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Is there a reason April is particularly cruel? Or is this just a reference to April Fools Day?

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Regardless... for this month, I completely overhauled the way I do my Top 10 names. See, in my PNL I have a separate tab called "Love but Can't Use," which are names that - for various reasons - I can't use as a first name in real life.

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Whenever I've crafted a Top 10 list in the past, I've done it basically by dividing a full list into brackets and doing eliminations based on that. While anyone who found my notebook of this would likely deem it a waste of time, it's a ritual that I've found soothing for many years at this point. But... I've always left that "Love but Can't Use" list out of the competition altogether.

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Thinking about it at some point in March, I decided this wasn't really fair. It meant that my actual Top 10 names that I'd always reported in these threads, whose statistics are compiled (by someone... I think...), were potentially inaccurate. So, this time, I included those names; and a perhaps not-so-surprising number of them found their way into the top (these are the names I want submitted for the BtN 2024 statistics):

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Caleb
Derek
Devon
Dominic
Donovan
Finn
Malcolm
Nicholas
Tobias
Wesley
&
Arielle
Cassandra
Daria
Elaine
Elena
Margot
Miriam
Naomi
Sabrina
Tamsin

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While I eventually decided that Arielle & Elaine could be used after all... Derek, Devon, Cassandra, Elena, Margot, and Naomi are still unusable for me. For the purposes of combos, I decided to use the Margaux spelling instead, and replaced the other 5 with names that had just missed the Top 10: Asa, Adrian, Philomena, Arlette, and Anastasia.

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Nicholas Wolfgang
Wesley Owen Rhys
Finn Gabriel
Donovan Leo
Malcolm Elliott
Tobias William
Caleb Isaac James
Dominic Edmund
Asa Raphael
Adrian Richard
&
Sabrina Giselle
Arielle Ruby
Margaux Juliet
Elaine Genevieve
Miriam Alice
Daria Josephine
Tamsin Rebecca
Philomena Rose
Arlette Miranda
Anastasia Lily

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In terms of the transition from last month to this: Tobias (formerly a middle), Derek, Devon, Arielle, Margot, Elena, Elaine, Cassandra, Daria, and Naomi replaced Richard (now a middle), Asa (Top 20 allowed for combos), Jasper, Guinevere, Margaux (spelling allowed for combos), Edith, Alice (now a middle), Josephine (ditto), Hazel, Hailey, and Ursula.

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Honorable mentions go to Harrison, Mercedes, Petra, and Stella, which were on my list in the interim - all before I revamped my methods. And I'm honestly unsure if I can even warm up to the Margaux spelling, and if Margot simply needs to be content as a middle. This is been a busy month!

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Then, just for the heck of it, I looked up my April 2014 list:

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Malcolm Timothy
Dominic Edmond
Kieran Xavier
Torin Elliott
James Hugh
Cameron Bennett
Jonathan David
Nicholas Owen
Wesley Miles
Daryl Vincent
&
Persephone Iris
Juliet Ivy
Adelaide Opal
Ursula Justine
Livia Pearl Eloise
Penelope Wren
Serena Vivienne
Claire Evangeline
Constance Eleanor
Violet Guinevere

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Dominic Edmond merely underwent a minor spelling change, but is still here! There are several familiar faces, though, particularly in the masculine list.

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Please rate my personal name lists:

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www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381
www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381/117507
www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381/109399
www.behindthename.com/pnl/69381/132018