Distribution of Forenames, Surnames, and Forename–Surname Pairs in the United States

Abstract

Unavailability of data and computational resources has generally limited the study of personal names to that of individual forenames and surnames, small populations, and dictionaries of name types. Considerable attention has been paid to the comparative popularity of forenames but little to the frequency distribution of forenames, surnames, and forename-surname pairs. Frequency distributions for names in the United States are presented and are seen to approximate power law curves. The paradox of the commonality of the rare forename or surname is investigated and the puzzle of the plot of the occupied frequencies is presented.