Fun finds on the 1880 top 1000!

General Name Discussion
1

I found some really interesting names on the top 1000 from 1880! I just had it almost done and then I clicked another thing on the page and it all disapeared! So I’m going to try this again!

Girls…
[name]Florida[/name]
[name]India[/name]
[name]James[/name] - Mistake?
[name]William[/name] - See above
[name]Zella[/name]
[name]Dovie[/name]
[name]Charles[/name] - Again?
[name]Dorcas[/name]
[name]Izora[/name]
[name]Robert[/name] - ?
[name]Bird[/name] (ie)
[name]Alta[/name]
[name]Edward[/name] - ?
[name]Texas[/name] - !!!
[name]Tennessee[/name]
[name]Pinkie[/name]
[name]Mignon[/name]
[name]Mozella[/name]
[name]Love[/name]
[name]Lella[/name]
[name]Icy[/name]
[name]Mercedes[/name]
[name]Harry[/name] - ?

Boys…
[name]Claude[/name]
[name]Otto[/name]
[name]Luther[/name]
[name]Clifford[/name]
[name]Cornelius[/name]
[name]Roscoe[/name]
[name]Pearl[/name] - ?
[name]Conrad[/name]
[name]Chauncey[/name]
Amborse
[name]Elisha[/name]
[name]Napoleon[/name]
[name]King[/name]
[name]Mary[/name] - ?
[name]Freeman[/name]
[name]Royal[/name]
[name]Washington[/name]
[name]Elwood[/name]
[name]Lafayette[/name]
[name]Aloysius[/name]
[name]Anna[/name] - ?
[name]Clair[/name] - ?
[name]Beverly[/name]
[name]Stonewall[/name]
[name]Vivian[/name]

I don’t have any more time, but if you find some please share! (It doesnt have to be form 1880)

Bounce

2

This list is great! I think that sometimes, when data wasn’t so easy to compile and file as it is now that we have the internet, if names were popular enough for either girls or boys then enough mistakes with gender might be made that the names also appeared in the top 1000 for the opposite sex. Perhaps there were indeed some female [name]Roberts[/name] and [name]Harrys[/name], though - named after a father in lieu of a firstborn son, perhaps, or the children of recent immigrants.

I especially like [name]Aloysius[/name] and [name]Otto[/name] from the boys’ list, and I think [name]Love[/name] would make a great middle, and [name]Icy[/name] a cool nickname. I love [name]Pearl[/name] on a girl, too!

3

[name]Auburn[/name],

that’s what I was thinking about the byos names on the girls list and vice versa. But it also kind of reminded me of the females Jamesons of today!

4

[name]Remember[/name], [name]Zane[/name] [name]Grey[/name]'s original name was [name]Pearl[/name] [name]Grey[/name] - apparently, [name]Pearl[/name] was once male.

5

sorry, you can take the girl away from her nerdy books, but you can’t keep her from being a nerd!
Girls were often given the names of their father’s or other male relatives. Especially [name]James[/name] for some reason. And yes, [name]Pearl[/name], [name]Lacy[/name], [name]Ashley[/name], Etc. were boys names (whose names were probably given to their daughters!)

6

I agree that sometimes when compiling names the records weren’t always correct. I was doing some geneology and found my grandfather and his brother and sister but couldn’t find his second sister. I finally found a census thing and it had her listed as daughter [name]Jim[/name] instead of her actual name which was [name]Jean[/name]. Someone had written it down incorrectly obviously.

7

This thread discusses the cross-gender names on the older SSA lists (as well as a couple of other artifacts that you may encounter):

8

Wow, I didn’t know that! [name]How[/name] odd that it seems so feminine now … It seems a lot of names now very commonly used for girls (I’m not just talking about [name]Madison[/name] et cetera) once belonged to the boys - [name]Vivian[/name], [name]Evelyn[/name], and even [name]Alice[/name].

9

I have a [name]Zella[/name], so I’m a bit partial to the name. [name]Texas[/name], however, would take some time to grow on me. Especially since I’ve never lived there. Thanks for sharing.