Middle Names

In English they don’t have patronymic names like in Russian, where the father’s first name is passed down to his sons or daughters with an ending like “-ович” or “-овна”. Instead of patronymic names the English have “middle names” which are often taken from the names of people their parents like or respect. For instance, middle name can be taken from father’s friend of the same name. Middle names may also be the second choice name that didn’t quite make it to being your first name or might be taken from other relatives in your family (but not usually your father). Some people may have more than one middle name.

Interestingly, in working class families there is a tradition for fathers to pass on their first name to their eldest son. This can be quite confusing as you may end up with two Johns living under the same roof! That’s why Americans have titles like “John Jr.” and “John Sr.” – meaning “junior” (younger) and “senior” (older). They don’t tend to have these titles in Britain.

Patronymics exist in alternative forms too and often appear in surnames, although here they are likely to be taken from the first name of a long deceased forefather rather than your own father. Surnames of this kind include: Johnson (lit. son of John), Jackson, Wilson, Robinson, Dickson, Andrews, Roberts, Hughes and FitzGerald (Fitz- meaning “son of”). You also have these names in Russian: Иванов, Петров, etc.

Popularity distribution of given names

During most of the 19th century, the most popular given names were Mary and either John  or  William for girls and boys, respectively. Throughout the Early Modern period, the variation of given names was comparatively small; the three most frequent male given names accounted for close to 50% of male population throughout this period. For example, of the boys born in London in the year 1510, 24.4% were named John, 13.3% were named Thomas and 11.7% were named William. A trend towards more diversity in given names began in the mid-19th century, and by 1900, 22.9% of the newborn boys, and 16.2% of the newborn girls in the UK shared the top three given names. The trend continued during the 20th century, and by 1994, these figures had fallen to 11% and 8.6%, respectively. This trend is a result of a combination of greater individualism in the choice of names, and the increasing ethnic heterogeneity of UK population, which led to a wider range of frequent given names from non-European traditions.

The most popular given names vary nationally, regionally, and culturally. Lists of widely used given names can consist of those most often bestowed upon infants born within the last year, thus reflecting the current naming trends, or else be composed of the personal names occurring most within the total population.

The popularity (frequency) distribution of given names typically follows a power law distribution.

The popularity distribution of given names always shifts so that the most popular names lose their popularity. For example, in England and Wales, the most popular female and male names given to babies born in 1800 were Mary and John, with 24% of female babies and 22% of male babies receiving those names, respectively. In contrast, the corresponding statistics for in England and Wales in 1994 were Emily and James, with 3% and 4% of names, respectively. Not only have Mary and John gone out of favor in the English speaking world, also the overall distribution of names has changed significantly over the last 100 years for females, but not for males. This has led to an increasing amount of diversity for female names.