1. Analyses of first names in The Netherlands: full population studies Gerrit Bloothooft Institute of Linguistics OTS Utrecht University

2. CTL colloqium June 20062 Dutch studies on first names  Limited scientific work so far –Dictionary (20.000 entries) –Few socio-linguistic studies Limited scope, small samples  Topic is extremely popular in the media

3. CTL colloqium June 20063 Research dimensions in onomastics –Name –Form and spelling –Origin –Motives –Time –Place require a lot of data

4. CTL colloqium June 20064 Full population  Gemeentelijke Basis Administratie (GBA), Civil Administration  Electronically from 1994  Legal right to use data for scientific research  16+ million people

5. CTL colloqium June 20065 Connected!  UiL-OTS and Meertens Institute are connected to the GBA on June 1, 2006  The right to make a rich data extraction for the full population (all persons with Dutch nationality): planned July 1, 2006

6. CTL colloqium June 20066 Research proposal NWO  The first name revolution in the 20 th century in The Netherlands – the first name as a measure of social and linguistic change

7. CTL colloqium June 20067 Mile stones  Traditional naming (after relatives) decreased enormously during the 20 th century, especially second half  Full freedom for parents through name law of 1970 -> Naming of children became a very personal linguistic and social expression during the last 50 years

8. CTL colloqium June 20068 Major topics  Changes in naming after relatives  Relations between names and social classes (sets and spelling)  Regional spread of names, dialectal influences  Life cycles of names

9. CTL colloqium June 20069 What do we get (per person)  All first names  Date -, place -, postal code -, land of birth, gender, date of decease (after 1994)  Parents: first names, date & place of birth  Children: first names, date & place of birth  Administrative number of all persons with own record this is unprecedented (also internationally)!

10. CTL colloqium June 200610 Looking for mechanisms  All research topics can be described as the search for large scale mechanisms and relations  Away from the individual name, towards much higher aggregation levels

11. CTL colloqium June 200611 Towards name sets  From 16+ million names with  over 200.000 different first names  to a much lower number of name sets that have homogeneous properties

12. CTL colloqium June 200612 A previous study (2000-2004)  First names from the National Social Security Bank (SVB)  All children born since 1983 –first name (official, no nick name, but..) –year of birth –family code (separate table) –postal code (four digits)

13. CTL colloqium June 200613 A very rich source  4.2 million children (1983-2002) –200.000 per year  1.9 million families  176.800 different first names –108.500 unique names –3.120 names with frequency > 100 represent 85% of the children

14. CTL colloqium June 200614 Datareduction needed  Far too many names to describe one by one  Names with common properties –Not from etymological point of view –Not from linguistic point of view –Based on choices of parents name use!

15. CTL colloqium June 200615 Naming and social classes Hypothesis:  There are social classes with own naming preferences  These classes/subcultures may relate to –culture/language (Frisian, Arabic, Turkish, Surinam, Antillean,..) –religion (Catholic, Protestant, Islam,..) –sociological status (education, income,..) –geography (urban, rural, regional,..)

16. CTL colloqium June 200616 Research aims:  Identification of social classes (and their naming preferences) on the basis of the first names of children per family  Study of the relation between these subcultures (first names) and socio- cultural and geographic factors

17. CTL colloqium June 200617 Method (a chain of names)  Parents choose first names from a set that is popular in their subculture (relatives, friends, neighbours,..) (with higher probability) [Social Group size is about 150]  This is informative only if there is more than one child (more than one name) in a family  Pairs of first names (from a family) as unit for analysis

18. CTL colloqium June 200618 Method (a chain of names)  Children in on family: Mark, Peter, Linda If Mark is popular in a subculture, then Peter and Linda may be popular as well Name pairs: Mark - Peter, Peter - Mark, Mark - Linda, Linda - Mark, Peter - Linda, Linda - Peter

19. CTL colloqium June 200619 Method (a chain of names)  Select all families with two or more children (1.17 million families, 2.81 million children)  Derive all pairs of first names (from a single family) (in all, 2.12 million different pairs)  Compute the frequency of each pair  The higher the frequency of a pair, the more likely the first names in the pair belong to the same set

20. CTL colloqium June 200620 Most frequent name pairs FrequencyPair of first names 1091JohannesMaria 790JohannesJohanna 754JeroenMartijn 727JohannaMaria …. 572MohamedFatima 459LarsNiels

21. CTL colloqium June 200621 Clustering of first names  Define measure that reflects relationship between two names  Combine names, which mutually have a strong relationship, into a set –Johannes, Maria, Johanna, …

22. CTL colloqium June 200622 Name relationship measure  Esther –7.967 girls –12.973 brothers and sisters –276 times sister Judith (= 2.1 %)  Judith –4.828 girls –8.033 brothers and sisters –276 times sister Esther (= 3.4 %)  Geometric average (2.7 %) –A symmetric measure of relationship between the two names

23. CTL colloqium June 200623 Clustering of first names  Name pairs from a (subculture-related) set have the highest relation measure Esther: Judith2.7 Mirjam2.4 Ruben1.2 David1.1 Judith: Esther2.7 Mirjam1.6 Ruben1.0 Miriam0.8

24. CTL colloqium June 200624 Clustering  Start with strongly related name-pairs  Add new name-pair to existing cluster or start a new cluster  Iterative procedure

25. CTL colloqium June 200625 Clustering results  4.013 first names –Frequency of a pair > 4  result: 340 name sets –Limited number of large sets –High number of small sets  top-25 of sets is most illustrative –2.887 first names –2.64 million children (75%)

26. CTL colloqium June 200626 Features of name sets  Period of maximum popularity refine! –Traditional, Pre-modern (1950-1980), Modern  Language –Dutch, Frisian, English, American, French, Spanish, Italian, [Arabic, Turkish] –Common Western  Topic area –Nature, History & Culture, Old Testament  Length –Short (one syllable), long

27. CTL colloqium June 200627 A map of name sets  Presentation of a map of name sets –Based on mutual relations between name sets  The closer two name sets on the map, the more related the sets

28. CTL colloqium June 200628 Spanish & Italian Long American & English Short American & English Pre-modern English & French Long names from the Old Testament Names from nature Long names from history and culture Short modern Common Western Pre-modern Common Western Long FrenchScandinavian Pre-modern Dutch Short modern Dutch Traditional Dutch Latin | Dutch Short traditional Dutch Frisian

29. CTL colloqium June 200629 Dimensions Long Short Modern Pre-modern Traditional Foreign Common Western Dutch, Frisian

30. CTL colloqium June 200630 Spanish & Italian RICARDO Long American & English MICHAEL Short American & English Pre-modern English & French DENNIS KIM Names from the Old Testament DANIËL Names from nature IRIS Names from history and culture LAURENS Short modern TIM Common Western Pre-modern MARK Common Western FrenchScandinavian NIELS CHARLOTTEPre-modern Dutch JEROENShort modern Dutch BART Traditional Dutch JOHANNES | JAN Short traditional Dutch TEUN Frisian JELLE

31. CTL colloqium June 200631 Geographical distribution  four-digit postal code area level [3584] –Big differences between pc areas city quarters villages (religion) –Enough children for characterisation On average 1200 births per pc in 20 years Some further name grouping needed

32. CTL colloqium June 200632 Further grouping Traditional names (Latin form) Traditional names (Dutch) Frisian names Pre-modern names (Dutch, Western) Foreign names (English) Short modern names (Dutch, Western, Skand) Names from OT, history, culture, nature Arabic & Turkish names [unrelated group] Other [low frequent] % 8 5 3 12 24 13 7 5 23

33. CTL colloqium June 200633 Spanish & Italian Long American & English Short American & English Pre-modern English & French Names from the Old Testament Names from nature Names from history and culture Short modern Western Pre-modern Western FrenchScandinavian Pre-modern Dutch Short modern Dutch Traditional Dutch Short traditional Dutch Short Pre-Modern Foreign Traditional Latin Dutch Frisian History & Culture

34. CTL colloqium June 200634 Traditional (Dutch) Aaltje Barend Dirkje Evert Geertje Harm Jantje Klaas Margje Teunis

35. CTL colloqium June 200635 Traditional (Latin form) Adriana Bernardus Christina Eduard Elisabeth Franciscus Geertruida Hubertus Johanna Krijn Maria

36. CTL colloqium June 200636 Frisian names Aafke Bauke Douwe Froukje Joppe Jitske Jelle Menno Sietske Onno Wietske Wiebe

37. CTL colloqium June 200637 Pre-modern names (Dutch, Western) Anniek Anita Carla Frank Jochem Jeroen Linda Mark Marloes Paul Suzanne

38. CTL colloqium June 200638 Foreign names (English) Amanda Dennis Danny Chantal Henry Isabella Kim Kevin Melissa Ricardo Samantha Stephen

39. CTL colloqium June 200639 Short names (modern, Dutch, Western, Skand) Anne Bart Eva Gijs Lisa Kaj Niels Sanne Sofie Tim

40. CTL colloqium June 200640 Religion Short names - Religion None Protestant Catholic

41. CTL colloqium June 200641 Old testament history, culture, nature Daniël Esther Judith Naomi Willemijn Diederik Frederieke Maurits Iris Fleur Jasmijn

42. CTL colloqium June 200642 Religion Income Lowest Highest

43. CTL colloqium June 200643 Arabic and Turkish names Fatima Mohamed Noura Hamza Sara Yassin Fatma Mustafa Hatice Mehmet

44. CTL colloqium June 200644 Further geographical analysis  Per pc area: percentage of children per name group (8 values)  These percentages reflect social composition of the pc area  Factor analysis on data from 3584 pc areas  10 typical profiles

45. CTL colloqium June 200645 10 profiles Traditional – Latin form Traditional – Dutch Transitional, Traditional Dutch to pre-modern Transitional, Traditional Latin form to foreign Pre-modern Foreign Short Elite Arabic-Turkish Frisian

46. CTL colloqium June 200646 Example profile Traditional – Latin form Traditional – Latin form Traditional – Dutch Frisian names Pre-modern names Foreign names Short names Names from OT, history, culture, nature Arabic and Turkish names other % 37 18 1 8 12 6 6 0 12

47. CTL colloqium June 200647 Naming map of the Netherlands short foreign Frisian traditional Latin elite Arab Turkish pre- modern traditional Dutch >foreign

48. CTL colloqium June 200648 Education level EU constitution votes

49. CTL colloqium June 200649 Education level Educational level Highest Lowest

50. CTL colloqium June 200650 Conclusions  Successful data reduction  Name groups & subcultures –language, income, education, religion  Geographic representation –four-digit postal code area just right  The factor time should be included

51. CTL colloqium June 200651 The Wegener connection  Direct marketing company  Organises twice a year a national consumer questionnaire  200.000 families per year –Wide range of information Income, education level –Includes first names and year of birth of all family members

52. CTL colloqium June 200652 Correlation at family level (instead of postal code level)  Name set & –Income of parents –Educational level (of both parents) –(newspapers, underwear, cars, insurance, holidays,…..) preferences of parents

53. CTL colloqium June 200653 Mathematical studies  Life cycle of a name  Zipf’s behavior –A few names with high frequency, a lot of names that are unique information function of a name in communication

54. CTL colloqium June 200654

55. CTL colloqium June 200655 Research dimensions in onomastics –Name –Form and spelling –Origin –Motives –Time –Place YES, we can do great research on this with the full population data!

56. CTL colloqium June 200656 Contact  Book: Over voornamen, Het spectrum (2004)  E-mail: Gerrit.Bloothooft@let.uu.nl  Homepage: www.let.uu.nl/~Gerrit.Bloothooft/personal  Mail: Trans 10, 3512 JK Utrecht, The Netherlands