How popular is the baby name Ralph 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 Ralph.

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Popularity of the baby name Ralph


Posts that mention the name Ralph

First names from King Henry III’s fine rolls (1200s)

Henry III of England
Henry III of England

I’ve got some 13th-century English names for you today!

They come from the fine rolls of Henry III of England (1216–1272).

“Fine rolls” were basically financial records. They kept track of money offered to the king in return for concessions and favors. King Henry III wasn’t the first to keep them, but they “expand[ed] considerably in size and content during Henry’s reign.”

For a time, the Henry III Fine Rolls Project — the aim of which was to “democratize the contents” of Henry III’s fine rolls “by making them freely available in English translation to everyone via a website” — hosted a sortable database of all the given names in the rolls. While that database was available, I used it to create lists of the most-mentioned male and female names. (All the names are still online, but they’re no longer sortable.)

The rankings below — which cover a wide range of birth years, and a small segment of society — aren’t the same as the single-year, society-wide baby name rankings we’re accustomed to. But they do give us a general idea of which names were the most popular during the 1200s.

Of the 8,423 male names in the fine rolls, these were the most popular:

  1. William (1,217 mentions)
  2. John (669)
  3. Richard (495)
  4. Robert (434)
  5. Henry (376)
  6. Ralph (365)
  7. Thomas (351)
  8. Walter (346)
  9. Roger (337)
  10. Hugh (297)
  11. Geoffrey (261)
  12. Simon (218)
  13. Adam (200)
  14. Nicholas, Peter (180 each)
  15. Gilbert (157)
  16. Alan (110)
  17. Phillip (109)
  18. Reginald (88)
  19. Stephen (83)
  20. Elias (66)
  21. Alexander (65)
  22. Osbert (52)
  23. Eustace (44)
  24. Andrew, Matthew (42 each)
  25. Ranulf (40)

Other names on the men’s list: Hamo, Fulk, Payn, Waleran, Drogo, Engeram, Amfrid, Ratikin, Walkelin, Bonefey, Fulcher, Hasculf, Herlewin, Joldwin, Lefsi, Marmaduke, Orm, Albizium, Cocky, Deulobene, Gwenwynwyn, Markewart.

Of the 1,314 female names in the fine rolls, these were the most popular:

  1. Alice (140 mentions)
  2. Matilda (138)
  3. Agnes (76)
  4. Margaret (69)
  5. Joan (62)
  6. Isabella (60)
  7. Emma (37)
  8. Beatrice (34)
  9. Mabel (33)
  10. Cecilia (32)
  11. Christiana (30)
  12. Hawise (29)
  13. Juliana (27)
  14. Sibyl (25)
  15. Rose (21)
  16. Sarra (16)
  17. Helewise (15)
  18. Avice, Eleanor, Eva, Lucy (14 each)
  19. Leticia (13)
  20. Felicia (12)
  21. Isolda, Margery, Petronilla (11 each)
  22. Ascelina, Edith (10 each)
  23. Phillippa (9)
  24. Amice, Elena, Katherine, Mary, Sabina (8 each)
  25. Basilia, Muriel (7 each)

Other names on the women’s list: Albrea, Amabilia, Eustachia, Idonea, Egidia, Millicent, Amphelisa, Avegaya, Barbata, Comitessa, Frethesenta, Wulveva, Alveva, Dervorguilla, Deulecresse, Elizabeth (just 1!), Flandrina, Oriolda.

A researcher working on the project reported that, of all the men mentioned in the rolls, 14.4% were named William and 7.9% were named John. She also noted that, just like today, the female names showed a greater amount of diversity:

Compared with 57.8 per cent of the men, only 51.8 per cent of the women had one of the top ten names. And 9.44 per cent of the women had names that occurred only once, whereas 3.38 per cent of the men had names that occurred only once.

See any names you like?

Sources: The Henry III Fine Rolls by David Carpenter, The Henry III Fine Rolls Project, ‘William’ most popular medieval name – King’s College London
Image: Henry III (13th-century illustration)

[Latest update: June 2023]

Names in the Tollemache-Tollemache family

British Army officer Leone Sextus Tollemache (1884-1917)
Leone Sextus Tollemache

The Rev. Ralph William Lyonel Tollemache-Tollemache (1826-1895), a clergyman in the Church of England, gave his fifteen children some bizarre (and bizarrely long) names.

Here are the names of the children he had with his first wife, Caroline:

  1. Lyonel Felix Carteret Eugene Tollemache (b. 1854)
  2. Florence Caroline Artemisia Hume Tollemache (b. 1855)
  3. Evelyne Clementina Wentworth Cornelia Maude Tollemache (b. 1856)
  4. Granville Grey Marchmont Manners Plantagenet Tollemache (b. 1858)
  5. Marchmont Murray Grasett Reginald Stanhope Plantagenet Tollemache (b. 1860)

And here are the names of the children he had with his second wife, Dora:

  1. Dora Viola Gertrude Irenez de Orellana Dysart Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache (b. 1869)
  2. Mabel Ethel Helmingham Huntingtower Beatrice Blazonberrie Evangeline Vise de Lou de Orellana Plantagenet Saxon Toedmag Tollemache-Tollemache (b. 1872)
  3. Lyonesse Matilda Dora Ida Agnes Ernestine Curson Paulet Wilbraham Joyce Eugénie Bentley Saxonia Dysart Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache (b. 1874)
  4. Lyulph Ydwallo Odin Nestor Egbert Lyonel Toedmag Hugh Erchenwyne Saxon Esa Cromwell Orma Nevill Dysart Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache (b. 1876)
    • His first fifteen initials spell “Lyonel the second.”
  5. Lyona Decima Veronica Esyth Undine Cyssa Hylda Rowena Viola Adele Thyra Ursula Ysabel Blanche Lelias Dysart Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache (b. 1878)
  6. Leo Quintus Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache (b. 1879)
  7. Lyonella Fredegunda Cuthberga Ethelswytha Ideth Ysabel Grace Monica de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache (b. 1882)
  8. Leone Sextus Denys Oswolf Fraudatifilius Tollemache-Tollemache de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache (b. 1884)
    • He was his father’s sixth son, hence “Sextus.” “Fraudatifilius” comes from the Latin phrase fraudati filius, meaning “son of the defrauded one.”
  9. Lyonetta Edith Regina Valentine Myra Polwarth Avelina Philippa Violantha de Orellana Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache (b. 1887)
  10. Lyonulph Cospatrick Bruce Berkeley Jermyn Tullibardine Petersham de Orellana Dysart Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache (b. 1892)

What are your thoughts on these names?

Sources:

Babies named for Mercury astronauts

Astronaut Alan Shepard (1923-1998)
Alan Shepard

NASA’s Mercury program (1959-1963) was the nation’s first human spaceflight program.

Six of the Mercury flights were manned — each by a single astronaut. The six astronauts, in order, were Alan Shepard, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, John Glenn, Scott Carpenter, Walter Schirra, and Gordon Cooper.

So far I’ve been able to track down namesakes for two of these men:

Alan Shepard

The first American (and second human) in space was Alan Shepard. He piloted a sub-16-minute suborbital flight aboard the Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961. (Yuri Gagarin‘s flight on April 12 had been an orbital flight lasting 108 minutes.)

At 11:42 am, “an hour and eight minutes after Shephard’s [sic] rocket took off,” a baby boy was born to Mr. and Mrs. William J. Mann of Middletown, New York. The boy was named Alan Shepard Mann.

“I had thought of the name myself,” said Mr. Mann. “Then so many friends called and suggested it that we decided to name the baby Alan Shepard. My wife had already picked out a name, Ralph Luppon, but she agreed too that under the circumstances it was the only thing to do.”

Astronaut John Glenn (1921-2016)
John Glenn

John Glenn

The first American to orbit the Earth and the third American (and fifth human) in space was John Glenn. He traveled around the Earth three times aboard the Friendship 7 during a nearly 5-hour flight on February 20, 1962.

Here are just a few of the babies born on Feb. 20 and named in honor of John Glenn:

  • John Glenn Donato, baby boy, born to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Donato of Burbank, California.
  • John Glenn Guntle, baby boy, born at 2:42 p.m., “just one minute before astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. landed Tuesday in the Atlantic Ocean after his third orbit of the earth,” to Mr. and Mrs. Larry Guntle of Dowagiac, Michigan.
  • John Glenn Fortner, baby boy, born to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Fortner of Spartanburg, South Carolina.
  • Glenn John Ashley Mertz, baby boy, born “as astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. re-entered the atmosphere” to Mr. and Mrs. Louis Ashley Mertz of Freeport, New York.
  • Jonna Glyn Morse, baby girl, born at 10:50 a.m., “while Col. Glenn was still in orbit,” to Mr. and Mrs. Sidney L. Morse of Los Angeles, California.
  • Late addition: Glenn Orbit Reeves, baby boy, born in Texas.

We can see the influence of John Glenn’s flight in the U.S. baby name data, in fact.

For more names like these, check out yesterday’s post on baby names inspired by astronauts in the Apollo program.

Sources:

  • About Project Mercury – NASA
  • “Astronaut’s Name Given New Babies.” Los Angeles Times 25 Feb. 1962: GB2.
  • “It Took Week for Famous Name to Stick.” Spartanburg Herald 28 Feb. 1962: 1.
  • “Middletown Infant May Be First Namesake of Spaceman.” Evening News [Newburgh, NY] 6 May 1961: 1.
  • “Name Fame.” Spokane Daily Chronicle 23 Feb. 1962: 1.
  • “Tots Named for Glenn.” Meriden Record 21 Feb. 1962: 8.

Images: Adapted from Astronaut Alan Shepard (NASA) and Mercury 6, John H Glenn Jr (NASA)

Baby names that won’t make a comeback?

About.com guide Robin Elise Weiss recently published a list of 10 Baby Names That Won’t Make a Comeback. These were her picks:

  • Girl names – Mildred, Eula, Deloris, Gladys, Norma
  • Boy names – Herman, Chester, Elbert, Norman, Ralph

Hm. I can’t quite agree with Robin here. The only thing holding most of these back is style, and style is always in flux.

Even Ralph, which became a slang term for “vomit” several decades ago, isn’t necessarily doomed. Slang meanings stick for a while, but not forever. (Just look at Roger.)

Do you think there are any names out there that will never make a comeback? Which ones, and why?