My friend Arthur did this some time back, based on this TIME magazine article, which, not incidentally, is US-centric.
“The popularity of your name is likely far different today than it was the year you were born. Maybe you’re one of those men born in 1983 and named Michael, the most popular name of the year.
“Today, if you were given the most popular boy’s name, you’d be named Noah. The following interactive shows you which name had the same popularity in the past year and every decade since 1890 as yours did the year you were born, using [then] newly released baby name data for 2014.”
The premise is slightly misleading in that, early on, there was a paucity in the diversity of names. For boys, John and William were heavily used in the 1880s (89,951 and 84,881, respectively), well ahead of James (54,058). For girls, Mary (91,669) was even more dominant; Anna (38,159) and Emma (25,404) were far behind.
Still: “Roger” was the 31st most popular boy’s name in 1953. It was MOST popular in 1945, hitting its peak of #22, I dare say, because of World War II: “Roger that. Roger over and out.”
My name today would be Oliver, a name I associate with the TV show Green Acres, Charles Dickens, and Elvis Costello.
My 2000s name is Isaac, a good biblical name, son of Abraham (nearly sacrificed) and Sarah, and father of Jacob and Esau.
My 1990s name is Mark, my brother-in-law’s name, and the shortest of the Gospels in the Bible.
My 1980s name is Edward, my great uncle’s name on my maternal grandmother’s side.
My 1970s name is Terry. I knew a guy named Terry in the 1970s at college and worked with a woman named Terry in the 1990s.
My 1960s name is Alan. Not incidentally, the Social Security list does not combine spellings, such as Allan and Allen.
My 1950s name is Henry, the VIII, and Aldrich.
My 1940s name is Ernest, another great uncle’s name on my maternal grandmother’s side.
My 1930s name is Leonard, as in Bernstein, and Nimoy.
My 1920s name is Elmer, as in Bernstein, and Fudd.
My 1910s name is Eddie, as in the Renaissance Geek, though that’s not his given name.
My 1900s name is Alfred, as in Tennyson or Batman’s butler.
My 1890s name is Sam, promoter of Green Eggs and Ham, or the Sham.
“Name trends are provided by the Social Security Administration… This tool only searches for names of the same gender as what you entered at the top. Many names have drifted from being associated with boys to being associated with girls over the years, so it can appear as though female names are showing up in the male results.”
What a list …… in this year my name would be Emma… not that bad considering one of our queens was called by that name.
Have a nice day Roger.
That is really popularity.
According to the decades chart, my first name is #170 (and I always hated it when I was growing up because it was “different.” I wanted to be called Linda, which was #2.) But my middle name (Barbara) was #3…and now I don’t like THAT name! Lol If I were to choose my own name, I would be “Elizabeth Mary” and be called “Liz.” So there! LOL This was fun!
Leslie
abcw team
Roger, is indeed popular.
check out Will Roger elementary school.
oops,
there is indeed a will roger world airport too.
The year I was born my name was #18
Now it’s so far down on the chart I can’t even find it.
Susan or Suzan
Oh well, my name was never on any list. amd probably never will be, although it has wandered through the family and we now have four Hildreds. I have a fairly recent great grandson named Tanner and a lovely new great granddaughter named Olivia Lynn, which I love for the lilt in it.
Long as we have Rogers on the brain, let’s mention Rogers County, Oklahoma, which is generally believed to be named for state legend Will Rogers. It is actually named for Will Rogers’ father Clem Vann Rogers.
That is an interesting list. 🙂
Roger is popular!
Happy ABCW!
Nice read
‘Roger over and out’ seriously is that a reason for your name being popular? This is very interesting, though.
Very informative post for P ~ interesting to all I bet!
Happy Week to you,
artmusedog and carol
It seems for guys Biblical names are popular right now. One thing I know, mine has never been popular,which is a derivative of John – but I like it! Thanks for visiting me.
It’s interesting how names come and go. My late mother’s best friend’s eldest son is called Roger. He ties in with your popularity index on this side of the pond, think he was born in the late 1940s.
Coincidentally, I just saw some statistics about my name Margaret. It was quite popular in the early 1900’s but not so much now. And my nickname Margy (not pronounced like Margie) is even more rare. – Margy
Of course we have other names but it is very much in fashion to use very old names from the end 1800 ! Like Emma for example which was my grandma’s name !
Interesting! I’ve always been interested in learning the most popular names for each year.
I don’t know what happened to the comment I made yesterday Roger, but then my PC went down for a few hours, drat!
My name and middle name for the year I was born is numbers 19 and 20, in my primary school class there were 5 girls named Diane.
Pip Pip!
Di,
ABCW team.
That’s a fun gadget. Thanks for sharing. Today, I would be Ava and in the 1890’s, Ethel. The Husband says, “How la-di-dah.”