Around the World :: United Kingdom

Introduction

Around the World will be a series of blog posts that highlight naming laws, popular names and name culture around the world. Today I start with my home; the UK.

Naming a child in the UK is relatively easier than many countries in the world. You choose a forename or forenames (which can be just about anything) and usually the surname is passed through the family through the males.  If your grandfather’s surname was Cooper, your father’s surname will be Cooper and your surname will be Cooper. However, if you are a woman, you will usually take the name of your husband on marriage and your baby will also have this name. This isn’t law though and with the rise of blended and separated families, parents are becoming creative with surnames. Some will use a double barrelled name, some will blend the surnames (eg. Mr Smith and Miss Wilson may become Mr and Mrs Smithson) and some will discard their history in favour of a completely new name.

What are the laws about names in this country?

A selection of laws about names in the UK (for more information visit this page) 

:: Names must include at least one forename and one surname and are not allowed to be impossible to pronounce or include numbers/symbols/punctuation marks except hyphens and apostrophes.

:: They cannot promote criminal activities, promote hatred, promote the use of controlled drugs or ridicule groups or government departments.

:: They cannot lead people to believe that you have a title, rank or academic award when you do not (eg. Sir, Lady, Professor)

:: There is a limit of 250 characters including spaces for forenames and 50 characters for surnames.

I think these are very sensible laws although some are a bit vague. What counts as impossible to pronounce? Many Irish names such as Saoirse or Ruadhri seem impossible but they would not be declined as a name because it would be seen as prejudiced against someone’s heritage.

What are the popular names in this country?

Through The Decades :: -IE Names

Inspiration :: Barrie (picture of a scene from Peter Pan by JM Barrie)

Introduction

The series of the 'Through the Decades' posts is going to look at trends of particular elements of names. This week I am starting with names ending with -ie; a popular ending usually associated with diminutives. 

Method

I looked at the top 100 names four years (eg. 1904, 1924) into each decade for each gender. The following list shows all the names ending in -ie from those years.

Analysis
Female Names :: 1900s-1930s
Apart from Marjorie, these names are the typical 'vintage' diminutives that are becoming popular again. This is easily demonstrated by Elsie who appears in the top 100 from 1904 to 1934 and reappears on the 2014 list. She started to be used as an independent name in the early 20th Century and it is often said that parents are starting to use diminutives as given names but I now feel like this is not exclusive to the 21st Century - there are many diminutives on the popularity charts here.

Female Names :: 1930s-1990s
Marie takes over from Marjorie to be the resident -ie name for this time period and there are not as many diminutives seen. Longer names such as Natalie, Valerie and Stephanie have replaced the two-syllable names from the early 20th Century.

Female Names :: 1990s-2010s
Another shift takes place towards two syllable diminutives again. There are not many repeats of diminutives but names of a similar feel like Mollie and Charlie which may have felt too informal or even too masculine (in the case of Charlie) to be written on a birth certificate previously.

Female Names :: The General Pattern
The sketch-style graph below shows the general pattern in the amount of -ie names in the top 100 for girls.

Male Names
Overall, there were less -ie names for boys. Over the first half of the 20th Century, there were one or two names in the top 100 for each decade; usually Bertie, Leslie or Barrie. In the 1970s, Jamie takes over as the longstanding -ie name for boys. As seen with the girls' names, 2004 was a turning point for -ie names. Many nicknames from earlier times are having a resurgence and are being used as given names.

Male Names :: The General Pattern

The sketch-style graph below shows the general pattern in the amount of -ie names in the top 100 for boys.

Conclusion
The general trends show a dip in popularity of -ie names in the middle of the 20th Century then a sudden rise in 2004. The same pattern is seen with the number of -ie names that are diminutives (eg. Many names in the 1940s-1980s were longer, complete forms of names such as Valerie and Sophie whereas names like Bertie and Katie are diminutives and seen in the early and more recent popularity charts.) It will be interesting to see how long this diminutive madness continues.