How popular is the baby name Esther 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 Esther.
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The country of Denmark, which is located in northern Europe and shares a border with only Germany, consists of two-thirds of the Jutland peninsula plus an archipelago of hundreds of islands.
Last year, Denmark welcomed 63,473 babies. The most popular names among these babies? Alma and Oscar.
Here are Denmark’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2021:
Girl Names
Alma, 482 baby girls
Ida, 474
Clara, 437
Ella, 436
Olivia, 428
Freja, 425
Emma, 420
Luna, 411
Agnes, 410
Nora, 398
Karla, 393 (tie)
Sofia, 393 (tie)
Anna, 387
Ellie, 370
Asta, 356 (tie)
Lily, 356 (tie)
Alberte, 353
Frida, 313
Josefine, 306
Laura, 299
Esther, 297
Ellen, 287
Astrid, 267
Isabella, 259
Saga, 245
Aya, 242 – Anglicized form of Aija.
Lærke, 237 – means “lark” in Danish.
Marie, 223
Liva, 220
Hannah, 219
Mathilde, 214
Maja, 213 (tie)
Vilma, 213 (tie)
Merle, 209
Victoria, 205
Mille, 199
Liv, 190
Emily, 189
Sofie, 183
Leonora, 178 (tie)
Molly, 178 (tie)
Lea, 176
Andrea, 175
Gry, 172 – (pronounced groo, roughly) means “dawn” in Danish and Norwegian.
Emilie, 167
Vera, 161
Rosa, 156
Alva, 153
Elina, 148
Johanne, 147
Boy Names
Oscar, 562 baby boys
Karl, 555
William, 520
Oliver, 494
Alfred, 470
August, 462
Valdemar, 458
Malthe, 452
Arthur, 451
Emil, 447
Lucas, 439
Aksel, 435
Noah, 427
Victor, 395
Elias, 375
Theo, 355
Otto, 340
Viggo, 319
Magnus, 306
Felix, 301
Elliot, 300
Nohr, 293 – related to the Germanic word for “north.”
Liam, 291 (tie)
Matheo, 291 (tie)
Anton, 289
Hugo, 267
Loui, 264
Alexander, 254
Theodor, 249
Frederik, 248
Konrad, 244
Lauge, 243 – based on the Old Norse word félagi, meaning “companion, partner.”
The Old Norse word félag (“fellowship, partnership”), which referred to a joint financial venture during the Viking Age, gave rise to both the Old Norse word félagi and the modern English word fellow.
Anker, 241
Albert, 235
Johan, 215
Storm, 209
About half as many U.S. baby boys (105) were given the English word Storm as a name last year.
Adam, 199
Milas, 197
Erik, 195 (tie)
Pelle, 195 (tie)
Vincent, 189
Villads, 185 – form of Willihad.
Villum, 183 – form of Vilhelm (William).
Marius, 182
Christian, 181
Holger, 174 – derived from an Old Norse name that was comprised of elements meaning “small island” and “spear.”
P.S. The country of Denmark is part of the larger Kingdom of Denmark, which includes the two autonomous countries of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. I’ll post the rankings for both later this week…
The simplest answer is “Biblical names,” but that’s not the full answer.
Because certain Biblical names are preferred over others, and Biblical names aren’t used exclusively.
Plus, the prevalence of a name could vary depending upon the specific Amish settlement you’re talking about.
I’ve gathered about 100 of the most common Amish names below. Before we get into specifics, though, here’s a bit of background on the Amish…
Who are the Amish?
The Amish are an Anabaptist group that intentionally maintain a degree of separation from the wider world. They wear plain clothing, eschew modern conveniences (like cars), and partake in traditional occupations such as farming, carpentry, blacksmithing, and (for women) homemaking.
The Anabaptist movement began in Europe in the 1520s, at the time of the Protestant Reformation. The Anabaptists were particularly known for the practice of adult baptism. They were also opposed to war, and they believed in the separation of church and state.
Considered radicals, the Anabaptists were widely persecuted.
In 1693, the Swiss branch of the Anabaptist movement (a.k.a., the Swiss Brethren) experienced a schism. Those who followed reformer Jacob Amman came to be known as the Amish, whereas those who did not came to be known as the Mennonites (after Dutchman Menno Simons, one of the original Anabaptist leaders).
In the early 1700s, many Amish (and Mennonites) immigrated to the New World — specifically to the Province of Pennsylvania, which had been founded upon the principle of religious freedom.
Today, over 367,000 Amish live in the U.S., and roughly two-thirds of them reside in three states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana.
Common Amish names
The most comprehensive source of Amish names I came across was also the oldest, so let’s go through all the sources chronologically.
In 1960, researcher Elmer L. Smith published data on the most common male and female names among the Amish of southeastern Pennsylvania from 1890 to 1956.
The 1,337 Amish males in the study shared a total of just 72 different first names. Over a quarter of the males had one of the top three names (John, Amos, or Jacob), and over 81% had one of the top 20 names.
The 1,356 Amish females in the study shared even fewer first names: only 55. Over a quarter of the females had one of the top three names (Mary, Sarah, or Annie), and over 88% had a top-20 name.
According to Smith’s research, these were the 20 most common names per gender (plus their frequency of usage):
Amish female names
Amish male names
1
Mary, 10.0%
John, 11.9%
2
Sarah, 7.9%
Amos, 7.3%
3
Annie, 9.1%*
Jacob, 6.5%
4
Katie, 7.1%
David, 6.4%
5
Lizzie, 6.4%
Samuel, 6.2%
6
Rebecca, 6.1%
Christian, 6.1%
7
Fannie, 5.3%
Daniel, 5.5%
8
Barbara, 5.1%
Benjamin, 3.8%
9
Rachel, 5.1%
Levi, 3.7%
10
Lydia, 4.9%
Aaron, 3.1%
11
Emma, 3.8%
Jonas, 3.0%
12
Malinda, 3.5%
Elam, 2.8%
13
Susie, 3.2%
Stephen, 2.8%
14
Sadie, 2.5%
Isaac, 2.5%
15
Leah, 1.9%
Henry, 2.4%
16
Hannah, 1.5%
Jonathan, 1.8%
17
Naomi, 1.4%
Eli, 1.7%
18
Mattie, 1.3%
Gideon, 1.6%
19
Lavina, 1.1%
Moses, 1.5%
20
Arie, 1.1%
Joseph, 1.1%
*Annie was ranked below Sarah in the research paper, but this seems to be a typo, given the percentages.
Smith also wrote the following:
Other given names for males may reflect the important place the martyred forefathers hold in the minds of the sect members. The given name Menno is frequently found; this honors Menno Simmons [sic] an early leader of the plain sects. Ammon is also quite common, and is traced to Jacob Amman for whom the Amish sect is named; otherwise given names are from the Bible.
(Menno, a form of the Dutch name Meine, can be traced back to the Old High German word magan, meaning “strength.” The occupational surname Amman(n), which was derived from the German word amtmann, originally referred to someone employed as an official or administrator.)
A couple of years after Smith’s study came out, Dr. William Schreiber (a professor at the College of Wooster in Ohio) published a book about the Amish of east-central Ohio. In one paragraph, he mentioned some of the names he’d encountered:
One learns here that the good old biblical names are still common with the Amish but are in competition with modern or more euphonious ones. The names of the children of large families are often a study in contrasts. In one family there are, for example, Benjamin, Samuel, Isaac, Stephen, John, Israel, Christ, Barbara, Mary, Hannah, Annie, Mattie, and Lizzie. Another family has chosen these names for its children: Sarah, Lizzie, Samuel, Benjamin, John, Annie, Marie, Daniel, David, Enos, Sylvia, and Malinda. Then there are three Amish brothers named Isaac, Levi, and Elmer. One wonders how Vesta, Delila, Dena, Saloma, Drusilla, or Verba, or boys’ names like Junie, Venus, or Aquilla came into strict Christian families?
Speaking of east-central Ohio, Barbara Yoder Hall — who was born in 1940 and grew up with ten siblings in the Amish community of Holmes County — recalled in her book Born Amish (1980) the following first names:
First names for girls are usually Cora, Mattie, Annie, Lizzie, Barbara, Fannie, Katie, Mary, Naomi, Emma, Jemima, Ella, Sarah, Levina and Mandy.
First names for boys are John, Mose, Ferdinand, Dannie, Sam, Amos, Albert, Emanual, Levi, Rudy, Enos, Eli, Jacob and Joseph.
Now for a pair of sources from the digital age…
The website Amish America, run by Erik Wesner (who is not Amish, but has visited Amish communities in 15 different states), lists the following names as being common among the Amish. He found many of the male names in Raber’s Almanac, which “contains a listing of Amish church ministers,” while many of the female names came from various church directories.
Common Amish female names
Common Amish male names
Elizabeth Emma Fannie Hannah Katie Linda Lizzie Lovina/Lavina Martha Mary Miriam Naomi Rebecca Ruby Ruth Sadie Sarah Waneta
Abram Amos Atlee Eli Elmer Harley Isaac Jacob John Lavern Leroy Mark Melvin Mervin Samuel Vernon Wayne Willis
Some of Erik’s commentary…
Eli: “You see a lot of Elis among Amish, but not many Elijahs.”
Leroy: “Seems to be more common in Midwestern communities.”
Lizzie: “Lizzie is a popular form in some Pennsylvania communities.”
Naomi: “Amish, at least in Lancaster County, pronounce this ‘Nay-oh-mah.'”
Ruby: “Quite a few Rubies in northern Indiana.”
Vernon: “[P]retty common in places like northern Indiana and Holmes County, Ohio.”
Finally, according to the blog Amish Heritage, written by a woman named Anna (who grew up Amish in Pennsylvania), common Amish names include…
Common Amish female names
Common Amish male names
Amanda Anna/Annie Barbara Betty Clara Edna Elizabeth Esther Fannie Hannah Lavina Lena Lydia Malinda Martha Mary Miriam Naomi Priscilla Rachel Rebecca Ruth Sadie Sarah Susie
Aaron Abner Abram Amos Benuel Christian/Christ Daniel David Eli Elmer Emmanuel Henry Isaac Jacob John Jonas Leroy Lloyd Mark Melvin Mervin Moses Omar Paul Samuel Steven/Stephen Vernon
Both websites noted that some Amish communities (particularly New Order Amish communities) have recently started giving their children less traditional first names.
So how do these lists square with what we’ve observed in the U.S. baby name data?
It’s hard to tell with historically popular names like Mary and John, but we can see some interesting things when we focus on relatively rare names.
For instance, the names Atlee, Benuel, Delila, Dena, Lavina, Menno, Saloma, and Willis have all been mentioned recently in my posts about names with a high degree of state specificity (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021). As you’d expect, they were associated with the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and/or Indiana. (Benuel, in fact, has only ever appeared in the Pennsylvania data — going all the way back to the 1940s.)
Several of the other names — including Amos, Elam, Fannie, Malinda, and Mervin — saw higher usage in Pennsylvania than in any other state in 2021.
I was surprised that none of my sources listed the name Barbie. Most of them mentioned Barbara (one of them was even named Barbara), and all of them included nicknames (like Lizzie). But Barbara’s diminutive form was curiously absent — even though most of its usage occurs in Pennsylvania:
Girls named Barbie, U.S.
Girls named Barbie, Penn.
2021
37
22 (59%)
2020
26
17 (65%)
2019
33
20 (61%)
2018
21
13 (62%)
2017
29
16 (55%)
2016
28
14 (50%)
Rhoda and Mahlon are two more names that I somewhat expected to see.
Ammon is a very interesting case, because the name also has significance to an entirely different religious group: the Mormons. (The Book of Mormon features two prominent figures named Ammon.) From the 1910s to the 1960s, the name Ammon — much like Benuel — only appeared in the Pennsylvania data. Since the 1980s, though, the state with the largest number of baby boys named Ammon has been Utah.
What are your thoughts on the first names used by the Amish? Which of the above do you like the most?
And, for anyone out there with close ties to an Amish family/community: What other names would you add to this list?
P.S. This post is dedicated to my delightful commenters alex and Andrea. :)
Goyer, Tricia. The One Year Book of Amish Peace. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2013.
Hall, Barbara Yoder. “Our Own Cute Baby.” Amish Roots: A Treasury of History, Wisdom, and Lore, ed. by John A. Hostetler, The John Hopkins University Press, 1989, pp. 219-220.
Schreiber, William Ildephonse. Our Amish Neighbors. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962.
The baby name Esty (a diminutive of Esther) is primarily used in the state of New York, thanks to the large Jewish community in New York City.
But the name was also featured in the Emmy-winning Netflix series Unorthodox a couple of years ago. So, last year, I checked the Esty data (both the national data and the New York data) to see if the show had influenced the name’s usage.
It may have — Esty did indeed see its highest-ever usage both nationally and in New York in 2020. Even more intriguingly, though, I noticed what seemed to be gaps in the recent NY data. Specifically, New York had no data on the name Esty for the years 2016, 2018, and 2019.
Check it out:
Esty usage in the U.S.
Esty usage in New York
2021
63
57
2020
68
60
2019
59
…
2018
41
…
2017
36
36
2016
43
…
2015
39
37
2014
37
35
I mean, It’s possible that the New York usage of Esty simply dropped below the 5-baby minimum during those particular years. As per the SSA:
To safeguard privacy, we exclude from our tabulated lists of names those that would indicate, or would allow the ability to determine, names with fewer than 5 occurrences in any geographic area.
If that were the case, though, you’d expect to see corresponding dips in the national usage. And we don’t see that here.
It seems more likely to me that some of the New York data is simply…missing.
So the next question is: Are there gaps in the NY data for other names as well?
The boy name Cheskel (a form of Chatzkel, which is based on Ezekiel) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 5 years straight:
Cheskel usage in the U.S.
Cheskel usage in New York
2021
29
29
2020
18
…
2019
27
…
2018
30
…
2017
23
…
2016
27
…
2015
22
21
2014
25
23
The girl name Chany (a diminutive of Channah) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 4 years straight:
Chany usage in the U.S.
Chany usage in New York
2021
65
58
2020
56
…
2019
60
…
2018
55
…
2017
56
…
2016
55
55
2015
44
43
2014
42
41
The boy name Naftuli (based on the Biblical name Naphtali) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 4 years straight:
Naftuli usage in the U.S.
Naftuli usage in New York
2021
29
29
2020
33
…
2019
33
…
2018
27
…
2017
24
…
2016
33
33
2015
24
22
2014
29
25
The girl name Idy didn’t appear in the New York state data for 4 years:
Idy usage in the U.S.
Idy usage in New York
2021
46
…
2020
47
47
2019
31
26
2018
29
…
2017
26
…
2016
25
…
2015
17
16
2014
15
13
The boy name Shmiel (a form of Shmuel, which is based on Samuel) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 4 years:
Shmiel usage in the U.S.
Shmiel usage in New York
2021
40
40
2020
45
…
2019
38
38
2018
31
…
2017
35
…
2016
44
…
2015
44
44
2014
38
37
The girl name Yides (a diminutive of Yehudit, which is a form of Judith) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 4 years:
Yides usage in the U.S.
Yides usage in New York
2021
39
…
2020
34
34
2019
51
…
2018
32
32
2017
39
…
2016
35
…
2015
42
42
2014
38
38
The boy name Berl didn’t appear in the New York state data for 4 years:
Berl usage in the U.S.
Berl usage in New York
2021
19
…
2020
17
17
2019
23
23
2018
18
…
2017
16
…
2016
22
…
2015
21
21
2014
19
18
The girl name Frady (a diminutive of Freyde) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 3 years straight:
Frady usage in the U.S.
Frady usage in New York
2021
25
25
2020
22
…
2019
23
…
2018
21
…
2017
21
21
2016
20
20
2015
17
14
2014
19
19
The girl name Pessy (a diminutive of Batya, which is a form of the Biblical name Bithiah) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 3 years:
Pessy usage in the U.S.
Pessy usage in New York
2021
63
51
2020
62
…
2019
41
…
2018
54
46
2017
41
33
2016
34
…
2015
46
45
2014
42
40
The boy name Lipa (a short form of Lipman, which is based on the name Liberman) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 3 years:
Lipa usage in the U.S.
Lipa usage in New York
2021
50
44
2020
48
43
2019
53
…
2018
44
38
2017
37
…
2016
42
…
2015
43
40
2014
50
50
The boy name Usher (a form of Asher) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 3 years:
Usher usage in the U.S.
Usher usage in New York
2021
41
36
2020
37
…
2019
58
…
2018
36
29
2017
34
…
2016
41
35
2015
45
40
2014
31
28
The boy name Avrum (a form of Abraham) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 3 years:
Avrum usage in the U.S.
Avrum usage in New York
2021
42
34
2020
37
28
2019
24
…
2018
29
24
2017
27
…
2016
25
…
2015
17
16
2014
23
22
The boy name Lazer (a form of Eliezer) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 3 years:
Lazer usage in the U.S.
Lazer usage in New York
2021
40
…
2020
37
31
2019
45
39
2018
29
…
2017
28
…
2016
43
35
2015
29
28
2014
33
31
The boy name Yossi (a diminutive of Yosef) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 3 years:
Yossi usage in the U.S.
Yossi usage in New York
2021
35
29
2020
30
…
2019
23
18
2018
30
24
2017
21
…
2016
29
…
2015
20
19
2014
25
19
The girl name Goldy (a diminutive of Golda) didn’t appear in the New York state data for 2 years:
Goldy usage in the U.S.
Goldy usage in New York
2021
69
57
2020
63
53
2019
51
44
2018
62
54
2017
56
…
2016
46
…
2015
48
42
2014
28
22
And, finally, the boy name Nachman didn’t appear in the New York state data for 2 years:
Nachman usage in the U.S.
Nachman usage in New York
2021
27
18
2020
23
17
2019
18
…
2018
20
12
2017
21
…
2016
21
16
2015
28
24
2014
27
20
If the gap years matched up more closely with one another — as with the glitch of 1989, for instance — I could chalk it up to a few incomplete batches of data.
But they don’t, so…I don’t know what to make of this.
Do you guys have any thoughts, or theories?
(If you’d like to examine the New York data for yourself, download the “State-specific data” file from the SSA website.)
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)
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