A few days ago the Old Salt had an appointment in the city. When we walked into the office we were greeted by these stockings hanging on the front of one of the desks. I walked over and commented that they must have known I was coming that day because they hung a stocking for me.
Actually, it is still a surprise anytime I see my name in print or meet someone with the same name. I don't think my name is all that common. I was out of school and well into my working life before I met the first person that shared my name. I met more of them in the last ten years than in the previous 55.
I heard about a website some years ago that uses census records to tell you how many other people have your same name. I checked out my name at that time but did not recall the number, so when I had time today I decided to check out the site again. I discovered there are 317,160 people in the US named Rita as of the 2000 census, and Rita is the 204th most popular woman's name. Mary is still the number one woman's name with over four million named Mary in the US.
While I was on the site I decided to check out the other two names on the stockings in my photo. So this is how the three names checked out.
Rita --- 317,160 ---204th place
Angie --- 83,956 --- 595th place
Ginny --- 7,774 --- 2,138th place
It turns out that my name is not all that rare after all. At least, as far as the three women who worked in this office were concerned. But, if Angie and Ginny were nick names and I used Angela and Virginia, the names they are most often short for, then we would stack up like this.
Angela --- 727,620 --- 65th place
Virginia --- 668,539 --- 73rd place
Rita --- 317,160 ---204th place
And that puts me back in the not so common category. When I checked for my full name. First and Last the answer was zero. Now, no need to panic and start calling the website to report an error. These records are as of the 2000 census, and, the Old Salt and I were not married until 2007. So I am going to assume that I am the only one with my full name in the US. Now that is rare.
So, how many people share your name. Visit this website and find out. Go to How Many Of Me dot com
Mary is #1 really;)...besides all the Mary's I'm related too;)...can't say that I know another!
ReplyDeleteOkay here's the challenge. My first name is really Martha and my Donnie is a nickname for Donalda. Don't think there is too many of those. Rita sounds like a common name to me.
ReplyDeleteThere are quite a few Rita's over in this country : I've always thought it was a nice name.
ReplyDelete