Pre-1600 English Brass Inscriptions

Women's Names Sorted by Frequency

by Julian Goodwyn (Janell K. Lovelace)

The names analyzed here were taken from funerary brasses in England, and range in date from 1107 to 1600. The second column records the number of times the name appears in the data. The third column is the percentage of the total sample represented by that name (for names that represent more than 1% of the sample), and the last column is the cumulative total percentage of the names listed to that point in the table. Frequencies were taken from Julian Goodwyn's paper in the 1997 KWHS proceedings. These numbers show that while the distribution of feminine names was a bit broader than that of the masculine names, there was still little variety in naming: The ten most common names were shared by 73.9% of the female population.

Elizabeth 119 14.9 14.9
Joan 91 11.4 26.3
Margaret 89 11.1 37.4
Anne 74 9.2 46.6
Alice 63 7.9 54.5
Agnes 47 5.9 60.4
Isabel 33 4.1 64.5
Mary 27 3.4 67.9
Jane 24 3.0 70.9
Katherine 24 3.0 73.9
Margery 20 2.5 76.4
Dorothy 12 1.5 77.9
Eleanor 11 1.4 79.3
Ellen 11 1.0 80.3
Maud 8
Cecily 5
Susan 5
Alys 4
Christine 4
Edith 4
Isabella 4
Julian 4
Kath 4
Audrey 3
Florence 3
Frances 3
Jan 3
Julyan 3
Marion 3
Philippa 3
Thomasine 3

The following names occur twice in the data: Barbara, Bridget, Christina, Clarice, Constance, Denys, Eden, Emma, Evelyn, Florens, Joyce, Margarete, Maria, Thomasyn, Ursula.

The following names occur once in the data: Alianore, Alyne, Amice, Amphelice, Ann, Anna, Annabel, Anys, Baterich, Beatrice, Beatrix, Benet, Bennet, Blanche, Cecil, Cecilia, Cicely, Collys, Crestian, Dennis, Dionisia, Douce, Ele, Ellyn, Elyn, Elynor, Felice, Grace, Helen, Honor, Isabelle, Jacquette, Jeanne, Kateryn, Letitia, Lucas, Lucie, Lucy, Malin, Margry, Marie, Matilda, Maude, Meryell, Mildred, Millicent, Muriel, Owner, Prudence, Rose, Sarra, Sence, Sibil, Suzanne, Sybell, Sybil, Sybill, Wenefride, Willmott, Winnifred, Yedythe.


edited by Arval Benicoeur from the web version of the article.