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Help[Facts] Big thank-you and query
in reply to a message by Cleveland Kent Evans
This, and the boy list, are a wonderful resource, and I'm delighted that you've put (most!) variants together. Very useful!
Here in South Africa no such lists appear, so I don't know how they are compiled. In the case of, say, Taylor Elizabeth Surname (and I'm sure she exists), do they count both the first name and the middle name, or just the first name? Just looking at the top of the list, I see a mixture of the classic and the Kaylee, and the same on the boy list, so it would be interesting to know if parents are giving a mixture to an individual daughter or son, or if some families take the trendy and others the traditional route. How can the SSA know which name the child will be called by, if they only use the first in line? There are cases - many of them here - of children bearing the name of their grandparent in the first position but being known by their second given name; perhaps not enough to be statistically significant, though that's a guess.
Here in South Africa no such lists appear, so I don't know how they are compiled. In the case of, say, Taylor Elizabeth Surname (and I'm sure she exists), do they count both the first name and the middle name, or just the first name? Just looking at the top of the list, I see a mixture of the classic and the Kaylee, and the same on the boy list, so it would be interesting to know if parents are giving a mixture to an individual daughter or son, or if some families take the trendy and others the traditional route. How can the SSA know which name the child will be called by, if they only use the first in line? There are cases - many of them here - of children bearing the name of their grandparent in the first position but being known by their second given name; perhaps not enough to be statistically significant, though that's a guess.
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Replies
They only use the first name on the birth certificate to create the statistics. Otherwise what are often called the "stock middle names" for girls like Anne, Lynn, Marie, Rose, Renee, etc. would be much higher on the list than they are.
And of course the SSA has no idea what name the child will be called by, as no such information appears on US birth certificates. (I was amazed when someone mentioned on this or another site a while back that in some European countries there is a way to designate it when the child's first name will not be their "calling name." Of course what then happens if later in life that child decides to go by a different one of his or her legal names?)
So statistics from the USA, especially for boys, are going to look more "conservative" than they would if there were a way to know which of these boys had a family name in first position but the parents were planning on calling them by a middle name. There just isn't any way around that problem at the moment except to acknowledge that it exists. So American stats are of "legal first names", which may not be the same thing as what the kids are actually being called in everyday life.
And of course the SSA has no idea what name the child will be called by, as no such information appears on US birth certificates. (I was amazed when someone mentioned on this or another site a while back that in some European countries there is a way to designate it when the child's first name will not be their "calling name." Of course what then happens if later in life that child decides to go by a different one of his or her legal names?)
So statistics from the USA, especially for boys, are going to look more "conservative" than they would if there were a way to know which of these boys had a family name in first position but the parents were planning on calling them by a middle name. There just isn't any way around that problem at the moment except to acknowledge that it exists. So American stats are of "legal first names", which may not be the same thing as what the kids are actually being called in everyday life.
This message was edited 6/8/2009, 10:24 AM
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Wow
I had NO idea that they just count the first name and not the middle names! That explains a lot! Thank you:-)
I had NO idea that they just count the first name and not the middle names! That explains a lot! Thank you:-)
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"Of course what then happens if later in life that child decides to go by a different one of his or her legal names?"
Exactly the same that if later in life a child doesn't like their legal name or names: she/he need to start a bureaucratic process to change it (in this case, to change the name marked as "calling name"). That can be easy or not depending on every country laws.
Exactly the same that if later in life a child doesn't like their legal name or names: she/he need to start a bureaucratic process to change it (in this case, to change the name marked as "calling name"). That can be easy or not depending on every country laws.
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