I’ve seen military names catch on as baby names during times of war, so I was curious to know if this had happened during the Civil War. The problem? The war ended in 1865, so all that easy-to-access SSA data, which only dates back to 1880, wouldn’t be of any help.
But census data would work. And economist Douglas Galbi has made things easy for me: he’s used 19th-century census data to come up with lists of popular given names, sorted by decade of birth. Talk about convenient.
Using only data from the 1880 census, I looked up the following Civil War-related names:
- Abraham & Lincoln – Abraham Lincoln was the leader of the Union
- Jefferson & Davis – Jefferson Davis was the leader of the Confederacy
- Ulysses & Grant – Ulysses S Grant commanded the Union Army at the end of the war
- Robert & Lee – Robert E. Lee commanded the Confederate Army at the end of the war
- William & Sherman – William T. Sherman was a Union general
- Elmer & Ellsworth – Elmer E. Ellsworth was an early Union casualty
Here’s what I found. An x indicates “fewer than ten.” Also, keep in mind that the number of births overall increased significantly from decade to decade — 20,862 the first decade, 36,188 the second, 48,000 the third and 64,041 the fourth.
| Name | 1841-50 | 1851-60 | 1861-70 | 1871-80 |
| Abraham: Lincoln: |
78 x |
89 11 |
105 35 |
83 x |
| Jefferson: Davis: |
24 10 |
26 12 |
74 25 |
38 x |
| Ulysses: Grant: |
x x |
x x |
15 94 |
10 43 |
| Robert: Lee: |
349 15 |
602 33 |
887 109 |
1,268 104 |
| William: Sherman: |
1,732 x |
3,114 x |
4,704 70 |
5,693 30 |
| Elmer: Ellsworth: |
x x |
24 x |
232 21 |
161 x |
So it seems as though the Civil War did indeed give certain names a boost.
I was most surprised by Elmer. Elmer E. Ellsworth, though not well-known nowadays, captured the nation’s attention in early days of the war. He was killed in mid-1861 while trying to confiscate a Confederate flag. Here’s how the NYT ended Ellsworth’s obituary:
He has been assassinated! His murder was fearfully and speedily revenged. He has lived a brief but an eventful, a public and an honorable life. His memory will be revered, his name respected, and long after the rebellion shall have become a matter of history, his death will be regarded as a martyrdom, and his name will be enrolled upon the list of our country’s patriots.
According to Wikipedia, Ellsworth’s death inspired thousands of men to enlist. His many namesakes include U.S. Commissioner of Education Elmer Ellsworth Brown (1861-1934), artist Elmer Ellsworth Garnsey (1862-1964), Minnesota legislator Elmer Ellsworth Adams (1861-1950), and pro baseball player Elmer Ellsworth “Mike” Smith (1868-1945).
Source: “Obituary; Col. Elmer E. Ellsworth.” New York Times 25 May 1861.
*
UPDATE, 6/15/15: Turns out that the data I used for this post isn’t so reliable after all. (See the comments here for specifics.)
So here are some new numbers — basically, search “hits” for these names on the 1880 Census (via FamilySearch) grouped by birth year. These aren’t perfect either, but I think they’re an improvement.
Let’s go backwards…
Elmer & Ellsworth:
| 1841-50 | 1851-60 | 1861-70 | 1871-80 | |
| Elmer: Ellsworth: |
767 55 |
2,686 128 |
21,464 2,516 |
16,848 878 |
And here are the year-by-year “hits” on Elmer specifically:
- 1856: 236 babies named Elmer
- 1857: 259 babies named Elmer
- 1858: 325 babies named Elmer
- 1859: 388 babies named Elmer
- 1860: 605 babies named Elmer
- 1861: 2,533 babies named Elmer
- 1862: 3,964 babies named Elmer
- 1863: 2,665 babies named Elmer
- 1864: 2,097 babies named Elmer
- 1865: 1,617 babies named Elmer
William & Sherman:
| 1841-50 | 1851-60 | 1861-70 | 1871-80 | |
| William: Sherman: |
203,072 305 |
313,786 523 |
413,820 7,864 |
451,502 3,151 |
Robert & Lee:
| 1841-50 | 1851-60 | 1861-70 | 1871-80 | |
| Robert: Lee: |
38,445 3,423 |
57,213 6,171 |
83,640 17,930 |
109,409 25,661 |
Ulysses & Grant:
| 1841-50 | 1851-60 | 1861-70 | 1871-80 | |
| Ulysses: Grant: |
49 209 |
63 324 |
2,003 11,819 |
811 5,309 |
Jefferson & Davis:
| 1841-50 | 1851-60 | 1861-70 | 1871-80 | |
| Jefferson: Davis: |
2,020 718 |
3,109 1,094 |
7,075 2,356 |
3,270 1,713 |
Abraham & Lincoln:
| 1841-50 | 1851-60 | 1861-70 | 1871-80 | |
| Abraham: Lincoln: |
4,411 74 |
5,071 663 |
7,951 4,292 |
5,482 620 |
If anyone has any tips on using the U.S. census to get relatively accurate data on first names (only), I’m all ears!