I have blogged before about how a small number of first names dominated within the community. The given names of our eighteenth and nineteenth
century British ancestors were drawn from a surprisingly small pool. The four
most popular male names were carried by one in every two males, and the
top thirteen male names were carried by 87% of the male population.
In the 1700s the top five names for each gender were :
Boys - John, William, Thomas, Richard and James
Girls - Mary, Elizabeth, Ann, Sarah and Jane
In the 1800s the top five names for each gender were :
Boys - John, William, James, George and Charles
Girls - Mary, Anna, Emma, Elizabeth and Margaret
There
were, of course, always fads among names - copying that of the current
Monarch and their family, for example, or using a traditional name
common in your own family, or following popular fads. Horatio, for
example, made a brief surge in popularity after Nelson's victory at
Trafalgar. Similarly, Adolf disappeared from German communities after
World War 2.
Then there
were also the commonly used spelling variations, abbreviations and
diminutives. For example, if you don’t know that Polly was a diminutive
of Mary or that Nellie was a diminutive of Ellen and Eleanor and Helen,
you may struggle to find your ancestors’ entries. Harry for Henry,
Bill for William, Fred or Alf for Alfred, Dick for Richard, Charlie or
Lottie for Charlotte, Maggie, Meg or Maisie for Margaret. Elizabeth was
another extremely common name with multiple diminutives - Eliza, Liz,
Lizzie, Betty, Betsy, Beth, Bessie, Lisbeth, Liza - the list goes on.
I have one female ancestor, baptised Elizabeth, who was known throughout her life as Betsy. This was the name she used in census records, her children's birth/baptism records and on her death certificate and burial record. The only time I can ever find her referred to as Elizabeth is at her baptism.
