[name_m]Hi[/name_m] all! I was super excited to see 2019’s SSA name data, and ended up doing some calculations that I thought I would share! These numbers are based on the 2019 SSA top 1000 names, so when I say “X% of babies had names ending in N,” that means X% of the babies whose names are recorded within the top 1000, not all babies overall, since I had no way to count the names that didn’t make the top 1000.
Anyway, here’s what I discovered!
24.96% of boys born in 2019 had names ending with the letter N. However, 0.42% had names that ended in the ‘n’ sound but weren’t spelled with a N at the end ([name_u]Lane[/name_u], [name_m]Boone[/name_m], etc.). Once these numbers are added, 25.38% of boys have names ending in the ‘n’ sound.
354 of the top 1000 girls’ names end in the letter A. However, this includes names like [name_u]Chelsea[/name_u] that don’t end in an ‘a’ sound. It also doesn’t include names like [name_f]Hannah[/name_f] or [name_f]Maliah[/name_f] that end in an ‘a’ sound but not with the letter A. Taking this into account, 405 of the top 1000 girls’ names actually end in an ‘a’ sound.
However, because most names only go to a small number of babies, only 26.5% of girls actually received names ending in the letter A. Adding all ‘ah’ sound endings, this becomes 29.4% of the girls born in 2019.
266 of the top 1000 girls’ names begin with a vowel (not including Y). 165 of these names begin with A, 73 begin with E, 18 begin with I, and 10 begin with O. There are no girls’ names beginning with U in the top 1000 for 2019.
Meanwhile, only 177 of the top 1000 boys’ names begin with a vowel (not including Y). 101 of these names begin with A, 46 with E, 15 with I, 12 with O, and 3 with U.
Anyway, I just thought this was interesting and I would share! The percentages were all calculated by adding the “percent of total births” of each name fitting the criteria. I might come back and edit this later once I’ve done more calculations- if there’s anything specific you’re interested in seeing, let me know!
Edited to add more data (all new data is below)
12.8% of boys born in 2019 had names ending in a vowel, not including Y
If you include names ending in Y, the number becomes 16.5%
If you add vowel-sound endings that aren’t spelled with a vowel (like Noah or Elijah), that number becomes 19.95%
However, if you want to subtract names that end in a vowel but not a vowel sound (like Luke or Chase), it drops back down to 16.2%
Within the 302 vowel-ending boys’ names, the most popular ending is E (98 names), followed by O (79 names), then Y (75 names), then I (29 names), then A (18 names), and finally U (3 names).
This is so cool. Of the 26.5% of girls whose names ended in a what % are attributed to just the few names in the top 10. [name_f]Olivia[/name_f], [name_f]Emma[/name_f], [name_f]Ava[/name_f], [name_f]Sophia[/name_f] and [name_f]Isabella[/name_f] are the top 5 names and so must account for a lot of that. [name_f]Amelia[/name_f] and [name_f]Mia[/name_f] are 7th and 8th.
@dogs_books Thank you, I’m glad you found it interesting!
@Hypatia_Hellene Thank you! The names ending in A within the top 10 are given to 5.6% of girls combined, so the other ~23.8 percent is from other names.
The actual percentages will be even higher, in that case! Your figures show the proportion of (for example)
girls with names that are in the Top 1000 and end in A
as a percentage of
all births including those outside the Top 1000
So if you were to trawl the full list and add all the other A ending names that rank below that (including those we don’t have access to because there were fewer than 5 births), the figure would be even higher – I’d guess significantly higher.
I was curious so I combed through the names beyond the top 1000… I believe the highest ranking U name for girls is [name_u]Unique[/name_u] with 107 births, ranking at #1,869.
@Hypatia_Hellene would assume you’re right about most boys’ names ending in a vowel end in E. I don’t know the percentage but I can go calculate it now!
I reckon O-ending boys’ names could be giving the Es a run for their money soon! Given all the Spanish and Italian names that are in regular use, plus the increasing popularity of O as an ending sound for both sexes.
@Hypatia_Hellene@katinka E and O were the most common vowel endings by a lot, but E is still more prevalent than O. I do think O endings will be growing in popularity in the coming years, though.
Here’s the boys’ name endings data (I’ll edit the original post and add it there, too)
12.8% of boys born in 2019 had names ending in a vowel, not including Y
If you include names ending in Y, the number becomes 16.5%
If you add vowel-sound endings that aren’t spelled with a vowel (like [name_u]Noah[/name_u] or [name_m]Elijah[/name_m]), that number becomes 19.95%
However, if you want to subtract names that end in a vowel but not a vowel sound (like [name_m]Luke[/name_m] or [name_u]Chase[/name_u]), it drops back down to 16.2%
Within the 302 vowel-ending boys’ names, the most popular ending is E (98 names), followed by O (79 names), then Y (75 names), then I (29 names), then A (18 names), and finally U (3 names).
This was fascinating! Thanks so much! Certainly not asking you to do more calculating, but it would also be really interesting to see the breakdown of syllables in names used. I’d guess 2 syllables is the most common for both boy and girls, but I could be wrong.
I love this! It is so interesting and analyzing name statistics is one of my favourite things to do. One thing I always find interesting is to see how names rank when you consider all of the spelling variations within the list. So, for Aiden, it is currently ranked number 20, but when you include Ayden, Aidan, Adan and Aden, the percentage according to percent of total births becomes 0.8031% which places ‘Aiden’ at number 3 and means there are more people named some variation of Aiden than Oliver (0.7278%). This means you hear the name ‘Aiden’ more than you hear the name Oliver.
