Practical International Data Management - Name frequency / variety

Table of Contents


In every culture there are names that appear more commonly than others - John Smith, Jan Jansen and so on. The extent of the variation of names, and the frequency of those most and least common, will affect choices when processing names for, for example, matching, householding etc.

In some cultures parents are trying increasingly to give their children uncommon names. In their book, *The Narcissism Epidemic" (2009), in Chapter 11, "Seven Billion Kinds of Special," Jean Twenge and Keith Campbell plot the falling trend in giving babies common names. From 1945 to 2006, the percentage of babies given one of the ten most popular names has decreased from 34% to 9% for boys and from 23% to 8% for girls.

image This graphic comes from How to name a baby and refers to the USA

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