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ArchivesRe: Month names
in reply to a message by Anneza
Well yes, I have seen all twelve of the month names used as given names in the USA, usually for girls except of course for August, though August is also sometimes given to girls now.
In the total Social Security list in the USA for 2021 which gives all names used more than four times for a gender, all of the month names except February and March occur. The totals are were:
January, 15 girls
April, 588 girls
May, 121 girls
June, 1669 girls, 38 boys
July, 17 girls, 13 boys
August, 329 girls, 3133 boys
September, 25 girls
October, 52 girls, 8 boys
November, 44 girls
December, 36 girls
A Chinese-American woman named March Fong Eu was the secretary of state for the state of California for many years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Fong_Eu
February is the rarest month name, befitting its status as the shortest month, but I know I have seen it given at least once in Nebraska, where I can get lists that include all names given in a year, even only once.
In terms of literary references, there was a character named January Wayne as the heroine of the 1973 bestselling novel "Once is Not Enough" by Jacqueline Susann. In 1975 a film of this was made starring Deborah Raffin as January, and there were definitely some girls named January in the late 1970s in the USA because of that.
The fantasy author Catherynne Valente named the heroine of her 2009 adult fantasy "Palimpsest" November. Then she went on to write a series of children's books with long titles, the first being "The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making" (2011), where the young heroine is named September. That book is mentioned in "Palimpsest" as being a book November read when she was a child, and then Valente wrote it afterwards.
In the total Social Security list in the USA for 2021 which gives all names used more than four times for a gender, all of the month names except February and March occur. The totals are were:
January, 15 girls
April, 588 girls
May, 121 girls
June, 1669 girls, 38 boys
July, 17 girls, 13 boys
August, 329 girls, 3133 boys
September, 25 girls
October, 52 girls, 8 boys
November, 44 girls
December, 36 girls
A Chinese-American woman named March Fong Eu was the secretary of state for the state of California for many years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_Fong_Eu
February is the rarest month name, befitting its status as the shortest month, but I know I have seen it given at least once in Nebraska, where I can get lists that include all names given in a year, even only once.
In terms of literary references, there was a character named January Wayne as the heroine of the 1973 bestselling novel "Once is Not Enough" by Jacqueline Susann. In 1975 a film of this was made starring Deborah Raffin as January, and there were definitely some girls named January in the late 1970s in the USA because of that.
The fantasy author Catherynne Valente named the heroine of her 2009 adult fantasy "Palimpsest" November. Then she went on to write a series of children's books with long titles, the first being "The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making" (2011), where the young heroine is named September. That book is mentioned in "Palimpsest" as being a book November read when she was a child, and then Valente wrote it afterwards.
This message was edited 5/8/2023, 9:50 AM
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