Alphabet Popularity

Inspiration :: Victor (painting by Victor Vasarely)

Names have popularity patterns; but their beginning and ending letters also have peaks and troughs. Here is a chart showing the letters that peaked in each decade.

Year	1st Letter	Last Letter
1880	e f g h l o w	e m a u
1890
1900	m	z
1910	v
1920	b	d s t
1930	r
1940	d p	p
1950	k s t	f g l k y
1960		c
1970	c j	w
1980		r q
1990	n	o b
2000	a	v j n x

Popular Beginnings

Below is a graph showing the year that each letter of the alphabet peaked as the first letter of a name. The letters without results are those that haven't really had a peak in popularity.

Names with Popular Beginnings

These names all have the popular initial for a year they were in the top 50. Eg. The letter V peaked in 1910 and this is also a year where Victor was in the top 50. 

1880

Elizabeth, Florence, Ellen, Emily, Eliza, Hannah, Gertrude, Harriet, Frances, Fanny, Eleanor, Esther, Grace, Louisa, Lily, Lillian, Laura, Emma.

George, Henry, Frederick, Ernest, Edward, Herbert, Harry, Frank, Fred, Francis, Edwin, Harold, Edgar, Horace, Hugh, Edmund, Lewis, Willie, Leonard, Walter, William.

1890

There were no letters that peaked during this decade.

1900

Mary, Margaret, Mabel, Marjorie, Muriel, Minnie, Maud.

Michael.

1910

Violet, Vera.

Victor.

1920

Beryl, Betty,

Bernard.

1930

Rita, Rosemary.

Ronald, Raymond, Roy, Richard, Reginald.

1940

Dorothy, Diane, Doreen, Patricia.

David, Peter, Derek, Paul, Patrick, Phillip.

1950

Susan, Sandra, Kathleen, Sheila, Karen, Shirley.

Stephen, Keith, Kevin, Steven, Thomas, Kenneth, Terence, Trevor, Timothy, Stuart.

1960

There were no letters that peaked for a first initial during this decade.

1970

Caroline, Jenna, Jessica, Catherine, Joanna, Clare, Joanne, Charlotte, Jennifer, Claire

Christopher, James, Jason, Jonathan, Craig, Carl, Colin, Justin, Christian.

1980

Jennifer

1990

Natasha, Nicole.

Nathan, Nicholas.

2000

Amy, Amelia, Abigail, Alice, Amber, Abbie, Aimee.

Alexander, Alfie, Adam, Aaron, Archie, Alex.

Popular Endings
Below is a graph showing the year that each letter of the alphabet peaked as the last letter of a name. The letters without results are those that haven't really had a peak in popularity.

Names with Popular Endings

These names all have the popular last letter for a year they were in the top 50. Eg. The letter A peaked in 1880 and this is also a year where Laura was in the top 50.

1880

Grace, Amelia, Nellie, Laura, Isabella, Maria, Bertha, Clara, Martha, Louisa, Eliza, Emma, Ada, Alice, Florence, Annie, Catherine, Gertrude, Kate, Rose, Beatrice, Minnie, Charlotte, Jessie, Caroline.

William, Tom, Willie, Bertie, Horace, George.

1890

There were no names in the top 50 with the peaked letter in this decade.

1900

There were no names in the top 50 with the peaked letter in this decade.

1910

There were no names in the top 50 with the peaked letter in this decade.

1920

Frances, Iris, Violet, Phyllis, Winifred, Gladys, Doris, Margaret.

Clifford, Herbert, Francis, Bernard, Douglas, Richard, Reginald, Donald, Raymond, Alfred, Harold, Leonard, Ernest, David, Dennis, Charles, Albert, Edward, Robert, Ronald, Thomas, James.

1930

There were no names in the top 50 with the peaked letter in this decade.

1940

Phillip

1950

Carol, Wendy, Shirley, Lesley, Mary.

Michael, Paul, Nigel, Neil, Jeffrey, Timothy, Patrick, Derek, Gary, Barry, Mark, Geoffrey, Anthony.

1960

There were no names in the top 50 with the peaked letter in this decade.

1970

Andrew, Matthew.

1980

Christopher, Peter, Alexander, Oliver.

1990

Jacob

2000 

Madison, Erin, Caitlin, Lauren, Megan.

Benjamin, Ethan, Dylan, Ryan, Ben, Cameron, Nathan, Owen, Kieran, Aaron, Brandon, Alex, Harrison.

Special Names

These are the names that had both a popular first letter and a popular last letter.

1880
Eliza, Florence, Gertrude, Louisa, Laura, Emma, Grace.
Horace, George, William.

1920
Bernard

1940
Phillip

1950
Shirley
Timothy

2000
Alex, Aaron.

From Surname to First Name :: B

You may want to read the first post in this series which looks at some undiscovered A surnames. Here it is.

Below are some surnames beginning with A that are already in usage as first names but are still quite unusual:

Below are some surname beginning with B that are very rare for first names:

Bade     

Origin: English

Meaning: Battle

Short and Strong but slightly reminiscent of a monk (probably because of the likeness to Bede)

Baena    

Origin: Spanish

Meaning: Habitation name

Sounds like a modern invention but with some strength behind it. Think Bernadette but without the negative connatations.

Baeza    

Origin: Spanish

Meaning: Habitation name

Fiery and daring but with the familiar two syllable, -a ending pattern.

Barrio    

Origin: Spanish

Meaning: Man who lives on the outskirts of town

A dated name (Barry) + a trendy O name = a new and improved surname name. Also the name of a font (which might be a nice occupational nod to a typographer or other designer)

Beatty   

Origin: Scottish and Northern Irish

Meaning: Short form of Bartholemew and an anglicised form of Biadhtach.

It might get confused with Betty or ‘beat’ but pronounced correctly (bee-ah-tee) it sounds pretty sweet.

Behenna  

Origin: Cornish

Meaning: Unknown

You’ve heard of Morwenna and Rowenna but Behenna will be new to many people. You could use the nickname Bea.

Bertolf    

Origin: German

Meaning: Famous wolf

What a name and what a meaning! An extremely brave choice but there is probably someone somewhere who is brave enough to use it.

Bracken   

Origin: Irish

Meaning: Speckled. Spotted.

Full of nature and adventure. Bracken might be a bit too ‘real’ for some people but with names like Fox, Wolf and Cedar coming into use, Bracken could become popular too.

Names that Dropped out of the Top 100

Inspiration :: Scott (the Scott Monument in Edinburgh)

It is inevitable that at some point popular names will drop out of the top 100. This post will have a look at some of the names that dropped out of the top 100 after 2004. This means that they had dropped below the 100 mark in 2014.

Girls' Names

Most of the girls’ names either peaked in the 60s, 70s, 80s or 90s.

60s Names that have dropped out of the top 100:

Rebecca

Aimee

Shannon

Melissa

Jennifer

Jodie

Georgina

Lara

70s Names that have dropped out of the top 100:

Alicia

Eve

Alisha

Nicole

Rachel

Natasha

80s Names that have dropped out of the top 100:

Lauren

Caitlin

Paige

Courtney

Tia

Madeleine

Alexandra

Morgan

Chelsea

90s Names that have dropped out of the top 100:

Madison

Keira

Libby

Jade

Kate

There are even some names that peaked after 1990 but have still dropped out of the top 100 like Kayleigh, Kiera, Charlie and Elise.

As you can see, many of the names on these lists sound dated and this is obviously why they have dropped into the top 1000. Some of the most noticeable drops are Jodie (to 920^th), Jade (to 558^th), Shannon (to 547^th), Morgan (to 527^th) and Kayleigh (to 481^st). I think these will become the most dated sounding names as they have peaked and dropped so quickly.

Names like Louise, Eloise, Naomi and Laura peaked before 1910 and are dropping more slowly down the popularity charts. They sound like classic names at the moment but I wonder if they will start to sound like ‘old-fashioned classics’ such as Mary and Ann soon.

Boys' Names

The boys’ names seem a lot more stable; they peaked in a range of decades and have not dropped as quickly as any of the girls’ names. Here is a list of these names in the order of how popular they are.

Evan (to 102^nd)

Joel

Patrick

Dominic

Billy

Nicholas

Aidan

Taylor

Jonathan (to 171^st)

Jordan

Tom

Declan

Sean

Josh

Scott (to 354^th)

These are the names that have made a significant drop in popularity but are still within the top 100.

So which names are going to drop out the top 100 before the next charts? It is quite hard to say for the boys' names because they are so unpredictable and the charts are slower moving. I think it will mainly be the names that are dropping the most seen in the above chart - Matthew, Lewis, Callum and Luke. For the girls' names, I am going to list the names still in the top 100 that peaked in the 60s, 70s or 80s as this is the pattern I am seeing - most girls' names have a predictable pattern of peaks and troughs.

Sibset Lines

Inspiration :: Olive (Olive Trees, Van Gogh)

It makes sense to think that the more children you have, the harder it is to choose a name. You use your absolute favourite for your first, your runner-up for you second and, by your third and fourth, you have run out of all of the names on your original list. But in my opinion, your second child is the most difficult.

I see sibsetting as the same process as drawing a straight line. You start with a dot (your first child’s name) This dot can be anywhere on the page (meaning the style of the name can be almost absolutely anything). Your second child is a second dot. This can also be anywhere on the page – but once you draw the line between the two dots, the direction of the sibset is pretty much determined. This is why the second child is the hardest – it determines your style. There is a little leeway with the next few children but it is hard to take a complete detour.

Imagine that the black space represents all the names in the world. The coloured circles represent different naming styles. Some overlap and some are closer together than other.

You start a sibset line by putting a dot where your first name of the sibset will go. You can imagine that this will fall into one or two of the style circles from the previous picture. Repeat but with the second name of the sibset and then join the dots.

I added another second child possibility to show how the second child can change the direction of the sibset.

And a third child cements the sibset style. You can imagine a Hannah, Talia and Mary but Talia stands out and doesn't quite fit the pretty but conservative style of Hannah and Mary. You can imagine Talia, Maya and Mary but Mary stands out just like Talia did in my previous example.

So how can you create different sibset lines? Let's pretend that Olive is your first child. You are unsure about naming your second because Olive was the 'perfect' name. You need to first analyse a name. Olive is a nature name, a food name, a vintage sounding name, an 'O' name and a tailored name. These are your categories - look at its historical period, popularity, phonology (sounds) and meaning. These will reveal the types of names you need to connect to Olive. This sounds very stereotypical - a floral sibset, a popular sibset and others. But the categories you use can be very personal - they can be certain feelings or colours.

In fact, the whole premise of sibset lines sound stereotypical. There are obviously exceptions and downsides to the model. But I think that lines are the main type of sibset - but there are others! In my next post in this series - I will look at sibset triangles.