sarah rose from outside the top 20 from about 1570-9 to the #4 name 1660-1700. These lists show Sarah in the #3 spot, swapping places with Anne from Redmonds' lists (interestingly, Anne is rather underrepresented in the BMD lists, with 'Ann' having more births attributed to it. This may be because an Ann search also includes Annes (as Susan searches include Susannah)). Sarah is unusual in that there aren't very many bearers - particularly ignored in royal families, the only notable person of 'rank' was Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough and friend of Queen Anne. There are a few historical actresses- Sarah Bernhardt (who wasn't really famous until 1870s, so would have had little effect on the name's popularity in the 1860s, though may have attributed to its decline) and Sarah Siddons, an 18th century actress.

1865-9:
Top 10:

1	Mary
2	Elizabeth
3	Ann
4	Sarah
5	Alice
6	Emma
7	Jane
8	Emily
9	Ellen
10	Annie

Ann replaces Sarah at #3, Ellen drops down to #9, and Annie rises 5 places to replace Margaret at #10 (Margaret is at #11).

A name that experiences a steady rise, but never hits the top 10 is Fanny, and this name peaks in this period.

Fanny is a nickname for Frances, which has been rendered unusable in more recent years due to its usage as slang for various parts of a person (depending on American and British usage) not really wanted as a first name. However, it was fairly common in Victorian and Regency times and at this point was more popular than Frances itself. To me, Fanny has several more notable bearers than Sarah - Fanny (Frances) Burney, 18th century diarist and novelist, Fanny Brawne - beloved of poet John Keats, Fanny Adams - murder victim in 1867 - middle of this period, which may have led to the name's decline, and Fanny Price, heroine of Jane Austen's 'Mansfield Park'.