Names in the Low Lands 1250-1300

High-medieval given names and bynames in The Netherlands and Flanders

Analysis 3: Most popular given names

The two tables below show the most popular given names in this survey. For each location a top-10 is presented. Names that occurred only once have been omitted, so for the locations with low numbers, the list contains less than 10 names. In case of equal rankings, a list may contain more than 10 names. For each name, only one spelling has been used on this page: the most frequent spelling in the overall list. The various spellings that actually occurred in the various locations can be found on the list-pages.

RANK TOTAL N OUD GEN MEI DOR HOL RIN GRO
1 Margareta 58 Margareta Lisebette Aleydis Aghete Aleydis Margareta Aleydis
2 Aleydis 46 Aleydis Margareta Lisebette Lisebette Lisebette Gertrudis Kerstine
3 Lisebette 42 Beatrice Aleydis Mette Avesoete Beatrice Tetta Sophia
4 Gertrudis 22 Katerina Avesoete Berta Machtilden Gisele Aua  
5 Katerina 15 Mabelie Katerina Helewigis Beatrice Margareta Ghela  
6 Mabelie 12 Clementia Aghete Agnes Douwen   Aleydis  
7 Aghete 11 Marie Heile Margareta Yda   Baua  
8 Avesoete 11   Gertrudis   Nannen   Berta  
9 Berta 11   Mabelie   Segherarden   Hildegardis  
10 Mette 11   Marie   Truden      

Most popular feminine names.

RANK TOTAL N OUD GEN MEI DOR HOL RIN GRO
1 Jan 394 Jan Jan Henric Jan Didderic Isanbrandus Henric
2 Willem 245 Wouter Willem Jan Henric Gerart Didderic Jan
3 Henric 213 Willem Boidin Willem Willem Jan Ludolphus Ecbertus
4 Didderic 141 Gilis Henric Arnoud Clais Willem Clais Rodolf
5 Wouter 140 Boidin Wouter Didderic Arnoud Hughe Gerart Herman
6 Gerart 129 Arnulphus Jacob Woute Pieter Clais Dodo Otto
7 Arnould 105 Gosuinus Gilis Gerart Gerart Arnoud Willem Gerart
8 Clais 103 Henric Clais Godefridus Hughe Jacob Alard Clais
9 Boidin 97 Gerart Arnoud Clais Didderic Florens Alwar Frethericus
10 Jacob 79 Stephan Gerart Jacob Thieleman Ghisebrecht Henric  
      Didderic            

Most popular masculine names.

A comparison of the rank-lists does not reveal major differences among the locations. Margareta, Lisebette, and Aleydis were popular (almost) everywhere, and so were Jan, Willem and Henric.
There were some remarkable exeptions. Margareta was not very popular in Dordrecht, and no Lisebettes were recorded in Rinnegom. Among the men, Jan scored low in Rinnegom, Willem in Groningen, and Henric in Holland. However, these exeptions did not represent regional differences, because the names mentioned were popular in neighbouring locations.
A few masculine names enjoyed a remarkable popularity in only one or two locations: Boidin (very popular in Flanders), Didderic and Florens (popular in Holland) and Isbrand (the most popular masculine name in Rinnegom). The name Boidin (Baldwin) had been in use for centuries among the counts of Flanders, and so were the names Didderic (Dirk, Theoderic) and Florens among the counts of Holland. Several lords of Haarlem were called Is(en)brand. Apparently, the names of local rulers were adopted by their subjects.


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 Introduction
References
Locations

Raw data (550 Kb) 		Lists:
Given names women
Given names men
Occupational names and Nicknames 		Analyses:
Non-Germanic names
Variation
Most popular names
Bynames 		© Dr. Kees C. Nieuwenhuijsen

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