most common names.

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

i work for a service called chacha as a guide. basically, people text or call in with any question they want an answer to, a guide researches for them, then texts them back an answer. anyway, tonight somebody asked me, "what's the most common name for a male in the US?" i did some research and found out that the answer is james. no surprise there.

i decided to look around the website a little bit and found it really interesting. it had thousands of the most common male, female, and last names in the US. the male names didn't surprise me at all: john, david, michael, etc. but i was a little surprised by the female names. they have thousands on there, but here are the top 20 in order:



MARY
PATRICIA
LINDA
BARBARA - i know this is a common name, but i never thought it'd come in 4th.
ELIZABETH
JENNIFER
MARIA
SUSAN
MARGARET
DOROTHY - this one really surprises me. i've never met or even known of a dorothy in my entire life.
LISA
NANCY
KAREN
BETTY - i *think* that the site doesn't go solely by birth names, but also on what the person just goes by because there are names like debbie and lizzie on the list
HELEN
DONNA
CAROL
RUTH
SHARON

here are some names i found amongst the 1,000 most common names that i was kind of shocked to see:
WANDA at #87 - i never would've guessed it'd be in the top 100
EUNICE at #326 - apparently there are over 80,000 women with this name. ...really?? i kind of figured they'd all be long gone by now. =/
BEULAH at #360 - i feel terrible for over 70,000 women. :(
JOHNNIE at #391
ELVIRA at #460
DELORIS at #515 - i've never ever seen this spelling.
CONSUELO at #577 - i thought this was more of a male's name. guess not?
JIMMIE at #667
SOCORRO at #673 - never heard this before
LADONNA at #687
OFELIA at #704 - same as "deloris"
BETTYE at #712 - ditto
CONCEPCION at #748 - o_O
TOMMIE at #778
MICHAEL at #799
EARLENE at #811
JOHN at #819 - WHAT??
JAMES at #875
YOUNG at #902
CHERRY at #922
QUEEN at #923
PANSY at #983
ROBERT at #996
THOUGHTS?


the site in case you're interested: http://names.mongabay.com/

Comments

[haughtymelodic.livejournal.com]

my best friend is named Dorothy.Socorro is a spanish name.

[haughtymelodic.livejournal.com]

so is Concepcion

[freezemyazaleas.livejournal.com]

I love a lot of the common names:
MARY
LINDA
SUSAN
LISA
NANCY
KAREN
DONNA

[jordle.livejournal.com]

Betty is my Grandmother's full name.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

So is Ofelia

[tryyingtoevolve.livejournal.com]

MARY
ELIZABETH
MARGARET
DOROTHY
KAREN
HELEN
RUTH
OFELIA

[wistfuljen.livejournal.com]

I actually like the name Beulah, not that I would use it but I think it's kind of pretty (it was my Finnish great-grandmother's name)

also I am a chacha guide too!

[sweet-light.livejournal.com]

and my great aunt's. Names like that (my grandma is Ella) were popular back in the day. =P

[duckduckcaboose.livejournal.com]

The website says that the info is based on the 1990 census, so for one thing, the information is about 18 years old. Dorothy is an older name, as are a lot of the others on there. Not to be morbid, but probably a lot of them are no longer with us. I'd like to see the info from the 2000 census.

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

I like Maria, Karen & Helen, and I absolutely hate Beulah.

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

yeah, i guessed that much, but i've never heard it..so i figured it wasn't that common? i guess i was wrong! :P

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

it's funny how a lot of names that were very popular in our grandparents' day are popular again. there are SO many little ella's running around today!

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

have you gotten paid from chacha yet? don't you have to reach at least $100 first? and then i think if you chose the option to get paid through your bank account, they send out checks on the 15th. i'm trying to reach $100 by the next couple of weeks. only $15 away!!

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

oh shit. i didn't even see that! oops. that really changes a lot then.
yeah, i figured that much about the dorothys and eunices. =/

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

ugh. i think beulah is one of the unfortunate names ever. :(

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

out of curiosity..how old is your best friend?

[wistfuljen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my husband is a guide too and we've both been paid multiple times since we chose to get the debit card and get paid whenever we want to load our cards. If you choose the direct deposit option then yes you have to wait until you hit $100.

[ifancylust.livejournal.com]

yeah, i just decided to choose the direct deposit because:
1. i knew i'd be asking for cash all the time..haha. i thought it'd be best until i made a good amount of money.
2. it costs $2 (i think?) & i'm cheap. heh

[haughtymelodic.livejournal.com]

she is 25,oh and my daughters middle name is Elizabeth.