How popular is the baby name Ann in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, check out all the blog posts that mention the name Ann.
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I’ve posted about sextuplets and octuplets before, but never septuplets!
A set of seven — four boys and three girls — was born in Des Moines, Iowa, to Kenny and Bobbi McCaughey on November 19, 1997. The McCaughey septuplets are the world’s first surviving set of septuplets.
What are the names of all seven? Here are their firsts and middles:
Kenneth Robert
Alexis May
Natalie Sue
Kelsey Ann
Nathan Roy
Brandon James
Joel Steven
The McCaugheys also have an older daughter named Mikayla Marie (b. 1996).
What are your thoughts on the names? If you were having a set of seven (same mix of genders), which names would you choose?
Years ago, I discovered three documents with relatively complete lists of births for the city of Providence, Rhode Island, for the years 1866, 1867, and 1868. I’ve already created Providence’s baby name rankings for 1866 and 1867 using the first two documents, and today (finally!) I’ve got the third set of rankings for you.
Let’s start with some stats:
1,762 babies were born in Providence in 1868, by my count. According to the introduction of the document I’m using a source, however, the total number is 1,866. I don’t know how to account for this discrepancy.
1,617 of these babies (791 girls and 826 boys) had names that were known at the time of publication. The other 145 babies got blank spaces. Either their names hadn’t been registered yet, or they hadn’t been named yet, or perhaps these babies died young and never received a name.
284 unique names (143 girl names and 141 boy names) were shared among these 1,617 babies.
And now, on to the names!
Top 5
A quick look at the top 5 girl names and boy names in Providence in 1868:
Top baby girl names
Top baby boy names
1. Mary 2. Catherine 3. Sarah 4. Ellen 5. Margaret
1. John 2. William 3. James 4. Charles 5. George
All Girl Names
Mary, 149 baby girls
Catherine, 39
Sarah, 38
Ellen, 31
Margaret, 28
Elizabeth, 25
Alice, 24
Anna, 20
Ann, 16
Emma, 14
Eliza, 13
Clara & Martha, 11 each (tie)
Hannah & Lucy, 10 each (tie)
Bridget, Grace, Jennie, Julia & Maria, 9 each (5-way tie)
Annie, Florence, Jane, Minnie & Susan, 8 each (5-way tie)
Agnes, Caroline, Cora, Ella & Harriet, 7 each (5-way tie)
Back when sea voyages were the only way to reach distant lands, many babies ended up being born aboard ships. And many of these ship-born babies were given names that reflected the circumstances of their birth. A good portion of them, for instance, were named after the ships upon which they were born.
I’ve gathered hundreds of these ship-inspired baby names over the years, and I think it’s finally time to post what I’ve found…
A
Abergeldie:
Emma Abergeldie Walsh, born in 1884
Abernyte:
Eva Abernyte Congdon, born in 1875
Abington:
Herbert Bealie Abington Tait, born in 1884
Abyssinia:
Abyssinia Louise Juhansen, born in 1870
Abyssinia Elfkin, born in 1872
Louise Abyssinia Bellanger, born in 1874
Achilles:
John Achilles Denchey, born in 1871
Actoea:
U. Actoea Jones, born in 1868
Adriatic:
John Adriatic Gateley Collins, born in 1879
Adriatic O’Loghlin Gould, born in 1880
Agnes Adriatic Cook, born in 1880
Agamemnon:
Frederick Agamemnon Dingly, born in 1876
Alaska:
Mary Alaska Magee, born in 1884
Alcester:
Gertrude Alcester Dart, born in 1884
Alcinous:
Mary Duncan Alcinosa Greenwood, born in 1887
Aldergrove:
Aldergrove Andrew Fullarton Feathers, born in 1875
Ethel Aldergrove Winning, born in 1883
Aleppo:
Rosalia Aleppo Rosenthal, born in 1866
Aleppo Atalanta Boardsen, born in 1883
Alexandrina:
Caroline Alexandrina Phillips, born in 1873
Mary Alexandrina Hedges, born in 1874
Alexandrina Horsnell, born in 1874
Algeria:
Louis Algeria Noizet, born in 1872
Aliquin:
Edward Aliquin Poley, born in 1860
Allanshaw:
Joseph Allanshaw Moss, born in 1883
Frederick Allanshaw Shields, born in 1883
Almora:
Almora May Leech, born in 1856
Emily Almora Hamper, born in 1883
Joseph Henry Almora Alford, born in 1883
Mary Almora Clothier, born in 1887
Almora Merten, born in 1887
Alnwick Castle:
William Alnwick Bull, born in 1861
Alpheta:
Mary Alpheta Stone, born in 1877
Alsatia:
Alsatia Campbell Carnalian, born in 1877
Altmore:
Eliza Altmore Harris, born in 1883
Alumbagh:
Alumbagh Eleanor Bright, born in 1868
Sarah Louise Alumbagh Hancock, born in 1868
Alvington:
Alvington Oak Silvester, born in 1879
Amoor:
William Amoor Walker, born in 1864
Anchoria:
Anchoria Adelaide Williams, born in 1890
Angerona:
Mary Angerona Harwood, born in 1875
Anglesey:
Clara Anglesey Oakley, born in 1859
Emma Jane Anglesey Conbrough, born in 1874
Anglia:
James Craig Anglia Watt, born in 1871
Emma Anglia Hewitt, born in 1873
Margaret Anglia Smith Mulholland, born in 1874
Anglo Saxon:
Mary Saxon Copeland, born in 1860
Antiope:
Lilias Antiope Carrick, born in 1884
Aorangi:
Arthur Aorangi Burrow, born in 1884
Aorangi Millar, born in 1885
Ellen Corbet Aorangi Browne, born in 1891
Aorangi Townsend, born in 1934
Arabic:
Isabella Arabic East, born in 1887
Arcadia:
Arcadia Herbert, born in 1877
Archer:
Archer Grainger Bryans, born in 1883
Beatrice Archer Shambers, born in 1885
Argo:
Sigri Argo Larsen, born in 1877
Arica:
Aricania Pereg, born in 1883
Arizona:
Helen Arizona Erickson, born in 1881
Sarah Arizona Duggan, born in 1881
Ole Arizona Melting, born in 1881
Agnes Arizona Kane, born in 1884
Elenor Arizona Poulteny, born in 1884
Elizabeth Arizona Harvey, born in 1887
Marie Arizona Malm, born in 1887
Arundel Castle:
Arundal Sheal Davis, born in 1870
Leopold Arundel Hofmeyer, born in 1876
George Arundel Baylis, born in 1876
Charles Arundel Holden, born in 1876
Arvonia:
Herbert John Arvon Hughes, born in 1881
Ashmore:
James Alfred George Henry Ashmore Curtis, born in 1882
He in turn gave his name to Medford, Minnesota, in the 1850s. His father, Englishman William K. Colling, was an early Minnesota settler who “said that he had a son who was born on board the ship Medford, and was named Medford, in honor of the ship, and proposed that the town should be named Medford in honor of the boy.”
As you can see, much of the usage was in the state of Michigan specifically.
What was the influence?
A set of quadruplets — Krystal, Kristine, Keith, and Kenneth — born to Kenneth and Ann Rosebush of Oakwood, Michigan, on January 10, 1951. They lived in hospital incubators for several weeks before being allowed to go home.
Photos of the K-named quads regularly appeared in the papers during the early 1950s.
It’s hard to tell whether they had any influence on the names Keith and Kenneth, which were already on the rise in the early 1950s, but it does look like the name Kristine (which was sometimes misspelled Kristene in the papers) was affected:
1953: 1247 baby girls named Kristine
113 (9.0%) in MI
1952: 1885 baby girls named Kristine
206 (10.9%) in MI
1951: 1755 baby girls named Kristine
186 (10.6%) in MI
1950: 1247 baby girls named Kristine
110 (8.8%) in MI
1949: 1174 baby girls named Kristine
94 (8.0%) in MI
The Rosebush family also included four older children, all girls, named Dorothy (Dottie), Jacquelyn, Barbara, and Joann.
The compound name Patsyann (Patsy Ann) was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data, making its single appearance during the 1930s:
1935: unlisted
1934: unlisted
1933: 7 baby girls named Patsyann [debut]
1932: unlisted
1931: unlisted
What put it there? I think the influence was the mystery tale Outrageous Fortune by British author Patricia Wentworth. The story was serialized in many U.S. newspapers in the autumn of 1933.
The mystery involved a shipwrecked man with amnesia. A woman named Nesta* claimed the man was her husband…but really she thought he might know the location of a certain priceless emerald necklace. In the meanwhile, the man’s cousin, a woman named Caroline, tracked him down and tried to help him recover his memory.
The protagonist was clearly Caroline, but Caroline’s roommate Patsy Ann “provide[d] an innocent diversion to the main story with her romantic life.”
In the UK the same year, Outrageous Fortune was published in book form, but under the title Seven Green Stones. Another difference between was Patsy Ann’s name: Pansy Ann in the UK. Perhaps the name had been changed from “Pansy” to “Patsy” for American readers because Patsy sounded trendier than Pansy in the U.S. at the time. The slang meaning of pansy, though relatively new in the ’30s, might have been a factor as well.
(If “Patsy Ann” sounds familiar to longtime readers, I blogged about Patsy Ann, the famous dog from Alaska, a couple of years ago.)
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