In 1957, Mrs. William Beston of Morristown, New Jersey, had gave birth to her twelfth daughter.
What are the odds of having 12 daughters and no sons? If the probability of having a girl is 1/2, then the probably of having a dozen girls in a row is 1/4096, or about .0244% — less than three-hundredths of a percent. Pretty slim, in other words.
What were the names of the Beston girls?
- (died in infancy)
- Patricia, 12
- Eileen, 11
- Regina, 9
- Carol, 8
- Joann, 7
- Gertrude, 6
- Delores, 5
- Betty Lou, 4
- Catherine, 3
- Levinia, 13 months
- Madonna Grace, newborn
Of the 11 names above, which is your favorite?
If you had a dozen daughters, what would their names be?
Sources:
- “It’s a Big Day for Bestons–Twelfth Daughter Joins Family.” Spokane Daily Chronicle 16 Sep. 1957: 20.
- “Woman Gives Birth To 12th Daughter; Has No Sons.” Port Angeles Evening News 12 Sept. 1957: 4.
Image: Ein Kinderfest (1868) by Ludwig Knaus
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Gertrude is my favorite.
Regina is my favorite on her list.
I wrote down the first 12 names I thought of, and here they are in alphabetical order:
Audrey, Carly, Cordelia, Elena, Eliza, Georgia, Lindy, Louisa, Lydia, Marina, Ramona, and Regina. Jane also came to mind. I definitely have a naming style.
If I were doing boys (which I found much harder to come up with 12): Derek, Ezekiel, Franklin, Garrett, Jedidiah, Josiah, Luke, Malcolm, Peter, Philip, Walter, and Yuri. The naming style here is a little more subtle.
Betty Lou is too cute for me to resist, so I’m going to say that’s my favorite. If I had twelve girls, I think they’d be Cora, Phoebe, Edith, Helen, Agatha, Imogen, Jane, Annie, Maud, Penelope, Louisa, and Della. Twelve boys would be a lot easier for me to name than twelve girls.
On a random but kind of related note, my gg grandfather came from a family of ten: nine boys in a row and the youngest being the only girl. The odds of nine boys in a row are less than 1% too… Not as rare as twelve in a row though.
That’s a great question! My girls, from oldest to youngest:
Sophia, Maeve, Josephine, Marguerite, Olga, Aoife, Nadia, Jenny, Rachel, Hildegard, Sarah Ann, Marita.
My boys: Leo, Raphael, Benedict, Joseph, Vincent, Anthony, Nicodemus, Gabriel, Patrick, Malcolm, Blake, Finn
My favorite is Betty Lou, it so spunky :)
Off the top of my head, I would have;
Louisa
Clementine
Primrose
Felicity
Gwendolen
Beatrix
Anneliese
Florence
Emmeline
Lavinia
Veronica
Cecilia
Catherine is my favorite, so classic. If I named 12 girls they would be: Paige, Bronwyn, Meredith, Nina, Lauren Grace, Alexandra, Gwendolen, Audrey, Brynna, Maeve, Caroline, Eleanor. Wow! That was hard!
I think Delores is my favorite, but Betty Lou is a close second!
If I had twelve daughters… I would go insane. But I would hopefully have the sense to give them lovely names before hand. If I did, I would want to name them (alphabetically) Anaïs, Blanche, Cecily, Daphne, Esther, Genevivea (not sure on spelling), Heloise, Lenore, Noémie, Ophelia, Phillippa (Pippa), and Thérese.
I love this game & unisex names.. my pick is Joann
my 12 daughters = Alexcia, Alexandra, Athena, Aaliyah, Jennifer, Kyle, Kaylan, Kameron, Kacey, Fatima, Felicity & Grace< cause it would be by GOD's grace to see me through raising 12 girls,lol
12 sons= Andrew, Alec, Alexander, Bryce, Thomas, Marcel, Mark, Kyle, Kameron, Gerald, Josh, Robert
Alva, Berit, Georgina, Helena, Idony, Freja, Tova, Clara, Dahlia, Ramona, Vera, Annika.
Rune, Gregory, Lionel, Abram, Karl, Conrad, David, Eilif, Fredrick, Henning, Ivor, Raphael.
Beatrice, Nina, Annette, Lana, Mary (or maybe Marina), Sabine, Linda Lou, Corinne, Suzanna, Dolly (Dolores or Dahlia), Tess (Theresa) and Vera.
I would love to have a dozen daughters! But being pregnant is not something I enjoy!
What fun! Lately I have grown fond of Gertrude. When coming up with 12 girl names, my problem is a lot of the names I like are similar. For example, I just love Felicity and Cecily, but find them too similar for sisters. In fact I wonder if Felicity and Cecilia are even too similar for sisters, but maybe the pair would work for twins.
Another problem is I love names that are either really short and spunky old-fashioned or really long and feminista old-fashioned, making it hard to create 12 cohesive names that don’t come across as a disjointed set. Here goes:
1. Ione
2. Effie
3. Cecily
4. Alta
5. Vada
6. Tova
7. Louisa
8. Geraldine
9. Susanna nn Sukie
10. Martha
11. Polly
12. Flora
If I had 12 girls I would name them
Polly kayla
Racheal mirah
Mandy Diana
Lizzy ashley
April sarah
Angle
Cassy
If I had 12 Girls there First and Middle Names are
1. Roxanne Elizabeth
2. Cassandra Jean
3. Amber Rose
4. Kelly Sue
5. Brittany Ruth
6. Cynthia Ann
7. Pollyanna May
8. Sarah Diane
9. Margaret Fern
10. Josephine Ruby
11. Jenna Dawn
12. Allison Nicole
If I had 12 Boys There First and Middle Names are
1. Jonathon Carlton
2. Matthew Parker
3. Harold Raymond
4. Theodore Davis
5. Adam Lee
6. Zachary Duff
7. Colin Quinn
8. Nolan Victor
9. Spencer William
10. Joshua Joseph
11. Donald Martin
12. Oliver Bennett
1. Lucia Marie (Lucy)
2. Hope Ann
3. Cecily Jean
4. Virginia (Ginny)
5. Elizabeth (Lizzie)
6. Jude
7. Danielle (Dani)
8. Dee-Ane
9. Caroline
10. Naomi
11. Quinn
12. Ruthie
Boys
1. Simon Benji
2. Peter John
3. Timothy Patrick
4. Gary Michael (Mickey)
5. Andrew David (Drew)
6. Calvin Thomas
7. Gilbert Blythe
8. Fitzwiliiam
9. James
10. Luke
11. Leonard (Leo)
12. Thomas
Evelyn
Anna
Faye
Lavinia
Lydia
Felicity
Charlotte
Fern
Estelle
Bridget
Hillary
Jane
Charlotte
Adaline
Althea
Caroline
Susan
Mildred
Daniella
Magenta
Cora
Vara
Margaret
Zola
Regina is my favorite.
My 12 names would be:
Adelaide
Althea
Abigail
Amylia
Caroline
Elisabeth
Geneva
Iris
Juliet
Leatha
Meredith
Regina
I want 13 kids. If they were all girls, I’d name them:
1. Anika Brooklyn
2. Claire Destyni
3. Evelyn Fiona
4. Gina Hope
5. Isabelle Jade
6. Kailette Luna
7. Mandy Nichelle
8. Olive Prudence
9. Quinn Rylee
10. Serena Taylor
11. Ursula Virginia
12. Waverly Xena
13. Yvonne Zoe
If they were boys I’d name them
1. Allen Brock
2. Corran Dexter
3. Ethan Francis
4. Grant Hunter
5. Isaac James
6. Kaden Luke
7. Matthew Nolan
8. Oliver Parker
9. Quenten Rodney
10. Spencer Tyson
11. Ulysses Vincent
12. William Xavier
13. Yestin Zachary