I know you berries know… [name]How[/name] do I find out of a rare (possible) name has ever been used?
My darling hubby came up with a really cute place name, and I was wondering if it had ever been used as a name… Anyone know how I can find this out?
It’s definitely not in any name databases.
Much appreciation!
Hmm. If it’s not in any database, then there’s a good likelihood that it’s probably not been used! The only idea I have is to check this page on the SSA list (Popular Baby Names)–there’s a link to download national and state data beyond the usual top 100 (state) or top 1000 (national). They do only list names that have been used five times each year in whatever location, though, to protect privacy and such. If it’s not listed on one of those lists, I’m not sure where you’d find it!
Good luck!
woooooww. That is so much information! Sifting through that is a job!
What’s the name? Maybe one of us here has heard it or knows about it.
hmmm… should I share? can I trust you?
haha!
it’s Petalu.ma (no dot, obviously)
we live in [name]North[/name] [name]Cali[/name] (it’s a lovely town nearby) and we like that it has a lot of nn possibilities.
What ya think?
No takers? is it bad?
I think it’s cute! It sounds familiar, although I think it just has that quality rather than ever having heard of someone with this name, which is nice.
I would like to know how to find out if a name has been used too, but I plan on living my life a large portion in other contries so US gov sites won’t help me much! Best of luck to you with your name~
Petalu is cute. Go for it! It reminds me of [name]Petula[/name], which I also find adorable.
Hello, if you have downloaded the folder with baby names from the social security site, you can open a terminal and go to the location of the folder (called names). Then, with one command, you can sift through all the years looking for a specific name. [name]Just[/name] time: grep -r Petalu.ma * (without the dot of course) ‘-r’ means the search should go through all subfolders (all the different years).
I can tell you there were 0 hits! Although as [name]Ashley[/name] explained, that only means that it was never used 5 times or more in a year. Good luck deciding!
Oh dear, ‘time’ should be ‘type’ of course!!!
I’ve never heard of any little [name]Pet[/name]@luma’s before. It is a pretty town, but I’d guess the relative number of girls named that would be pretty darn low!
I googled “baby name” with the name, and it came up in two databases. [name]One[/name] said that it has never ranked as statistically significant in the US. I’m not sure if it’s ever been used, but it seems like it’s extremely rare if it has.
Here’s one who renamed herself Petaluma Petaluma Vale I googled “ms. petaluma” and took california and ca out of the search. You might try something like that. If you google it as well as “baby name” it comes up on some sites with a meaning and I think a few blog entries but I didnt read them yet.
Tons of wonderful info! I sure can count on yall, thanks!