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  • First name distribution

    Just on the off chance does anyone know a source of information relating to first name distribution?

    It strikes me that the number of first names 150 years ago was either much less than now or certainly then the most popular names (e.g. Charles, William, George) were more common.

    Any help gratefully received. Nigel

  • #2
    Hi there, in the wiki there is a bit about naming patterns that might help you..

    Comment


    • #3
      I don't think there is a site as such, the ones relating to surname distribution are a bit hit and miss as they tend to make a surname seem more common in an area than it often is.

      Naming patterns play a major part and in more recent times have been used less and less, a son named after the father, daughter after the mother, names of grandpaernts passed down etc. That can in part at least explain why a household often shows people with the same names and the extended family also share the names too (cousins being an example).

      The name of the reigning monarch (and other members of the royal family) have always been well used and to one degree or another names with religious connections (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John for example).
      http://www.flickr.com/photos/50125734@N06/

      Joseph Goulson 1701-1780
      My sledging hammer lies declined, my bellows too have lost their wind
      My fire's extinct, my forge decay'd, and in the dust my vice is laid

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      • #4
        Irish naming patterns mean I have a collection of Roberts in every generation. And Glen have you looked at the steel bonnets naming patterns, every man on the border had the same couple of names so the nick names, including mothers names were wonderful.

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        • #5
          I have an unbroken run of 11 generations of Thomas Greens, who all had brothers John, Daniel, Charles and Samuel, and sisters Amy, Jane and Sarah!

          I doub if geographical influences came into first names at all, ever - far more likely the traditional naming patterns with the odd flight of whimsy to indulge an adored wife, lol.

          OC

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          • #6
            Interesting stuff folks, thanks

            Looking at my small England only sample I note:

            Out of 64 men there arev only 29 unique names
            Out of 68 women there are 40.

            The need to maintain the name of first born sons and daughters is certainly more important for the sons and also pre-1900 birth. Almost none exist after 1900.

            William crops up 8 times and Mary 5 times.

            I note quite a bit of maintaining a maidenname as a middle name of grandsons.

            all interesting stuff. I'll delve on so if anyone comes across a uni study it would be interesting. I'm sure someone has done one.


            och does that mean they were obliged to keep producing until they had enough boys and girls? And are you still maintaining the tradition ;)

            Comment


            • #7
              Haaaaa, Nigele2 - unfortunately I have only daughters and there are no family names involved there - I was indulged in my flights of fancy, lol.

              I agree, there was only a small pool of first names pre 1900 and they were almost always part of the traditional naming pattern, with the odd suck-up to the Vicar/employer/kind next door neighbour thrown in to confuse.

              My tree consists almost entirely (pre 1900) of John, James, Thomas, Joseph, Charles, Daniel; Mary, Margaret, Ellen(eleanor) Amy, Ann.

              Three of my four GGMs are called Eleanor. 6 out of 8 GGGFs are called William.

              The only remotely unusual names in the six generations before 1900 are Theresa and Malcolm, and both of those names were old family names from previous generations anyway.

              OC

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              • #8
                I thought I was naming my children without any family names but David has cropped up so many times within the family that I am beginning to wonder! Not only that but grandaughter Natasha relates to Anastasia, same as OH's family name, and Grandson Daniel relates to Great Grandfather and a few others so is it in the genes like it or not?

                I will go with name patterns within family certainly up to 1900's. Beyond that, a mix of family names and new. I have a Francis in every single generation from 1633 to 1900. Richard appears in the 1600's and dies out, to re appear in the late 1900's! William goes right through from early 1700 to 1900. Elizabeth/Mary/John/Susannah/Anne from 1600's.

                Irish side: Patrick/Michael/John/Charles/ Thomas/Alice/Margaret/Mary/Briget

                Janet
                Last edited by Janet; 10-04-09, 14:13.

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                • #9
                  I think there can be some regional variation with first names, but not much. Jacob is popular in the north east and not so much in other areas.

                  Thomas and Sarah seem to be the major names in my tree though.

                  Remembering: Cuthbert Gregory 1889 - 1916, George Arnold Connelly 1886 - 1917, Thomas Lowe Davenport 1890 - 1917, Roland Davenport Farmer 1885 - 1916, William Davenport Sheffield 1879 - 1915, Cuthbert Gregory 1918 - 1944

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                  • #10
                    I seem to have quite a variety of christian names in my tree, then.
                    What surprises me is the variety of male names - I thought girls' names tended to be more outlandish.

                    Gt.x3 Grandparents (b. 1796 ~ 1835) (Only repeats are John, James, William, Mary, Sarah)

                    Michael, Mary, John, ?, Isaac, Dinah, Joseph, Mary, Louis*, Auguste*, Ludwig*, Johanne*, James, ?, Samuel, Martha, Zachariah, Mary, James, Mary, Joshua, Sarah, John, Hannah, William, Susannah, Sunderland, Amy, John, Sarah, William, Maria

                    Gt.x2 grandparents (b. 1827 ~ 1856) (Only repeats are Joseph, Mary, Martha)

                    James, Martha, Henry, Mary, Magnus*, Julie*, Joseph, Mary, Joseph, Martha, Thomas, Martha, James, Sarah, William, Caroline

                    (*=German, remainder are almost all from Yorkshire)
                    Yorkshire names: Brown, Weighell, Hudson, Hartley, Womersley, Laycock, Maude, Atkinson, Whittaker, Hammond, Hutton, Brook, Murgatroyd, Wright, Topham
                    Warwickshire name: Hart
                    German names: Peltz, Eichborn

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                    • #11
                      ALL, my direct ancestors found so far are from Yorkshire. Is it unusual for all family lines to be from one county? I have traced one line back to early 1500's, and others to 1600's and 1700's, some ancestors did move out of Yorkshire but not my direct line.

                      A common theme in my ancestry was using a surname as a middle name, often the mmn, however this isn't always the case, sometimes the middle surname has been a grandparent's name, and in some cases I've not established a family connection, could have been a neighbour's name or friend's name. For instance my gggrandfather's first name was Holland, this name doesn't relate to any ancestor!? Was he named after a friend, or maybe someone the family respected, alas, I may never know!

                      I too have names common to my family lines. One line obviously liked religious names, they were nonconformists and chose Joshua, Elias, Job, Sarah and Hannah.

                      Another line, from the 1700's, used Peter and Julia for the first born male/female child, these names carried on down the line until about 1900, other names common in this line were George, Richard, Elizabeth, Thomas and William.

                      I also have a line of Simon's, Thomas', Mary's, Ann/Hannah's, William's, George's, Rachel's and James'.

                      I transcribe for a website and have noticed a pattern for first names. Even the same county - villages in particular - do appear to have names common to one village, but not the village next to it, for example - Mahala.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        most of my lines have the same names.
                        all the women are called- anne, elizabeth, sarah, mary, jane or margaret.
                        the men favour- john, thomas, henry, richard, william and james.

                        i have more unusual names- josiah, farquhar, maior, traugott, sigismund.
                        and fanny, isabella, and christiana (though this is one that runs in the family)

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          This is my name distribution. As you can see it has most of the usual names. I do have one or two unusual ones though. These are Fleetwood (surname Codd) and Lancelot (two different branches - one in Somerset, one in Suffolk.


                          Mary 157
                          Elizabeth 122
                          Ann 110
                          Sarah 83
                          Hannah 43
                          Jane 36
                          Martha 34
                          Susannah 20
                          Margaret 18
                          Eliza 14



                          John 170
                          William 125
                          Thomas 91
                          George 72
                          Joseph 57
                          James 56
                          Robert 40
                          Richard 37
                          Henry 21
                          Samuel 20

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                          • #14
                            Sometimes you find intriguing first names and do wonder where they come from. I have a St. John (usually pronounced sengin) which occurs in every generation from the late 1600's and I am still working on trying to find the reason why. I have several theories but nothing tangible as yet, but I have actually found Sengeon as a name in the same family.

                            Another one that occurs but rarely in my family but equally intriguing is Jonas and I have just recently broken the brick wall on that one which is leading me down some very interesting paths, so one should look very carefully at some of these First Names as they can be very significant. The Susannah in my family is also stemming from another root back in the 1600's which appears in all generations to 1900.

                            Janet
                            Last edited by Janet; 11-04-09, 10:19.

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                            • #15
                              Susan

                              I suspect the popularity of a name like, say, Matilda, in a village, reflects the close relationship of all the families to each other, meaning they share common ancestors, rather than the random popularity of the name!

                              I have noticed this in my village families. Every family has an Amy, which is an old name linked with the Green family who were there for 400 years or more. Just about every family is related to or descended from the Green family, thus they all have an Amy!

                              I do believe you can use first names (with great caution!) to investigate possible relationships between families. This works best in small villages of course and would be utterly hopeless in a City.

                              In one particular village I am studying, four particular first names put me on the alert - Esther, Phoebe, Mally (a local dialect name for Molly/Mary) and Timothy, tell me the person so-named has descent from the main family in the village in the 1650s.

                              Investigation usually proves this theory correct, in a village which adhered to strict (local) naming patterns for over 300 years.

                              OC

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                              • #16
                                In the Irish naming patterns I've come across surnames as middle names denote family lines, for instance my father and his brothers all had their mothers maiden name included, but his sisters all had her mothers........

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                                • #17
                                  Hi OC,

                                  Mally is a name which crops up in my ancestry. They were from the Colne Valley, Yorkshire. Is this the area your Mallys' were from?

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                                  • #18
                                    Barbara

                                    Yes, surnames as middle names in my family either mean illegitimacy, lol, or ancestors surnames, in the pattern you have described.

                                    This is very noticeable (and convenient) in my Scottish line. All have elaborate surname-middle names and these ALL reflect an ancestor. This is a huge help when tracing marriages etc.

                                    The most astonishing one was a recently-deceased uncle with the middle name "Charles Smith". This didn't fit with any known ancestor and I shrugged it off as being a moment of madness on granny's part. So I was STUNNED to find that "Charles Smith" was my 7 x GGF, born in 1698. His name had not been used (as far as I know) since then, but my granny knew enough family history to resurrect the name in the 1930s! (Errr, so why did she always tell me she "didn't know anything" about her family, lol)

                                    OC

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                                    • #19
                                      Susan h

                                      No, this particular family were from Darwen in Lancs. But they did have previous Yorkshire connections when Lancashire was part of Yorkshire in the dim past.

                                      OC

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                                      • #20
                                        OC funnily my Irish lot are prods, (Ulster Scots) who all came over from apparently the west of Scotland.

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