RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: ScouseBoy on Saturday 12 September 15 20:16 BST (UK)
-
If you include middle names, how many unique names do you think there may be?
-
That's an interesting question. As a starter for estimating the number, this website claims that the 2000 US census found "at least 151,671 different last names" and "5,163 different first names in common use."
http://howmanyofme.com/
-
If a person has three first names, it would be easier to be unique?
-
Perhaps what I should have said, to clarify my question, "Are there any combination of names, including a middle name) which are unique?
Some surnames may be dying out, of course.
-
Of course there are!
Off the top of my head:
Fifi Trixibelle Geldof,
Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence Geldof
Phaedra Bloom Forever Cohen,
Astala Dylan Willow Geldof-Cohen
Peaches Geldof
-
Of course there are!
Off the top of my head:
Fifi Trixibelle Geldof,
Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence Geldof
Phaedra Bloom Forever Cohen,
Astala Dylan Willow Geldof-Cohen
Peaches Geldof
Let's not forget Dweezil and Moon Unit Zappa...... ;D
-
I thought my own name (forename + surname) was unique, but I've found another 3 with the same combination!
But I'm the only one with my middle name - so I'm unique (I think!) ;D
-
There are a few people with my name, but I have checked my OH and there is only one birth registered for that name and that is him, he has 1 middle name. He does have a slightly unusual spelling of his first name (the person who registered his birth got it a bit wrong ::) ;D)
-
my gt gt Grandmas name is unique,,,,if you search on the BMD,,she is the only one. No wonder it took me 4 years to find her birth certificate !!! ;D ;D ;D
Due to her surname being misheard,,or her mother having an Irish accent....she was registered as Florence Ams b 1858 Manchester. Im still not a 100% sure what the real surname should be,,,,her grandmother and father are in the 1841 census as Eames. ;D
-
It would be impossible to hazard a guess. Hundreds, thousands, millions ....
There is no one else with my name .... (anywhere) ....
-
Many names look unique. You spot one in the tree and think "awesome - easy to find them!" only to discover there are two others in the village and 100 up the road!
:)
-
Many names look unique. You spot one in the tree and think "awesome - easy to find them!" only to discover there are two others in the village and 100 up the road!
:)
:)
Yes, and no one can spell the names so they are misheard, misinterpreted and mistranscribed.
-
I have an ancestor whose given names were Oliver Twist followed by his surname.
Quite bizarre really and I would venture to say, the only one in the world at that time (1890's)
Sue
-
Three from the same family I'd guess would be pretty unique are Denmiln Green, Andrina Jane Green and Mary McLaughlin Suttie Green. Given that, why is it so difficult to track down what happened to the last of those three?!
-
Three from the same family I'd guess would be pretty unique are Denmiln Green, Andrina Jane Green and Mary McLaughlin Suttie Green. Given that, why is it so difficult to track down what happened to the last of those three?!
I bet she reverted to plain Mary Green-would you want to spend all your time explaining you were called Suttie, not Sooty-only to be told "Ah -the same as my cat!"
-
There are a few people with my name, but I have checked my OH and there is only one birth registered for that name and that is him, he has 1 middle name. He does have a slightly unusual spelling of his first name (the person who registered his birth got it a bit wrong ::) ;D)
There are quite a few with my first and last names, but as far as I can see, I am the only one with all four names, even though the b****y bureaucrats spelt the second one wrong when I became a nationalised Aussie. Dosn't matter which spelling I think I am the only one. (Thank goodness ses OH)
-
Interesting thread - so I just checked myself. Yes, at least in UK, I am unique, and so is my sister. Our brother is one of two with the same first name and surname, although if you add his other forenames to the mix, then he is unique too!
-
I too have checked and as far as I can see my christian name /maiden surname combination are unique to me ;D
-
Three from the same family I'd guess would be pretty unique are Denmiln Green, Andrina Jane Green and Mary McLaughlin Suttie Green. Given that, why is it so difficult to track down what happened to the last of those three?!
I bet she reverted to plain Mary Green-would you want to spend all your time explaining you were called Suttie, not Sooty-only to be told "Ah -the same as my cat!"
Suttie is a Scottish surname, with the highest concentration around Fife. One of the families I have researched are Suttie from Angus (Forfarshire).
-
My full name as a birth registration was unique to England & Wales.
However, there have been a couple of chaps with my birth surname who have married girls with my first name combination.
If you search my married name on the internet and online er's etc, there is me and one other person but she doesn't have my middle name but there's no birth or marriage registration to account for her?
My husband's name is unique to the birth index also.
-
I'm sure that there are lots of unique name combinations but individual examples of such don't go far in answering the original question: How many are there?
-
Have been following this thread with interest :D
I googled my four names - no match :D
I then tried variations ie omitting one or other of my middle names - no match
I then tried all those variations with various spellings of my surname - no match :D
snaptoo
added........just googled Christian name and surname and there are lots of me!! ::) ::)
-
Alas! - I have one of the commonest first names in my age group and my maiden name was pretty common. Then I married a man with one of the top ten surnames! :( Just checked and there were 68 of us registered the year I was born, and 240 combinations of my first name and his surname the year I was married.
On the other hand, my grandfather was the only one with his two names 5 years either side of his birth.
-
I suppose you would need to find rare surnames and then unusual combinations of first names
This database was compiled in 2002
http://www.taliesin-arlein.net/names/
my maiden surname was ranked 3707 with 1992
my married surname was ranked 21947 with 191
-
Who would have thought there were only 85 mc coy's
-
Who would have thought there were only 85 mc coy's
That's because you searched with a space - Mc Coy.
If you search McCoy, there are more.
-
Who would have thought there were only 85 mc coy's
That's because you searched with a space - Mc Coy.
If you search McCoy, there are more.
also those stats are forEngland and Wales only.
-
Rarest Surname from my tree that registers an answer on that database is EDBROOK Count= 50 Ranking = 50807, add E to the end and the count is another 259.
And his wife, surname HOUNDEL isn't found on that database, but that might be me not knowing any current variation.
Mind you they were Exmoor folks b 1630's (Withypool and Exford and possibly West Anstey) ... William and Richord (weird enough), who went on to name one son Silvester, and for that combination there are 4 baptisms in Exford during 1654 to 1709.
-
I am unique, as was my Dad, my granddad, great granddad and great great granddad. No peculiar forenames all fairly widespread. But with a rare surname (about 70 of us in the UK) maybe its not surprising.
Are the five unique generations unique?
Simon
-
I think my dad had a unique name, although his first and last names were both quite common, he had a very unusual middle name. His middle name was pretty near being rare back in 1850, but then an ancestor who could not read nor write must have pronounced his name in a broad rural accent and consequently his surname got mis-translated into something even more rare.
-
both my maiden name and married name are quite high in the rankings. My daughters married name gives 5 people with that surname all of which must be her hubby's close relatives.
-
My 2xgreat gran was called Gertrude Georgeanna Wallaker. The only person ever to have lived with that name. In 1871 she was mistranscribed as Jarichnaeade Wallaker.
-
Back to the original question ...
One could roughly estimate the number of unique names that exist in a given population by employing a variant of the technique that biologists call 'capture/recapture.' This is a methodology used to estimate the population size of wild animals. It could be done for England if a large unbiased sample [say, 3000] of English RootsChatters declared whether their own name is unique or not.
# unique names in England/total English population = # unique names in RChatter sample/# RChatters sampled
-
Perhaps what I should have said, to clarify my question, "Are there any combination of names, including a middle name) which are unique?
Some surnames may be dying out, of course.
I think that my mother has the only one combination of all her names in the world (she has four in total) with a google in " " her full name doesn't bring up anyone. She was given a male family member's Christian name and a family maiden name hyphenated together
same family again -My Aunt , mum's sister, has a totally unique Christian name , my gran named her after two Irish nuns that were kind to her when she was in trouble ( my gran was Presbyterian so it's not the norm for my gran to name children after nuns). She combined the two Irish names of these kind nuns together to form one. Most people ask my aunt about her name, it's a really odd name and there is no-one in the available online Bmd's that have her Christian name . I doubt that there s anyone in the world with the name but her as it is a totally made up nonsensical name to others. Google throws up nothing, doesn't recognise it.
My own full name is not too common name or rare a name, there are a lucky handful of us about in the UK ;D, but not out here in Aus as far as I know- thank goodness as I wouldn't want to be bumping into myself all of the time, we'd spend far too much time chatting!
-
Let's not forget Dweezil and Moon Unit Zappa......
Few people forget Dweezil and Moon Unit ... people are more likely to forget their lesser known siblings Ahmet and Diva.
Another unique name combination people often forget is Duncan Zowie Heywood Jones - possibly because most people think his name is something else.
-
If you include middle names, how many unique names do you think there may be?
That is easy to answer.
The same number as the number of words in the world multiplied by the number of possible combinations of those words, plus any spelling variation of the above.
Why?
Because these days any word can be used as a name.
Cheers
Guy
-
Who would have thought there were only 85 mc coy's
That's because you searched with a space - Mc Coy.
If you search McCoy, there are more.
But which one is the real one?
:-[
-
The name I was registered with at birth in 1951 does not come up at all on findmypast so I don't even exist......
....... Found the registration. Phew!!
But only with an initial for my middle name, so it is quite difficult to know if anyone else has the same. ::)
-
I think that my own tripple name is unique, sadly before around 1815 my ancestors seem to have taken the same approach to naming as the Monty Python "Bruce" sketch.
Non uniqueness goes the other way too with four different spellings for one surname (which findmypast didn't identify as variants), and that was just one of my gg grandmothers. Or my grandfather who seems to have had his Christian names registered the wrong way round as he was always known as Charles Reuben, even in his war record, marriage and death certificates rather than the registered Reuben Charles.
-
Giving your own examples of unique names is also relevant to the original question, it is so easy to cry out "off topic" when it is not really off topic is it? If you can expand the chat a bit, you get more out of it.
-
This has made me search my full name, including my middle name, and this appears to bring up nothing on Ancestry or on Google. So I am unique in this respect ;)
I have what I always thought was an unusual (and very slightly embarrassing) surname, and it was only through research that I found it wasn't unusual at all - especially in Kent - and that many people shared my first name as well.
But adding my middle name makes it more unusual, even though my middle name isn't unusual in itself.
My daughter has an unusual first name in this country - it's Italian in origin - but I recently found she had a namesake in Australia. But I bet they don't share her middle name, though.
I would have thought that at any moment children will be born with otherwise unique names.
-
Googling my name, I found a couple of others around the world, but none when I added my middle name.
-
Who would have thought there were only 85 mc coy's
That's because you searched with a space - Mc Coy.
If you search McCoy, there are more.
But which one is the real one?
;D ;D ;D