Re: What's your favorite medieval name from the popularity charts?
in reply to a message by I like old names
I don't think Jena would actually have been a male name. I'm guessing it's an abbreviation of Jehannes or something like that. It's not a very good list, tbh - too standardised and too limited in scope.
My favourite which isn't currently in use would be Ibot.
https://nanowrimo.org/participants/christine-seaforth-finch
http://christineseaforthfinch.blogspot.com/
My favourite which isn't currently in use would be Ibot.
http://christineseaforthfinch.blogspot.com/
Replies
If it's straightforward about what it's representing, can it be too standardized and limited? It doesn't seem like its purpose is to present anything other than "Common Names for Adults in Late Medieval England 1377-1381." Maybe you think its purpose is too small?
For a start, it's based on tax rolls rather than births, so it's very constrained to those who were able to pay tax, skewing the sample significantly. Secondly, it's a survey of less than half of England's counties, and without knowing which counties were considered we can't know how heavily weighted it was to a particular area (for example, if the author only considered southern counties nearer to London). Thirdly, it looks like spellings have been standardised and combined, which involves assumptions being made on the part of the modern author which do not necessarily represent the perceptions of the people bestowing or using those names.