Friday, June 26, 2015

Middle Name Statistics

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Middle names are something we all like to talk about, but unfortunately, the Social Security Administration doesn't record middle names of babies, only first names. So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I saw that my high school graduation program included most peoples' middle names--this offered me a set of data. Now, my high school only graduated 736 people, and some don't have middle names, or didn't want it to be listed in the program. However, my area is extremely diverse--racially, socio-economically, and religiously--so the small set of data I do have is still worth anaylzing. So, here's the data for the most common middle names among the Class of 2015 ('96 and '97 babies).

 Girls
1. Marie (15)
2. Elizabeth (14) and Elisabeth (1)
3. Ann (4) and Anne (5)
4. Nicole (7) and Nykole (1)
5. Rose (8)
6. Grace (5)
7. Lee (2) and Leigh (3)
8. Jean (3) and Jeanne (1)
9. Louise (4)
10. Lynn (3) and Lynee (1)

Notable Trends
  • Alex- Names: Alexandra, Alexandria, Alexis (2)
  • An- Names: Analiese, Angelin, Anna, Ann (4), Anne (5), Annie
  • -Ay Names: Kay, May, Monet, Rae, (2), Shae
  • El- Names: Elaine, Elena, Elisabeth, Elizabeth (14), Ella, Eloise, Elvira
  • Esme Names: Esme (2), Esmeralda
  • Iman- Names: Iman (2), Imani
  • La- Names: Lanae (2), Lan'Yel, Larae, Lashae, Lashay, Latasha, Latefah, Latoya
  • Heritage Choices: Abu, Fatima, Fionnuala, Guadalupe, Inez, Keiko, Ondina, Roisin
  • Only two: Claire, Catherine/Katherine, Mary
Gems
  • Bartholomew
  • Bean
  • Beata
  • Chiffon
  • Elvira
  • Hopes
  • Houston
  • Love
  • Magaly
  • Saffia
  • Salome
Boys
1. James (10)
2. Edward (7)
3. William (7)
4. Charles (6)
5. Thomas (6)
6. Joseph (5)
7. Michael (4) and Micael (1)
8. Anthony (4)
9. David (4)
10. John (4)
11. Patrick (4)

Notable Trends
  • Al Names: Alan, Alexander (3), Allen
  • Ed- Names: Edmond, Eduardo, Edward (7), Edwin
  • Mark Names: Marcus, Markus (2)
  • Zach: Zachary (2), Zachery
  • Brit Picks: Basil, Edmond, George, Phillip (2), Sinclair, Tucker (2)
  • Heritage Choices: Angel, Azriel, Enahoro, Hong, Mitja, Sohail
  • Only two: Lee, Matthew, Peter, Robert
Gems
  • Aksel
  • Basil
  • Jewel
  • Kirby
  • Moss
  • Sinclair
  • Soliman
  • Winter
  • Wolfgang

*I'm taking next week off for the holiday. Sorry for the infrequent posting--this has been a busy summer for me!*
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4 comments:

  1. RenJune 26, 2015 at 5:18 PM

    I love this post! Maybe in the future the SSA will started including middle names. One can only hope right haha. I'm not really surprised by the top names. Thankfully I don't have a common middle name.

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    Replies
    1. SophieJune 26, 2015 at 8:11 PM

      Thanks Ren! I wasn't too surprised either. If the SSA included middle names, that might be the happiest day of my life ;)

      Delete
  2. AnonymousJune 28, 2015 at 9:09 PM

    This was so fascinating! Because of this post, this afternoon, I went and dug up a distant relative's college graduation program from last year... and oh, man! It was like a name smorgasbord! It took almost an hour to go through all the names! Love that they include the middle and that so many are from all sorts of international locales! AWESOME idea! Wish I'd thought of it a lo-o-o-o-o-ong time ago. Now I'm going to ask people to save their graduation programs for me... :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. SophieJune 29, 2015 at 1:39 PM

      Thanks! That's a great idea, I'm going to ask for people to save them for me too.

      Delete

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