27) is a name found in Welsh mythology, and like many such names, we have no evidence that it was used by real people during the Middle Ages.įinally, we have one name which is best described as complicated: Owen (no. And in this batch of names we get our first name of Welsh origin: Dylan (no. It then fell out of use, and was revived in modern times. 39) is an English form of the Old Irish name Ríán, which was used during the 9th-11th C. We have another name of Irish origin: Ryan (no. We’re left with a handful of origins each witnessed by one name. 45), a name of imperial status, most common in Italy and France and found rarely elsewhere. 43), identical in origin to the proper adjective, never extremely popular but found more often in Germanic and Scandinavian contexts and Julian (no. Finally, we have one religious and one secular Latin names: Christian (no. 35), both of which were used throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. The Greek names are names of saints: Christopher (no. We next have four names, two of Greek and two of Latin origin. (Despite this, the name was vastly more popular in France than anywhere else). This is an English form of French Guiart or Wiard, with W- forms being typical of Normandy and Picardy, which in turn derives from two German elements. The third, however, may surprise people by occurring in this category: Wyatt (no. In particular, the eight English kings named Henry have helped ensure the popularity of this name in the English-speaking world, and Charlemagne, one of the Nine Worthies, was a well-respected figure throughout Europe. 50), the names of kings, emperors, and saints. Of equal number are the names of Germanic origin. 47), a Lancashire and Yorkshire form of Graveson ‘son of the greyve (steward)’. 46), a French surname found (among other examples) in the early 15th C in the city of Choisy and Grayson (no. 44), a purely modern spelling of Jackson, which we saw in an earlier post Landon (no. 41), an occupational byname deriving from Old English hunta ‘hunter, huntsman’ Jaxon (no. The next most common type of name in this group are the ones deriving from medieval surnames: Hunter (no. 42), used almost exclusively by Jews medievally. 49), names almost unheard of before the 16th C and still rare then and Levi (no. 31), more commonly used earlier by Jews but becoming popular amongst Protestant Christians in the 16th C Joshua (no. 30), which we could also have included under the “Greek” heading below, and which was relatively common throughout Europe and then various Old Testament names like Isaac (no. 28), which we saw in an earlier post in the Greek-influenced variant Lucas Andrew (no. Other names in this category include Luke (no. 40), a diminutive which has its origins in Middle Dutch Jankin. Part of the reason it has dropped rankings is because of the rising popularity of variant forms and diminutives, which the US Social Security tracks separately, but which we include in a single entry. Since the 12th century it has been, almost without fail, the most popular man’s name across Europe, and it’s only in the last few decades that it has fallen out of favor in America. First we have John (26), a name regarding which we can be surprised for finding it so low. 26-50 on the list of top boy’s names in the US for 2015, we continue the trend of the largest category being the names of Biblical, providing a nice mix of both Old and New Testament names.
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