Vol. 49 No. 1 (2001)
Research Article

On the Frequency Distribution of First Names

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  • Amram Eshel
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.2001.49.1.55

Published 2001-03-01

Copyright (c) 2001 Maney

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

Comparison of distribution patterns of the frequency of current first names in three societies (Berlin, Israel and the United States) shows a close resemblance of all three, especially when graphically represented. This resemblance is independent of the size of the various populations. In western societies, the frequency of the most common male first name has an upper limit of about 4 % of the male population. The number of “conventional” names is fewer than one thousand, regardless of the size of the population, at least in societies which are linguistically rather uniform.

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References

  1. Eliassaf, Nissim. 1981. “Names Survey in the Population Administration: State of Israel.” Names 29: 273–84.
  2. Geschke, Rolf. 1997. Vornamen und ihre Bedeutung. Internet address: <http://www.tou.com/host/vomamen/start.htm>
  3. Lawson, Edwin D. 1991. “Most common Jewish First Names in Israel. ” Names 39: 103–24.
  4. United States Census Bureau. 1997. Frequently Occurring Names from the 1990 Census. Internet address: <http://www.census.gov/pub/genealogy/www/freqnames.html>