Names are, perhaps, the most personal part of our personalities and whether we're aware of it or not, they carry clues, hints and insights into our history and identity. It turns out some people are rarer than others, as new data from Ancestry.ie shows.
With Meghan and Harry's pregnancy confirmed only yesterday, it's likely you've seen countless articles already predicting the name of their future baby. Naming a royal child is of national importance, but it's just as important whether you're royal or not. Names are our shorthand and carry meaning for the entire family.
It's fitting, then, that Ancestry.ie has released data on the popularity of baby names in Ireland over the last 100 years. The list, which was compiled by comparing online birth records to measure the popularity of given names over the past century, shows current "booming" names and ones that have slipped into near extinction.
Jack and James have been the most popular boys' names since 2007, while Emily, Ava and Lucy have been among the most popular girls' names since 2011.
Look back 100 years and the baby names of choice are vastly different. Mary was the most popular girls' name in 1917, with no less than 11,000 babies entering the world with the name, while John was most popular for boys.
Most interesting, perhaps, is looking at how these names have shifted in popularity over the years. For example, in 2017 there were only 64 Marys listed, while John became the 22nd most popular name among parents.
Names shift with trends just like everything else, and this has only increased with the widening of our cultural knowledge and experience as well as the trend among celebrities for choosing more unusual and, sometimes, puzzling names. Everyone knows that Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter is named Apple, but think of how different our birth records could look when there are more baby Trues and baby Chicagos thanks to the Kardashians.
A number of names have slipped so low in popularity that they're classified as "extinct" in the data, here classified as having not appeared in the last five birth records.
For boys, these include Herbert, Norman, Bartholomew, Cyril, Cecil, Donald, Reginald, Leslie, Garrett, Wallace and Sylvester and for girls, Ethel, Wilhelmina, Sheila, Muriel, Marion, Margaretta, Letitia, Edna, Doris, Gertrude, Eveline, Gladys, and Fanny for girls.
Ancestry.ie spokesperson Russell James assures us that "no name can ever truly become extinct", and says that it's more interesting to consider the names that have "gone out of fashion and those that have boomed in the last 100 years".
Others have slipped considerably but are "at risk" rather than "extinct". These include William and Patrick, which have fallen in popularity by 96 per cent and 95 per cent respectively while Ellen, Elizabeth and Annie have fallen by 97 per cent, 96 per cent and 95 per cent respectively.
Some other trends are more subtle, such as the move towards using shortened versions of traditional names, which then replaces the original name in terms of popularity. For example, Theo is chosen over Theodore, Alex over Alexander and Charlie over Charles. For girls, this is the same, with Kate overtaking Catherine and Ella overtake Eleanor in popularity.
It's clear from the data that traditional names are booming. For example, Adam, Harry and Luke have seen a popularity increase of 1,396 per cent, 979 per cent and 708 per cent respectively, while for girls, Emma, Lucy and Grace saw increases of 555 per cent, 472 per cent and 282 per cent respectively.
