Thursday, July 30, 2015

Mind Your Qs

I've already done name lists of the least common vowels (U, O, & I), so now it's time for the least common consonants. No surprise--it's Q (second only to U overall).
Quinn is the sole Q-name in the girls' Top 1000, and it also ranks for boys, along with Quentin, Quinten, Quintin, & Quincy.

Q is also the least common ending letter, so let's do those, too. :)

Boys:
  • Faruq (fah-ROOK, Arabic)--"one who can tell right from wrong". Also transliterated as Farooq.
  • Khaliq (KHAH-leek, Arabic)--"creator". One of the names of Allah.
  • Qadir (KAH-deer, Arabic)--"able". Another of the names of Allah.
  • Qais (kah-ees, Arabic)
  • Qasim (KAH-sim, Arabic)--"one who shares"
  • Quanah (KWAH-nah, Comanche)--"fragrant"
  • Quidel (kee-DEL, Spanish)--from Mapuche "torch"
  • Quillan (KWIL-lan, English)--from Irish patronymic, "holly"
  • Quim (KEEM, Catalan, Portuguese)--short form of Joaquim
  • Quintillus (KWIN-til-lus, Latin)--"little Quintus"
  • Quintus (KWIN-tus, Latin)--"fifth"
  • Qusay (koo-SYE, Arabic)--also transliterated as Qusai.
  • Rafiq (rah-FEEK, Arabic)--"friend"
  • Shafiq (shah-FEEK, Arabic)--"compassionate"
  • Tariq (TAH-rik, Arabic)--"one who knocks"
  • Tawfiq (taw-FEEK, Arabic)--"good luck"

Girls:
  • Qadira (kah-DEER-ah, Arabic)--feminine of Qadir
  • Qiana (kee-AH-nah, [American] English)--from the synthetic fabric
  • Quena (KWAY-nah, [archaic] English)--from Old English, "woman, queen"
  • Quenilda (kwen-IL-dah, [archaic] English)--from Old English, "queen-battle". Other forms include Quenell & Quenilla.
  • Queniva (KWAY-niv-ah, kwen-EE-vah, [archaic] English)--from Old English, "queen-gift"
  • Queralt (keh-RAHL, Catalan)--Marian name, from a Spanish mountain sanctuary
  • Quetzali (ket-SAH-lee, Spanish)--from Nahuatl, "feather". Also spelled Quetzalli.
  • Quezia (keh-ZEE-ah, Portuguese)--form of Keziah
  • Quintina (kwin-TEE-nah, Latin)--feminine of Quintin.
  • Quinturay (keen-too-RYE, Spanish)--from Mapuche, "seeking flowers"
  • Rahiq (rah-HEEK, Arabic)--"nectar"

Unisex:
  • Qamar (kah-MAHR, Arabic)--"moon"
  • Quinlan (KWIN-lan, English)--from Irish patronymic, "beautiful shape"

A great number of Inuit language names (Greenlandic, Inuktitut, etc) also seem to begin/end/contain Q, but verifying the accuracy of such names online, as well as pronunciation, has proven difficult. :(

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Southern Names

I often see on forums posts about "Southern names". Admittedly, the closest I've ever been to The South is a layover in Houston, but I really have no idea what a "Southern name" is.
Being a dork, of course I set out to discover that statistically.

I combined the lists of 14 states of "The South" (yes, I know, what's in the South is up for debate. For your interest: AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV), and pulled out which names are proportionally more common in The South. The results were surprising.

The most "Southern" names in the Southern states' Top 1000:
Boys:
  1. Alexandre
  2. Jamarcus
  3. Jamarion
  4. Cason
  5. Braylen
  6. Tylan
  7. Demarcus
  8. Braylon
  9. Lawson
  10. Zaylen
  11. Kason
  12. Brentley
  13. Kylan
  14. Courtney
  15. Judson
  16. Hayes
  17. Coleman
  18. Braylin
  19. Chandler
  20. Cayson

Girls:
  1. Romina
  2. Mariajose
  3. Landry
  4. Gentry
  5. Eiza
  6. Renata
  7. Nahomi
  8. Vianney
  9. Aracely
  10. Martina
  11. Ariadna
  12. Angelie
  13. Regina
  14. Jaqueline
  15. Sterling
  16. Adamaris
  17. Arleth
  18. Azul
  19. Geraldine
  20. Ivanna

And to narrow down a bit further, from the states' Top 500:
Boys:
  1. Cason
  2. Braylen
  3. Braylon
  4. Lawson
  5. Kason
  6. Brentley
  7. Kylan
  8. Hayes
  9. Chandler
  10. Cayson
  11. Case
  12. Princeton
  13. Raylan
  14. Cannon
  15. Channing
  16. Jamari
  17. Bryson
  18. Jayceon
  19. Karson
  20. Joe

Girls:
  1. Romina
  2. Landry
  3. Renata
  4. Regina
  5. Jaqueline
  6. Ivanna
  7. Aranza
  8. Araceli
  9. Ayleen
  10. America
  11. Fernanda
  12. Alisson
  13. Ariadne
  14. Violeta
  15. Ximena
  16. Arely
  17. Frida
  18. Galilea
  19. Paulina
  20. Montserrat


And even more narrowed down, from the states' Top 100:
Boys:
  1. Bryson
  2. Brantley
  3. Braxton
  4. Juan
  5. Ayden
  6. Kaiden
  7. Kayden
  8. Jose
  9. Jeremiah
  10. Jase
  11. Easton
  12. Bentley
  13. Grayson
  14. Josiah
  15. Carson
  16. Christian
  17. Christopher
  18. Levi
  19. Brayden
  20. Jordan

Girls:
  1. Regina
  2. Fernanda
  3. Ximena
  4. Alejandra
  5. Jimena
  6. Alondra
  7. Alessandra
  8. Carolina
  9. Aylin
  10. Daleyza
  11. Camila
  12. Melany
  13. Ana
  14. Angelique
  15. Kamila
  16. Valeria
  17. Nayeli
  18. Catalina
  19. Daniela
  20. Melanie
I'm pretty surprised at how much more Spanish-influenced the girls' list is! Crazy. (you can mostly blame Texas, as far as I can tell)
If you take out the names that are currently trending in Spanish-speaking countries from the girls' side, the list changes quite a bit:
(from the boys', just take Juan & Jose out, and tack Tristan & Joshua to the end)
  1. Alessandra
  2. Angelique
  3. Leslie
  4. Giselle
  5. Ashley
  6. Nicole
  7. Daniella
  8. Valerie
  9. Alison
  10. Amy
  11. Londyn
  12. Madeleine
  13. Vanessa
  14. Alina
  15. Juliette
  16. Camille
  17. Leilani
  18. Kayla
  19. Juliana
  20. Rose

Now, I noticed an interesting phenomenon when I looked at the bottom of the lists, the least Southern names--lots of boys' names ending in -o! Nico, Rocco, Theo, Arlo, Milo, Leo. And for the girls', quite a few word-names: Luna, Ruby, Melody, Daisy, Jade, Hazel, Iris.
What's the opposite of Southern? Hipster? ;)

And in case you wanted any more trivia, the Southern Top 10, and the national SSA lists for comparison:


Southern
National
1.
Noah
Noah
2.
William
Liam
3.
Mason
Mason
4.
Liam
Jacob
5.
Jacob
William
6.
Elijah
Ethan
7.
James
Michael
8.
Ethan
Alexander
9.
Michael
James
10.
Aiden
Daniel












Southern
National
1.
Camila
Emma
2.
Melanie
Olivia
3.
Ximena
Sophia
4.
Ashley
Isabella
5.
Emma
Ava
6.
Olivia
Mia
7.
Sophia
Emily
8.
Ava
Abigail
9.
Natalia
Madison
10.
Abigail
Charlotte










And if you want to see the whole Southern Top 1000, it is here, on Google Sheets. :)

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Anders & Andras

I like the -anders. Alexander is the most wide-spread, of course, and name-nerds can probably name a few others--Evander, Leander, Lysander. Most have a place in Greek mythology & legend--ander is the Anglicized form of andros "man", usually feminized as -andra.
Let's see if we can find some more fun names....

  • Agesander/Agesandra--"leader of men". Also transliterated as Hagesander
  • Alcander/Alcandra--poss. "strong man"
  • Alexander/Alexandra--"defender of man"
  • Amynander/Amynandra--"defender of man"
  • Anaxander/Anaxandra--prob. "ruler of men"
  • Archander/Archandra--"highest man"
  • Aresander/Aresandra--prob. "favorable man"
  • Aristander/Aristandra--"best of men"
  • Cassander/Cassandra--poss. "shines upon man", "plots against man", or "tester of men"
  • Charisander/Charisandra--"beauty of man" or "grace of man"
  • Cleander/Cleandra--"glory of man"
  • Dexander/Dexandra--prob. "courteous man"
  • Eteander/Eteandra--poss. "true man"
  • Ethelander/Ethelandra--poss. "willful man"
  • Evander/Evandra--"good man"
  • Isander/Isandra--poss. "equality of man" or "fair man"
  • Kleitander/Kleitandra--"famous man"
  • Kratander/Kratandra--"power of men"
  • Leander/Leandra--"lion man"
  • Lycander/Lycandra--prob. "wolf man" or "light of man"
  • Lysander/Lysandra--"release of man"
  • Melesander/Melesandra--prob. "care of man" or "study of man"
    [no, the resemblance to 'Melisandre' is not lost on me!]
  • Menander/Menandra--prob. "patient man" or "might of man"
  • Nicander/Nicandra--"victory of man"
  • Onasander/Onasandra--prob. "prosperity of man" or "help of man"
  • Ophelander/Ophelandra--"helping man"
  • Peisander/Peisandra--poss. "persuading men"
  • Periander/Periandra--prob. "among men" or "beyond men"
  • Philander/Philandra--"love of man"
    [is 'philanderer' still a word people use? Hmmm....]
  • Poemander/Poemandra--poss. "shepherd of men"
  • Praxander/Praxandra--"practice of man"
  • Proander/Proandra--"before man"
  • Pyrander/Pyrandra--"fire of man"
  • Sosander/Sosandra--prob. "secure man"
  • Stasander/Stasandra--prob. "standing man" or "stable man"
  • Telesander/Telesandra--prob. "accomplishment of man"
  • Terpander/Terpandra--"delight of man"
  • Thrasyander/Thrasyandra--"bold man"
  • Thersander/Thersandra--prob. "brave man"
  • Timander/Timandra--prob. "honored man"
  • Tisander/Tisandra--"vengeance of man"
  • Tychander/Tychandra--"lucky man"
  • Xenander/Xenandra--"foreign man"

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Names and Letters

What was that? You want more statistics? Well, okay! :D
(yes, I realize you probably don't, but I find it fascinating, and I'm sure someone else might)

The most common starting letter for boys' names in the U.S. is J, with 13.5% of boys getting names that start with J. The most common ending letter is probably no surprise--N, with 33% of boys getting names that end with N.
Starts      Endings
1. J: 13.5% N: 32.9%
2. A: 9.5% R: 8.7%
3. C: 7.8% E: 6.5%: 
4. M: 6.5% S: 6.3%
5. L: 6.0% L: 6.2%

As for girls, A easily beats out all other letters for as both a starting and ending letter, although not by as wide a margin as I expected for endings.
Starts Endings
1. A: 16.8% A: 33.8%
2. M: 8.6% E: 16.9%
3. E: 7.3% N: 12.1%
4. S: 6.7% Y: 10.8%
5. K: 6.4% H: 6.3%

H? That seems weird, doesn't it? Most of the -h names turn out to be -ah, with -th being a distant second.
What's interesting to me is how much more diverse boys' names are, particularly with ending letters (once you get past that ubiquitous -n, of course). The top 5 ending letters make up 80% of girls' names, but only 60% of boys. You'd think the fact that -e endings are (mainly) split up between -ie, -ne, & -le for girls and -se, -ce & -ke for boys would help, except that -ie blends with -y, -ne with -n, and -se/ce with -s
The least common letters are what you'd expect, really, with U being the least common start and Q the least common ending for both genders.
Exactly which letters are most common in standard English words differs slightly by source, but J & K are pretty uncommon as starting letters no matter the counting method or analyzed materials. Interesting that both are among the most common for American names.

A few interesting points:
  • By far, girls' names end in A more often than boys--about 25x more often! And the -h names don't help either--they're a bit more common for girls as well. 
  • Boys' have so much more diversity with name endings! A, E, Y, I, & H are more common as ending letters in girls' names, but everything else is more common for boys.
  • The girls may have the -as, but there are several letters that are incredibly more common as boys' enders--K (58x more common for boys), B (52x more common for boys), P (41x more common), O (36x more common, and the few -ot, -ow, -owe, & -oh girls' names don't add all that much), C (16x more common), F (16x more common), D (14x), & M (11x)...and that's just the ones that are 10x or more! Sheesh.
  • Oddly enough, the starting letter most disproportionately common on girls is V--it's about 3x more common for girls than for boys. S & A names are about 2x for common for girls as well. 
  • As for starting letters for boys, they got W (6x more common for boys) and U (4x more common for boys), J & D (3x more common), as well as X & T (2x more common). 
  • Surprisingly, there isn't too much difference between length of boys' & girls' names--both average at 6 letters. Girls are a bit more likely to have a longer name, but not significantly so: 6 letters ± 1.6 for girls, as opposed to 5.8 ± 1.6 for boys.