Long-Term Trends in Personal Given Name Frequencies in the UK
Douglas A. Galbi
Senior Economist
Federal Communications Commission[1]
July 20, 2002
Abstract
The frequency distribution of personal given names offers important evidence about the information economy. This paper presents data on the popularity of the most frequent personal given names (first names) in the UK over the past millennium. The popularity of a name is its frequency relative to the total name instances sampled. The data show that the popularity distribution of names, like the popularity of other symbols and artifacts associated with the information economy, can be helpfully viewed as a power law. Moreover, the data on name popularity suggest that historically distinctive changes in the information economy occurred in conjunction with the Industrial Revolution.
The frequency of personal given names provides important historical evidence about the information economy. The information economy consists of the production and use of symbols. Names are an important type of symbol. Choosing a "good name" for a person involves assessing the social valuation of a name. The frequency distribution of names thus provides evidence about the social valuation of different symbols. The frequency distribution of names also indicates the number of persons who share the experience of being called by the same symbol in the course of their daily lives. More abstractly, the frequency distribution of personal names, graphed as the logarithm of name popularity against the logarithm of name popularity rank, looks similar to other frequency or popularity distributions where persons and organizations are free to create and choose among many collections of symbols instantiated and used in a similar way. Thus naming appears to be representative of more general patterns of behavior in the information economy.
This paper shows that, since early in the nineteenth century, the frequency distribution of personal given names in the UK has evolved differently than it did over the previous eight centuries. Simple indicators of this change are the trend in the popularity (frequency relative to the total number of names in the sample) of the most frequent names. The popularity of the most frequent name, the three most frequent names, and the ten most frequent names show no trend from circa 1300 to 1800. Since then all these measures have dropped dramatically. This latter development reflects a "flattening" in the name frequency distribution, viewed as a graph of the logarithm of name popularity against the logarithm of name popularity rank. This change in the evolution of the name frequency distribution early in the nineteenth century may indicate a more general change in the information economy about that time.
I. Popularity of the Most Frequent Personal Given Names
This section provides data on the popularity of the most frequency personal given names in the UK over the past millennium. Measuring name frequencies in actual samples requires attention to name definition and standardization. Given names can include multiple names and name variants, as well as abbreviations, non-standard spellings, and mistakes in recording (e.g.William, Bill, Wm., and Williamus). Unlike sampling variability, coding variability does not fall with sample size. Throughout the analysis in this paper, names have been truncated to the shorter of either the first eight letters of the given name or the letters preceding the first period, space, hyphen, or other non-alphabetic character (e.g. Wm. and Williamus would be truncated to Wm and William, respectively). These shortened names have then been standardized through a name coding available on the Internet for public inspection, use, and improvement on an open source basis (e.g. Bill is standardized to William).[2] This procedure attempts to identify feasibly and consistently names with common communicative properties.[3] Experience with different name samples suggests that this procedure can reduce coding variability to less that half a percentage point for the popularity of a single name and less than three percentage points for total popularity of the top ten names (Galbi 2001, Sec. I.B. and Appendix B).
Over the past two hundred years, the popularity of the most frequent personal given names in the UK has steadily declined. Table 1 shows popularity statistics for the most frequent names. The data in this table come from Census records, birth records, and doctor registrations, collected from different sources documented in detail in Galbi (2001). In the UK from 1800 to 1994, the popularity of the most frequent female and male names fell from 23.9% and 21.5% to 3.4% and 4.2%, respectively. The popularity of the ten most frequent names for females and males fell from 82.0% and 84.7% to 23.8% and 28.4%, respectively.
Table 1
Popularity of UK Personal Given Names: 1800 to 1994
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Females |
Males |
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Birth |
Top Name |
Top 3 |
Top 10 |
Top Name |
Top 3 |
Top 10 |
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|
Year |
Name |
Pop. |
Pop. |
Pop. |
Name |
Pop. |
Pop. |
Pop. |
|
1800 |
Mary |
23.9% |
53.2% |
82.0% |
John |
21.5% |
51.5% |
84.7% |
|
1810 |
Mary |
22.2% |
50.7% |
79.4% |
John |
19.0% |
47.0% |
81.4% |
|
1820 |
Mary |
20.4% |
47.7% |
76.5% |
John |
17.8% |
44.9% |
80.4% |
|
1830 |
Mary |
19.6% |
45.4% |
75.8% |
John |
16.4% |
42.3% |
78.2% |
|
1840 |
Mary |
18.7% |
43.2% |
75.0% |
William |
15.4% |
40.3% |
76.0% |
|
1850 |
Mary |
18.0% |
41.0% |
72.1% |
William |
15.2% |
38.7% |
73.8% |
|
1860 |
Mary |
16.3% |
37.0% |
68.3% |
William |
14.5% |
36.2% |
69.8% |
|
1870 |
Mary |
13.3% |
31.5% |
61.1% |
William |
13.1% |
31.7% |
63.5% |
|
1880 |
Mary |
10.6% |
25.4% |
53.8% |
William |
11.7% |
28.5% |
58.9% |
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1900 |
Elizabet |
7.2% |
16.2% |
38.5% |
William |
9.0% |
22.9% |
50.9% |
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1925 |
Mary |
6.7% |
16.8% |
38.7% |
John |
7.3% |
17.6% |
38.0% |
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1944 |
Margaret |
4.5% |
12.6% |
31.7% |
John |
8.3% |
20.7% |
39.9% |
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1954 |
Susan |
6.1% |
13.2% |
32.5% |
David |
6.3% |
17.4% |
37.8% |
|
1964 |
Susan |
3.6% |
10.3% |
28.6% |
Paul |
5.6% |
15.9% |
39.4% |
|
1974 |
Sarah |
4.9% |
12.3% |
28.0% |
Mark |
4.6% |
12.5% |
33.1% |
|
1984 |
Sarah |
4.1% |
11.0% |
27.3% |
James |
4.3% |
11.8% |
32.3% |
|
1994 |
Emily |
3.4% |
8.6% |
23.8% |
James |
4.2% |
11.0% |
28.4% |
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Note: Based on Galbi (2001), Table 3, p 15 and underlying data. See Appendix D of that paper for sources and details of analysis.. |
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Prior to the beginning of the nineteenth century, the popularity of the most frequent personal given names in England was higher and more stable. Tables 2 and 3 provide evidence on name popularity from late in the eleventh century through early in the nineteenth century. The data in Table 2 come from a wide variety of sources, with individual source numbers given after the location (e.g. " 1)" and keyed to a list of sources in Galbi (2001). The data in Table 3 comes from parish records, with the set of parishes represented changing over time. From 1300 to 1800, popularities of 20%, 50%, and 80% seem to be roughly representative figures for the top name, top three names, and top ten names for both females and males. As Table 1 shows, the corresponding figures for the late twentieth century are much lower – about 4%, 10%, and 25%. It is important to recognize that, while top name popularities show no overall trend from 1300 to 1800, the names that made up the most popular names did change. The causes of changes in individual names is an empirical issue left for other scholars.
Table 2
Popularity of Personal Given Names in England before 1825
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Females |
Males |
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Year, Location |
Top Name |
Pop. |
Top 3 Pop. |
Top 10 Pop. |
Sample Size |
Top Name |
Pop. |
Top 3 Pop. |
Top 10 Pop. |
Sample Size |
|
1080, Winchester 1) |
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Robert |
6.6% |
18.0% |
35% |
228 |
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1120, Winchester 1) |
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|
William |
6.6% |
15.8% |
30% |
912 |
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1180, Winchester 1) |
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William |
10.2% |
29.2% |
57% |
383 |
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1200, Essex 2) |
Alice |
11.3% |
27.4% |
56% |
c. 1400 |
William |
12.4% |
30.5% |
61% |
c. 4000 |
|
1210, South 3) |
Matilda |
16.2% |
39.9% |
70% |
173 |
William |
14.4% |
32.7% |
65% |
877 |
|
1270, Rutland 4) |
Alice |
19.4% |
51.0% |
84% |
206 |
William |
15.2% |
35.6% |
76% |
1627 |
|
1300, Lincoln 5) |
Alice |
17.1% |
42.4% |
75% |
1213 |
John |
22.7% |
52.2% |
79% |
9390 |
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1260, London 6) |
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John |
17.6% |
39.7% |
69% |
814 |
|
1290, London 6) |
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|
John |
23.3% |
44.8% |
73% |
1852 |
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1510, London 7) |
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|
John |
24.4% |
49.4% |
74% |
427 |
|
1610, London 7) |
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|
John |
21.0% |
43.8% |
72% |
463 |
|
1825, London 8) |
Mary |
19.2% |
43.9% |
73% |
63809 |
William |
16.3% |
39.2% |
80% |
48275 |
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