The registrar of Providence, Rhode Island, published a series of documents listing all “of the names of persons deceased, born and married in the city of Providence” during years 1866, 1867 and 1868. The series may have been longer, but these are the only documents I could find online.
I’ve finally finished creating a set of rankings using one of the documents — 1867. But before we get to the rankings, here are some stats:
- 1,547 babies were born in Providence in 1867, going by the number of babies listed in the document itself. According to the document’s introduction, though, the number is 1,625. Not sure what to make of this discrepancy.
- 1,431 of these babies (713 girls and 718 boys) had names that were registered with the government at the time of publication. The other 116 babies got blank spaces. Either their names hadn’t been registered yet, or they hadn’t been named yet, or perhaps they died young and never received a name.
- 254 unique names (141 girl names and 113 boy names) were shared among these 1,431 babies.
And now, on to the names…
Top 5
A quick look at the top 5 girl names and boy names in Providence in 1867:
| Top baby girl names | Top baby boy names |
| 1. Mary 2. Catherine 3. Ellen 4. Margaret 5. Sarah | 1. John 2. William 3. James 4. Charles 5. George |
All Girl Names
Notice how the #1 name, Mary, was bestowed three times as often as the #2 name, Catherine.
- Mary, 138 baby girls
- Catherine, 46
- Ellen, 37
- Margaret, 34
- Sarah, 31
- Annie, 19
- Elizabeth, 16
- Alice, 15
- Florence, 14
- Ann, Emma & Ida, 12 each (3-way tie)
- Minnie, 11
- Harriet & Julia, 9 each (2-way tie)
- Anna, Caroline, Carrie, Jennie, Joanna & Louisa, 8 each (6-way tie)
- Cora & Eliza, 7 each (2-way tie)
- Agnes, Clara, Edith, Rosanna & Theresa, 6 each (5-way tie)
- Bertha, Grace, Hannah, Hattie, Jane, Lillian, Maria, Martha, Nellie & Susan, 5 each (10-way tie)
- Eleanor, Fannie, Gertrude, Helen, Isabella, Lucy & Rosa, 4 each (7-way tie)
- Anne, Bridget, Ella, Emily, Esther, Eva, Lizzie, Mabel, Matilda & Ruth, 3 each (10-way tie)
- Ada, Amelia, Charlotte, Dora, Eleanora, Elvira, Henrietta, Jessie, Josephine, Kate, Louise, Lydia, Maggie & Rosella, 2 each (14-way tie)
- Abby, Addie, Adelaide, Adelia, Almina, Almira, Amanda, Amey, Amy, Anastasia, Angelie, Annis, Antoinette, Augusta, Aurelia, Bethiah, Cecelia, Celia, Clarissa, Clementina, Corielynn, Cornelia, Drusilla, Effie, Emeline, Estella, Ethelin, Fanny, Florentina, Frances, Gelie, Genevieve, Georgiana, Georgianna, Helena, Honora, Irene, Isabel, Issie, Juliann, Julietta, Katie, Laura, Leah, Leonora, Lillie, Lillis, Lily, Lottie, Luella, Margaretta, Margery, Margret, Marietta, Maude, May, Millie, Myra, Nelly, Phebe, Robie, Rosalthe, Rose, Selina, Sophia, Susanna, Susannah, Vienna, Viola, Vira, Virginia & Winifred, 1 each (72-way tie)
All Boy Names
- John, 87 baby boys
- William, 75
- James, 64
- Charles, 50
- George, 45
- Thomas, 40
- Joseph, 30
- Walter, 21
- Edward, 16
- Francis & Michael, 14 each (2-way tie)
- Patrick, 13
- Arthur & Robert, 12 each (2-way tie)
- Frank, Frederick & Henry, 11 each (3-way tie)
- Albert, 9
- Daniel & Peter, 8 each (2-way tie)
- David, Eugene, Howard & Samuel, 6 each (4-way tie)
- Alexander, Louis & Stephen, 5 each (3-way tie)
- Harry, Herbert, Hugh & Martin, 4 each (4-way tie)
- Carl, Edgar, Everett, Jeremiah & Willie, 3 each (5-way tie)
- Abraham, Alfred, Clarence, Cornelius, Dennis, Ernest, Ezra, Franklin, Freddie, Jacob, Jesse, Lewis, Luke, Nicholas, Philip, Sylvester, Theodore, Timothy, 2 each (18-way tie)
- Abner, Adam, Adolph, Amos, Andrew, Appleton, Archibald, Ashel, August, Benjamin, Benno, Bernard, Bertram, Burt, Byron, Clifford, Davis, Dexter, Dunlap, Edmund, Edwin, Elmer,* Embert, Forrest, Freddy, Gustav, Herman, Isaac, Jeffrey, Jerome, Josiah, Lucian, Malcolm, Matthew, Maurice, Milton, Nathan, Nehemiah, Nelson, Oren, Oscar, Otto, Owen, Paul, Ralph, Reginald, Richard, Sanford, Seth, Shirley, Sullivan, Terence, Theobald, Victor, Wanton, Warren, Weston, Wheelan, Wilford, 1 each (59-way tie)
*Elmer, who had the middle initial “E.,” was likely named after early Civil War casualty Elmer E. Ellsworth.
Twins & Triplets
Twenty-one sets of twins and two sets of triplets were born in Providence in 1867. (All of these names were accounted for above — I just thought it’d be fun to check out the sibsets.)
| Girl-girl twins | Girl-boy twins | Boy-boy twins | Triplets |
| Annie & Fannie Annie & Mary Ann & Ellen Jennie & Minnie Margaret & Martha (blank) & (blank) | Ann & Maurice Grace & George Harriet & Albert Ida & Ashel Mary & James | Abraham & George Charles & George Charles & John Daniel & David Dunlap & Frank Eugene & Timothy George & John George & William James & John John & Martin | Carl, (blank) & (blank) James, Alexander & Sarah |
I’ll post Providence’s 1866 and 1868 rankings as soon I get them done. Until then, here are two older posts featuring uniquely named Rhode Islanders: Aldaberontophoscophornia (b. 1812) and Idawalley (b. 1842).
Sources:
- Snow, Edwin M. Alphabetical Lists of the Names of Persons Deceased, Born and Married in the City of Providence. Number two. Providence: Hammond, Angell & Co., 1868.
- Dr. Edwin M. Snow – Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame
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