Another Playground Analysis - Overall Boys Since 1880

After using my database to compile the totals of names given since 1880 (as seen on Nameberry), and discovering that both Deborah and Debra were in the Top 10 for almost the entire decade of the 1950s, I wondered what a Playground Analysis using overall numbers would look like. While I sincerely wish I could use ALL possible names in my numbers, as has been so awesomely done by Name Nerds (boys and girls), I only used the top 1,000 names for my sums.

I have to say... this was so much FUN! So much more interesting than the analyses I've done over the past couple of years because this list included popular names from the past (Albert anyone?) and quite a few surprises in the results. We'll cover the boys today and the girls tomorrow.

Once I combined the spellings of the Top 1000 names, there are 811 names on the boys list. I would love to include all of them, but to save space I will just do the Top 100. The main name listed is the one that was given to the most babies and the other spellings incorporated into the total are to the right. Keep in mind that any name listed here is in the Top 1000 overall (Brayan anyone?)!

1	John	5,237,990	Jon
2	James	5,090,707
3	Robert	4,789,390
4	Michael	4,445,376	Micheal
5	William	4,038,015
6	David	3,564,806
7	Joseph	2,572,878	Joesph
8	Richard	2,552,110
9	Charles	2,356,638
10	Thomas	2,301,995	Tomas
11	Steven	2,121,022	Stephen
12	Christopher	2,043,687	Kristopher
13	Daniel	1,854,313
14	Matthew	1,612,583	Mathew
15	George	1,573,880	Jorge
16	Brian	1,552,467	Brayan, Bryan, Bryon
17	Mark	1,478,920	Marc
18	Donald	1,408,009
19	Anthony	1,391,262
20	Paul	1,378,834
21	Edward	1,278,445
22	Kenneth	1,274,944	Kennith
23	Jeffrey	1,265,218	Geoffrey, Jeffery, Jeffry
24	Andrew	1,244,448
25	Joshua	1,163,596
26	Kevin	1,147,119
27	Eric	1,086,530	Erich, Erick, Erik
28	Ronald	1,074,791
29	Timothy	1,057,417
30	Jason	1,037,818	Jayson
31	Nicholas	1,003,606	Nickolas, Nicolas, Nikolas
32	Jonathan	980,183	Johnathan, Johnathon, Jonathon
33	Gary	945,213	Garry
34	Frank	906,308
35	Ryan	891,029
36	Jacob	886,011	Jakob
37	Larry	803,136
38	Louis	793,849	Lewis, Luis
39	Scott	782,052	Scot
40	Sean	775,414	Shaun, Shawn
41	Raymond	766,283
42	Brandon	761,212	Branden
43	Justin	758,412
44	Samuel	706,532
45	Gregory	702,752
46	Alan	692,688	Allan, Allen
47	Benjamin	678,500
48	Patrick	662,370
49	Jack	650,749
50	Philip	640,106	Phillip
51	Henry	638,295
52	Dennis	634,420	Denis
53	Jerry	623,928	Gerry
54	Walter	615,975
55	Alexander	604,776
56	Carl	600,071	Karl
57	Zachary	587,818	Zachery, Zackary, Zackery
58	Peter	567,212
59	Tyler	564,675
60	Aaron	563,260	Aron
61	Douglas	555,478
62	Harold	548,324
63	Jose	539,819
64	Adam	528,687
65	Arthur	521,945
66	Jesse	516,145	Jessie
67	Nathan	509,323
68	Lawrence	493,206	Laurence
69	Albert	484,688
70	Gerald	471,717	Jerald
71	Kyle	468,985
72	Roger	458,610	Rodger
73	Christian	457,060	Cristian, Kristian
74	Joe	448,906
75	Willie	447,368
76	Keith	431,746
77	Johnny	428,933	Johnie, Johnnie
78	Jeremy	425,061
79	Terry	420,878
80	Harry	419,412
81	Billy	412,707	Billie
82	Ralph	411,563
83	Roy	402,065
84	Jimmy	395,452	Jimmie
85	Austin	384,942
86	Dylan	380,823	Dillon
87	Bruce	379,187
88	Derek	378,928	Derick, Derrick
89	Eugene	377,295
90	Glenn	371,611	Glen
91	Russell	366,014	Russel
92	Jordan	358,549	Jordon
93	Ethan	355,770
94	Wayne	350,665
95	Howard	343,977
96	Fred	342,391
97	Darrell	339,578	Darrel, Darryl, Daryl
98	Frederick	335,483	Frederic, Fredrick
99	Aiden	333,122	Adan, Aden, Aidan, Ayden
100	Juan	330,935

Significant Notables:

John/Jon overtakes James for the #1 spot.

Nothing else changes at the top, until you get to Steven, which jumps from #20 to #11.

The biggest mover up is no surprise to us in the modern world: Aiden leaps from #214 to #99.

Other big movers up in the Top 100 include: Brian (#24 to #16), Eric (#34 to #27), Louis (#79 to #38), Sean (#76 to #40), Alan (#92 to #46), Philip (#93 to #50), Carl (#63 to #56), Jesse (#77 to #66), Christian (#81 to #73), Johnny (#99 to #77), Jimmy (#114 to #84), Dylan (#97 to #86), Derek (#148 to #88), Glenn (#131 to #90), Darrell (#197 to #97), and Frederick (#123 to #98).

Fun Notes and Surprises:

Reid beats out Reed by 402 babies.

Reece beats out Reese by 629 babies.

Mohamed beats out Mohammad by 687 babies, and Mohammad beats out Mohammed by 754 babies.

Caden beats out Kaden by 809 babies. Caiden, Cayden, Kaiden and Kayden are also in the Top 1000 (the most alternative spellings in the bunch).

While Caden has the most spellings included in the Top 1000, the other names with 4 or more that aren't already listed above are:

• Corey, Cory, Korey, Kory
• Jared, Jarod, Jarred, Jarrod
• Daren, Darin, Darren, Darrin
• Braden, Braeden, Brayden, Braydon

Gael has been used more than Gale.

Xander has been used more than Zander.

More boys have been named Larry than Lawrence. Likewise, there have been more Freds than Fredericks.

Which nickname suffix wins the battle... -ie or -y? From the Top 1000 names (when both the -ie and the -y version of the nickname was in the Top 1000), the winner is -y by a close score of 8-7.

• Tops for -y: Johnny, Billy, Jimmy, Bobby, Ricky, Tommy, Sammy and Scotty. 
• Tops for -ie: Eddie, Ronnie, Charlie, Bennie, Freddie, Donnie and Robbie.

Before combining the spellings, there are 13 nickname-names in the Top 100, but they don't start until #30. In order of appearance: Frank, Larry, Jack, Jerry, Joe, Willie, Terry, Harry, Billy, Fred, Randy, Bobby and Johnny.

Mary ranks at #812 on the boys overall list (before combining spellings).

That's all I have for the boys (for now)! Look for the girls overall combined list tomorrow!