How popular is the baby name Ann in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Ann.

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Popularity of the baby name Ann


Posts that mention the name Ann

Wisconsin family with 21 children

The Schoelzel family of Wisconsin (in 1949)
The Schoelzel family (in 1949)

During the second quarter of the 20th century, Rudolph August Schoelzel and Olivia Henrietta Schoelzel (née Gutenberger) of Colby, Wisconsin, welcomed 21 children — 10 girls and 11 boys.

Here are the names of all 21 siblings:

  1. Rudolph August, Jr. (born in 1925)
  2. DuWayne D. (b. 1926)
  3. Darlene D. (b. 1927)
  4. Doris Janet (b. 1928)
  5. Jerold Elroy (b. 1929)
  6. Lyle James (b. 1930)
  7. Beatrice Joyce (b. 1931)
  8. Darnell H. (b. 1932)
  9. Ione Mardell (b. 1933)
  10. Emerita Ella (b. 1934)
  11. Audris Ann (b. 1936)
  12. Ronald R. (b. 1937)
  13. Glen R. (b. 1938)
  14. James E. (b. 1939)
  15. Patricia Elayne (b. 1940)
  16. Arlyn August (b. 1941)
  17. Sandra, possibly Cassandra (b. circa 1942)
  18. Dennis Dale (b. 1945)
  19. Colleen Margarette Edna (b. 1946), nicknamed “Connie”
  20. Albert A. (b. 1947)
  21. Korliss Colette (b. 1948)

(The 21-child Schoelzel family was almost as big as the 22-child Schoville family, also of Wisconsin.)

More than half of the Schoelzel children are listed on the 1950 U.S. Census:

The Schoelzel family on the 1950 U.S. Census
The Schoelzel family (1950 U.S. Census)

Which of the above names do you like most?

P.S. Thank you to Destiny for letting me know about the Schoelzel family! (Destiny also told me about both the Jones family and the Miller family.)

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the Marshfield News-Herald (8 Nov. 1949)

Minnesota family with 22 children

kinderfest

In the mid-20th century, Alvin Joseph Miller and Lucille Rose Miller (née Kahnke) of Waseca, Minnesota, had 22 children — 15 girls and 7 boys.

Here are the names of all 22 siblings:

  1. Ramona Mary (born in 1940), who became a Franciscan nun
  2. Alvin Joseph, Jr. (b. 1942)
  3. Rose Ann (b. 1943)
  4. Kathleen Edith (b. 1945)
  5. Robert Vincent (b. 1946)
  6. Patricia Jean (b. 1947)
  7. Mary Lucille (b. 1948), nicknamed “Marylu”
  8. Diane Margaret (b. 1949)
  9. John Charles (b. 1950)
  10. Janet Irene (b. 1951)
  11. Linda Louise (b. 1953)
  12. Virginia Therese (b. 1954)
  13. Helen Rita (b. 1955), who wrote a book about growing up in a large family
  14. Arthur Lawrence (b. 1956)
  15. Dolores Maria (b. 1957)
  16. Martin Peter (b. 1959)
  17. Pauline Carmel (b. 1960)
  18. Alice Callista (b. 1961)
  19. Angela Mary (b. 1962)
  20. Marcia Marie (b. 1963)
  21. Gregory Eugene (b. 1964)
  22. Damien Francis (b. 1966)

Eight of the children had been born by April of 1950, when the Miller family was interviewed for the U.S. Census:

The Miller family on the 1950 U.S. Census
The Miller family (1950 U.S. Census)

Alvin and Lucille raised their children on a 300-acre farm that included a seven-bedroom farmhouse. Here’s how Diane (#8) described her childhood:

I remember a lot of rides in the wheelbarrow from the granary to the barn. I remember a lot of grinding feed, a lot of egg washing and packing, a lot of sitting by the wood stove in the basement, singing songs as we candled eggs.

Which of the names above do you like most?

P.S. Thank you to Destiny for letting me know about the Miller family a few months ago! (Destiny also told me about the Jones family of West Virginia.)

Sources:

Image: Ein Kinderfest (1868) by Ludwig Knaus

Baby born into Hogg family, named Ima

Texas philanthropist Ima Hogg (1882-1975)
Ima Hogg

Arts patron and philanthropist Ima Hogg was born in Mineola, Texas, in 1882.

Her parents were Sarah Ann Stinson and James Stephen Hogg — who became the attorney general of Texas in the late 1880s, then the first native-born governor of Texas in the early 1890s.

Ima’s birth occurred a couple of years after the death of Jim’s older brother, lawyer and writer Thomas Elisha Hogg. Tom had become Jim’s legal guardian (and father figure) in the mid-1860s.

In honor of his late brother, Jim Hogg decided to call his baby girl Ima, which was a name Tom had used for a female character in his Civil War poem The Fate of Marvin (1873). Here’s an excerpt:

A Southern girl, whose winsome grace
And kindly, gentle mien betrayed
A heart more beauteous than her face.
Ah! she was fair: the Southern skies
were typed in Ima’s heavenly eyes; …

(Notably, the poem featured two female characters. The second was Ima’s sister, Lelia.)

Ima Hogg, who had no middle name, later recalled: “Grandfather Stinson lived fifteen miles from Mineola and news traveled slowly. When he learned of his granddaughter’s name he came trotting to town as fast as he could to protest, but it was too late. The christening had taken place and Ima I was to remain.”

Throughout her life, Ima Hogg put a great deal of effort into downplaying her name. She had a “distinctive signature that rendered the first part [of her name] almost illegible,” for instance, and she used either “Miss Hogg” or “I. Hogg” on her personal stationery. Among acquaintances, she was known simply as “Miss Ima.”

In her early 90s, Miss Ima remarked to a friend, “You know, if I had been born in Scotland, my name would probably have been Imogene.”

Not long afterward, she began to call herself Imogene. The whimsical name change was a well-kept secret. Even some of the people closest to her never knew it, but her last passport was issued to Ima Imogene Hogg.

Ima Hogg passed away in 1975. Contrary to persistent rumors, she never had a sister named “Ura.” In fact, she never had any sisters at all — just three brothers: William Clifford, Michael Stephen, and Thomas Elisha. (William’s middle name honored his mother’s half-sister Clifford, who went by “Cliffie.”)

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Ima Hogg

West Virginia family with 17 children (16 consecutive sons!)

The Jones family of West Virginia (in 1942)
The Jones family (in 1942)

From the late 1910s to the mid-1940s, Grover Cleveland Jones and Annie Grace Jones (née Buckland) of Peterstown, West Virginia, welcomed 17 children — 16 boys in a row, followed by a single girl.

Here are the names of all 17 siblings, from oldest to youngest:

  1. William Pinkney (born in 1917)
  2. Robert D. (b. 1919)
  3. Richard Buckland (b. 1920)
  4. Thomas L. (b. 1921)
  5. John (b. 1923)
  6. Paul Leslie (b. 1924)
  7. Woodrow Wilson (b. 1925)
  8. Tad (b. 1928)
  9. Willard Wilson (b. 1929)
  10. Pete (b. 1930)
  11. Rufus B. (b. 1932)
  12. Grover Cleveland, Jr. (b. 1935)
  13. Buck (b. 1936)
  14. Franklin D. (b. 1938)
  15. Leslie H.
  16. Giles Monroe (b. 1942)
  17. Charlotte Ann (b. 1946)

The odds of having 16 babies of the same gender in a row are approximately 1 in 65,500.

After boy #15, the family became relatively famous. They were invited to the White House, for instance, and had lunch with Eleanor Roosevelt (“because President Roosevelt was at a war meeting”).

Surprisingly, though, this wasn’t the only thing the Jones family was known for.

In 1928, dad Grover and oldest son William (whose nickname was “Punch”) were pitching horseshoes in the yard when they came across an unusual diamond-like stone. They put it in a cigar box in the tool shed, where it stayed for the next 14 years — right through the Great Depression.

At the start of World War II, Punch got a job at a nearby army ammunition plant. Working with carbon (one of the components of gunpowder), he was reminded of the diamond-like stone (as diamonds are a crystalline form of carbon) and decided to send the stone to a geology professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute for analysis.

The professor concluded that the stone was indeed a diamond — a 34.46-carat blue-white diamond that happened to be the largest alluvial diamond ever discovered in North America.

In 1944, Punch sent the diamond to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where it was put on display near the Hope Diamond.

Sadly, Punch was killed in action in Germany the very next year.

The diamond was returned to Jones family in 1968. It was stored in a safe deposit box until 1984, when it was sold at auction for an undisclosed amount.

P.S. Thank you to Destiny for letting me know about the Jones family a few months ago! (Destiny also gave us an update on the Schwandt family of Michigan, which currently consists of 14 consecutive boys followed by a single girl.)

Sources:

Image: Clipping from the Detroit Times (27 Sept. 1942)