Telegraph Names 2012 Word Clouds

I've compiled the names of all births announced in the Daily Telegraph in 2012. I should be able to post a more detailed analysis soon, but here are some Wordle word clouds to tide you over.

All first names - note the predominance of male names (Henry, William, Edward George etc.) compared with female names (only Florence matches the size of some of the male names). Possibly due to more male births announced in the Telegraph (I haven't crunched these numbers, but it was the case last time), possibly simply due to more variation in female names given.

 All female first names - here you can see the domination of Florence, and some names that are a little small on the previous word cloud - Matilda, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Beatrice, Isla, Willa etc.

 All male first names - lots of dominant names, very few in-between names (unlike the girls). I'd classify all the dominant names as strong, traditional names that wouldn't look out of place in a 1912 list, let alone 2012. With the exception of Harry, full names rather than nicknames dominate.This is different from the England and Wales top 10 for 2011, where nicknames are plentiful (Harry, Alfie, Charlie, Jack).

All the middle names - for girls, Elizabeth and Rose dominate. Florence - surely the Telegraph female name of 2012 - is not far behind. For males, James, John and William are again prominent. This word cloud is only for the first middle name - so for Alice Elizabeth Catherine then it notes Elizabeth but not Catherine.

The Victorian Smiths - how realistic?

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

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

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