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by Mari ingen Briain meic Donnchada (Kathleen M. O’Brien)
© 2000-2009 by Kathleen M. O'Brien. All rights reserved.
Version 1.2, updated 01 October 2009
One of the important trends to study is how much a particular class of names dominating the naming practices of a culture. In studying the names in Gloucestershire, I have arbitrarily broken up the frequency of names according to the following criteria:
| 10% or more | Very Common |
| 5-10% | Common |
| 1-5% | Uncommon |
| less than 1 | Rare |
It is interesting to note that there are no masculine given names in the 5-10% group. Also, 11.07% of the feminine given names and 14.72% of the masculine given names fall into the Rare category. In other words, about 1 in 10 feminine and 1 in 6.7 masculine given names in the entries are "Rare". This indicates a wider naming pool than we may previously have assumed.
To bring this result more into focus, it can be described by the examples:
If a family had 7 sons,
| 4 had a "Very Common" name |
| 1 had an "Uncommon" name |
| 1 had a "Rare" name |
| 1 had either a "Very Common" or an "Uncommon" name |
If a family had 10 daughters
| 5 had a "Very Common" name |
| 2 had a "Common" name |
| 1 had an "Uncommon" name |
| 1 had a "Rare" name |
| 1 likely had an "Uncommon" name, but could have had either of the other types of names |
(Most of the examples of a repetition of a "Very Common" name in 1 family occur when a child died and a child born later had the same name.)
Relative Frequencies of Feminine Given Names
Relative Frequencies of Masculine Given Names
| Very Common (10% or more) | |
| 51.49% of the population had names of this type | |
| Joane | 18.68% |
| Alice | 11.11% |
| Elizabeth | 11.02% |
| Margaret | 10.68% |
| Common (5% - 10%) | |
| 21.43% of the population had names of this type | |
| Agnes | 8.74% |
| Ann | 6.62% |
| Katherine | 6.07% |
| Uncommon (1% - 5%) | |
| 15.95% of the population had names of this type | |
| Margery | 4.99% |
| Mary | 3.11% |
| Elinor | 2.35% |
| Edith | 1.51% |
| Sible | 1.46% |
| Isabell | 1.29% |
| Helen | 1.24% |
| Rare (less than 1%) | |
| 11.07% of the population had names of this type | |
| Marian | 0.80% |
| Thomaseen | 0.74% |
| Bridgett | 0.73% |
| Judith | 0.71% |
| Maud | 0.71% |
| Grace | 0.70% |
| Julyan | 0.65% |
| Amis | 0.61% |
| Frances | 0.61% |
| Ussela | 0.50% |
| Dorothy | 0.42% |
| Emme | 0.39% |
| Susanna | 0.26% |
| Cicily | 0.23% |
| Pernill | 0.23% |
| Phillis | 0.23% |
| Mabel | 0.22% |
| Izard | 0.20% |
| Blanche | 0.19% |
| Phillip | 0.18% |
| Tibbald | 0.18% |
| Millicent | 0.17% |
| Usannia | 0.17% |
| Denice | 0.14% |
| Christian | 0.11% |
| Martha | 0.11% |
| Kinborow | 0.10% |
| Florence | 0.09% |
| Winifride | 0.09% |
| Ellyn | 0.08% |
| Barbara | 0.07% |
| Sara | 0.06% |
| Welthian | 0.06% |
| Abigall | 0.05% |
| Pering | 0.05% |
| Prudence | 0.05% |
| Ruthe | 0.05% |
| Joyce | 0.04% |
| Tacie | 0.04% |
| Audria | 0.01% |
| Gwine | 0.01% |
| Milberowe | 0.01% |
| Rose | 0.01% |
| Sage | 0.01% |
| Laureat | 0.00% |
| Luce | 0.00% |
| Olyf | 0.00% |
| Very Common (10% or more) | |
| 64.00% of the population had names of this type | |
| John | 21.37% |
| Thomas | 17.51% |
| William | 13.60% |
| Richard | 11.52% |
| Common (5% - 10%) | |
| 0% of the population had names of this type | |
| Uncommon (1% - 5%) | |
| 21.48% of the population had names of this type | |
| Robert | 4.20% |
| Walter | 2.72% |
| Edward | 2.42% |
| James | 2.24% |
| Henry | 2.23% |
| Edmond | 2.09% |
| Gyles | 1.70% |
| Nicholas | 1.45% |
| Philip | 1.27% |
| Christofer | 1.16% |
| Rare (less than 1%) | |
| 14.72% of the population had names of this type | |
| Augustine | 0.77% |
| Franses | 0.70% |
| Arthur | 0.69% |
| George | 0.69% |
| Humphrey | 0.69% |
| Anthony | 0.66% |
| Leonard | 0.55% |
| Maurice | 0.55% |
| Lewes | 0.52% |
| Guy | 0.47% |
| Roger | 0.47% |
| Raynould | 0.45% |
| Samuel | 0.44% |
| Ralph | 0.43% |
| Ansell | 0.39% |
| Jenyfer | 0.39% |
| Julian | 0.39% |
| Mellard | 0.39% |
| Arnold | 0.33% |
| Stephen | 0.33% |
| Austine | 0.29% |
| Ludovic | 0.25% |
| Clemence | 0.24% |
| Christian | 0.23% |
| Conway | 0.23% |
| Gylbert | 0.23% |
| David | 0.20% |
| Garret | 0.20% |
| Geffrey | 0.20% |
| Alexander | 0.19% |
| Hugh | 0.19% |
| Rowland | 0.19% |
| Peter | 0.18% |
| Joseph | 0.17% |
| Michaell | 0.17% |
| Simond | 0.12% |
| Barnaby | 0.11% |
| Jasper | 0.11% |
| Josias | 0.11% |
| Brice | 0.09% |
| Griffith | 0.09% |
| Laurence | 0.09% |
| Zachary | 0.09% |
| Ambrose | 0.06% |
| Charles | 0.06% |
| Andrew | 0.05% |
| Ferdinando | 0.05% |
| Flores | 0.05% |
| Meredithe | 0.05% |
| Toby | 0.05% |
| Macklen | 0.03% |
| Randell | 0.02% |
| Daniell | 0.01% |
| Foke | 0.01% |
| Mathewe | 0.01% |
| Abraham | 0.00% |
| Denis | 0.00% |
| Jerry | 0.00% |
| Justus | 0.00% |
| Mylys | 0.00% |
| Samson | 0.00% |
| Tymothy | 0.00% |
| Valantine | 0.00% |
| Yevane | 0.00% |
Medieval Scotland | Medieval Names Archive | Names in Chesham, 1538-1600/1
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