I did this last year with 2019’s data (Interesting SSA data calculations/counting) and now 2020’s is here! I mostly looked at things I consider popular/trendy to see how common they were, as well as other data I found interesting. It’s a bit of a long post, sorry!
Also, disclaimer: any pronunciation-based analysis is based on an American accent, so I can’t guarantee that the pronunciation is the same everywhere.
Here’s what I learned! —
- Within the top 1000, the average boys’ name is 5.67 letters long, while the average girls’ name is 5.99 letters long
— The longest boys’ names are tied at 11 letters, the shortest are tied at 2 letters
— The longest girls’ names are tied at 10 letters, the shortest are tied at 3 letters
- The top 10 male names account for 7.33% of all names given to boys, while the top 10 female names account for 7.21% of all names given to girls
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26.65% of girls received names ending in the letter A – this is up from 2019, but only by 0.15%
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When you subtract names that don’t actually end in the ‘a’ sound (like Chelsea) and add names that end in the ‘a’ sound but don’t end in the letter A (like Hannah) the overall percentage of girls’ names ending in the ‘a’ sound becomes 29.45%
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356 of the top 1000 girls’ names end in the letter A, and 403 end in the “a” sound
- 3.43% of girls received names ending in the ‘lin’ sound
— This includes ‘line’ names that have multiple pronunciations (like Madeline)
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6.75% of girls received names ending in the ‘lee’ sound
— meanwhile, only 0.97% of boys received names ending in the ‘lee’ sound -
‘lee’ ending names made up 108 of the top 1000 girls’ names and 17 of the top 1000 boys’ names
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24.22% of boys received names ending in the letter N, though 24.61% ended in an ‘n’ sound
— this is down by 0.77% from last year -
301 out of the top 1000 boys’ names end in the letter N, though 313 end in an “n” sound
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Of the 301 names ending in N, 39 end in “son”, 31 end in “ton”, and 22 rhyme with Aidan
— these counts only include exact spellings, so things like Jaxon don’t count under ‘son’ despite being ‘son’ variants, because they don’t actually have ‘son’ in the spelling. Similarly, Jaxtyn is not a “ton”. Only the ‘rhymes with Aidan’ category includes variant spellings.
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6.04% of boys received names ending in ‘er’
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When you add the names that are pronounced like ‘er’ but spelled differently (such as Connor or Trevor) that percentage rises to 7.00%
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These make up 55 of the top 1000 boys’ names
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6.28% of boys received names ending in the letter S
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The percentage of S-ending sounds becomes 7.47% once you add names that end in an ‘s’ sound but not with the letter S (Jace, Chase, etc.)
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L was a popular ending for boys in 2020 – 4.96% of baby boys received names ending with the letter
— 53 of the top 1000 boys’ names end in L -
The percentage of L-ending names grows to 5.18% when names that end in the ‘L’ sound but not the letter are included (Cole, Kyle, etc.)
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While there are a few popular boys’ names ending in T, only 2.70% of boys received names ending in the letter
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This makes a small rise to 2.75% when names that end in a ‘T’ sound but not the letter T (like Tate) are included
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13.24% of boys received names ending in a vowel (A, E, I, O, U)
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When Y endings are included, that number jumps to 16.85%
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The number jumps again when names that end in vowel sounds but not vowels are included (like Elijah and Shiloh), becoming 20.37%
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The breakdown of letter endings is…
— A endings – 1.38% (16 names)
— E endings — 4.93% (96 names)
— I endings – 2.03% (29 names)
— O endings – 4.67% (78 names)
— U endings – 0.23% (3 names)
— Y endings – 3.61% (74 names)
— Non-vowel letters, but vowel sounds – 3.52% (23 names) -
When you remove vowel-ending names that don’t end in vowel sounds (like Theodore and Jace) that numbers drops back to 16.72%
As for names beginning with vowels…
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Boys’ vowel initials
— 7.77% of boys’ names began with A (100 names)
— 5.14% of boys’ names began with E (48 names)
— 1.42% of boys’ names began with I (14 names)
— 1.71% of boys’ names began with O (13 names)
— 0.07% of boys’ names began with U (3 names) -
Girls’ vowel initials
— 11.63% of girls’ names began with A (163 names)
— 7.24% of girls’ names began with E (72 names)
— 1.82% of girls’ names began with I (18 names)
— 1.40% of girls’ names began with O (10 names)
— 0% of girls’ names began with U (0 names)
- 41 of the top 1000 boys’ names contain the letter X – these names make up 3.54% of all names given to boys
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123 of the top 1000 boys’ names are also English words – these names were given to 8.62% of baby boys
— this only includes exact spellings of words, so names like Kyng or Forrest aren’t included. It also does not include place names. It does include names that happen to be words but don’t really count as “word names” because they originate completely separately, like Will. -
only 103 of the top 1000 girls names are English words, however they are more popular compared to the boys’ word names, and were given to a higher percentage at 8.81% of baby girls receiving word names
Anyway, I feel like this got really, really long, but I hope people find it as interesting as I do! I’d love to hear people’s thoughts.