Message: "British name statistics"

British name statistics

by Jeff (guest)

11/10/2017, 6:52 AM

Although there are statistics for the frequency of American given names that go back as far as 1850, I can’t seem to find any such statistic for names in the UK that go back further than the late 90’s. I have found some data provided by ancestry.com, which stated the most popular names in the UK and Ireland which I found interesting, but it only gave the top 25 names for each gender. Does anyone have such statistics? Thanks!

The link to the ancestry.com data, if anyone wants it:

http://www.ancestry.fr/corporate/international/press-releases/Keeping-up-with-the-Joneses---John-and-Mary-since-1530#_ednref2Smith-officially-the-most-popular-names-

#British #popularity

Replies

- Rene +1

11/11/2017, 8:45 AM

You can get them e.g. from here:
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160106050636/http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/vsob1/baby-names--england-and-wales/1904-1994/index.html

I offer a subset of this data on my own website:
http://www.babynames.ch/Info/Series/psUkEnglandWalesDecades

- Jeff (guest)

11/14/2017, 5:00 PM

Thanks! Sorry for the late reply!

- clevelandkentevans +1

11/10/2017, 12:32 PM

I'm not sure if they exist on the web, but you can find lists of at least top 50s for much further back than the 1990s in the books by Leslie Dunkling ("The New American Dictionary of First Names", "First Names First", and multiple editions of "The Guinness Book of Names"). There are also lists from the 1538 on based on English parish baptismal records in George Redmonds' "Christian Names in Local and Family History" and Scott Smith-Bannister's "Names and Naming Patterns in England". Check your local library and if they don't have copies of these themselves ask them to get them for you through Interlibrary Loan.

- Jeff (guest)

11/14/2017, 4:59 PM

Thank you! Sorry for the late reply!

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