100 Years Ago: The Second 100 Boys

Image by trinaaj via Flickr

Lots of talk goes into the 100 year rule. I, myself, did a study on the Top 100 of 1911, coming to the following conclusion: "One of the main trends I noticed was that while the boy names stayed mostly consistent, the girl names are the ones that fell the hardest never to come back, but also are the ones that came back from the dead. There also does not seem to be any connection between a name's location in the Top 100 and whether or not it made a comeback."

So, what about the Second 100? What I mean by that is the list of names ranked #101-200. Would those names be the next "it" names 100 years later? To test the possibility, I decided to look at the Second 100 from 1914 and analyze whether or not the names could be contenders for current popularity. I looked at the percentage of use (percent of total boys or girls given the name for the year) over the past three years to see if there has been an increase or decrease in popularity. We'll do the boys first.

Out of the Second 100 of 1914, 52 are still in the Top 1000. First, let's take a look at the names that have been given to an increasing number of boys over the past three years or more. These 19 names may not all rank in the Top 100, but they are becoming more noticeable and are the more interesting names in the bunch...

Abraham
Adam
August
Bruce
Calvin
Clayton
Clinton
Ellis
Felix
Hugh
Isaac
Ivan
Jerome
Mike
Nelson
Oliver
Otto
Roland
Wesley

Most of the next group of names can't decide whether they are increasing or decreasing in popularity. These 16 names have had small climbs and dips over the past three years and may or may not be the next "it" name...

Aaron
Ben
Dominick
Eddie
Franklin
Jessie
Julian
Julius
Marshall
Matthew
Phillip
Salvatore
Steve
Warren
Wayne
Wilson

There are 17 names from the Second 100 of 1914 that are currently in the Top 1000 but decreasing in popularity...

Alex
Allen
Angelo
Curtis
Douglas
Gilbert
Jacob
Jerry
Jose
Manuel
Nathan
Nathaniel
Nicholas
Patrick
Roger
Ronald
Tony

The 48 names from the Second 100 of 1914 that have dropped out of the Top 1000 are also divided between those that are continuing to sink, those that are up and down, and those that could be coming back. Here are the names trying to rise...

Alton
Clifton
Edmund
Emil
Luther
Otis
Wallace
Wilbert
Willis

Here are the names that can't decide whether to go up or down...

Archie
Bill
Don
Earnest
Ervin
Forrest
Glen
Homer
Horace
Ira
Irvin
Jimmie
Johnnie
Leslie
Lonnie
Lyle
Marion
Nick
Orville
Percy
Pete
Rudolph
Rufus

And here are the names that will not be coming back any time soon...

Adolph
Bennie
Bert
Dale
Dan
Delbert
Elbert
Grover
Guy
Hubert
Jim
Karl
Sylvester
Tom
Virgil
Wilfred

Out of the 100 names listed above, which do you see hitting a positive stride in the coming years? Will the ones increasing in usage continue to increase? Do you see any surprising turnarounds?

We'll take a look at the girls next week.