Name statistics

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The nickname statistics (also: name Statistics ) deals with the frequency of individual names or name groups and the development of these frequencies. A distinction must be made between first names and surnames and possibly other types of names. Information on the frequency of names initially satisfies the interest of broad sections of the population, but can also meet practical needs, for example when choosing first names for newborns if the name should not be too common or too rare. In the case of frequent family names, there is occasionally the need to introduce differentiating additions to names, for example with the politician Hermann Schmitt-Vockenhausen , who was born as Hermann Schmitt in Eppstein-Vockenhausen and later officially named himself after his place of birth.

Public response

The great interest in the frequency of names is reflected in the regular reporting in the media about the preferred first names, which can vary from region to region and also change over time, most clearly recognizable by the phenomenon of fashion names. So Koß shows in a graphic how the names Peter and Andreas show the typical frequency of fashion names from the forties to the seventies of the last century. The annual reports on first name selection in the magazine Der Sprachdienst der Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache ( GfdS ) are particularly detailed , for example in the article by Rüdebusch 2017. Tables of the 10 most common first names for boys and girls in 22 countries in 2004/05 can be found, albeit without data, in the Dudenverlag's first name dictionary.

At the beginning of the name statistics

At least for names in the German-speaking area, it can be stated that there were relevant surveys as early as the 19th century. For example, Förstemann (1953) collected data on how a phonetic change took place in the fraternity book of St. Peter zu Salzburg for the period between 800 and 1200. Another survey (Förstemann 1852) concerns the different structure of old German names from word stem / word stems and ending. In Bacmeister (1870) we find compilations on the frequency of surnames in Reutlingen and Eningen.

Name statistics as a subject of investigation in quantitative linguistics

Another aspect to deal with name research is to examine whether the frequencies of names have regularities as suggested by quantitative linguistics in general. Such questions are apparently still largely in their infancy. Therefore only a few pointers can be given here.

Historical aspect

As already indicated, Förstemann collected a phonetic (orthographic?) Process (the transition from <ai> to <ei>) over the period from 800 to 1200, for which it can be proven that it proceeds according to Piotrowski's law .

Fashion names can also be understood as historical processes that should conform to Piotrowski's law. The above-mentioned graphic by Koß confirms this for all four names shown. however, due to a lack of data, a test of this assumption is not possible.

Structural aspects

At the moment, the best evidence is probably that both family names and first names, ranked according to their frequency, are subject to rules of rank.

Another field that has been tried and tested several times is the law of diversification . A typical case for this are family names, such as Lange , Langer. Lang and Langen are based on the same root word and their frequency relationships prove to be regular. Several other cases of diversification in both family and first names were tested with the same result.

As an example, take the diversification of the name Schmidt and its variants, as Bluhme has determined based on the telephone connections of the cities of Bolzano and Merano, ordered according to decreasing frequency:

rank Spelling number
1 Blacksmith 65
2 Schmid 41
3 Schmitt 36
4th Schmidt 26th

In this case, diversification is based on only four different forms; there are names with less, but also those with much greater diversification.

There is one more observation to add to the text block law , which has proven to be successful.

literature

  • Rosa and Volker Kohlheim (editor): Duden. The great first name dictionary. 3rd, completely revised edition. Dudenverlag, Mannheim / Zurich 2007, reprint 2012, ISBN 978-3-411-06083-2 , list of tables p. 517.
  • Rosa and Volker Kohlheim (editor): Duden. Family name, origin and meaning. Dudenverlag, Berlin 2005. P. 51 f.
  • Konrad Kunze: dtv-Atlas onomastics. First and last names in the German-speaking area. 5th, revised and corrected edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1998. ISBN 3-423-03266-9 .
  • Gerhard Müller: The most popular first names in Germany since 1960. In: Jürgen Eichhoff, Wilfried Seibicke, Michael Wolffsohn (editor): Name and company. Social and historical aspects of naming and name development. Dudenverlag, Mannheim, Leipzig, Vienna, Zurich 2001, ISBN 3-411-70581-7 , pp. 52-69.
  • Frauke Rüdebusch: The most popular first names 2017. In: Der Sprachdienst 3, 2018, pp. 91–110.

Web links

Wiktionary: Name statistics  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See “Field name statistics” in Gerhard Bauer: Namenkunde des Deutschen. Peter Lang, Bern, Frankfurt am Main, New York 1985, ISBN 3-261-03205-7 , p. 107 f.
  2. ^ Gerhard Koß: Name research. An introduction to onomastics. Niemeyer, Tübingen 1990, ISBN 3-484-25134-4 , p. 88.
  3. ↑ Frauke Rüdebusch: The most popular first names 2016. In: Der Sprachdienst 3, 2017, pp. 125–144.
  4. ↑ Rosa and Volker Kohlheim (Editor): Duden. The great first name dictionary. 3rd, completely revised edition. Dudenverlag, Mannheim / Zurich 2007, reprint 2012, ISBN 978-3-411-06083-2 , list of tables p. 517.
  5. ^ Ernst Förstemann: The diphthongs in the brotherhood book of St. Peter in Salzburg. In: Journal for comparative linguistic research in the field of German, Greek and Latin (= Kuhns Zeitschrift ) 2, 1853, pp. 337-350, reference pp. 338 f.
  6. ↑ Ernst Förstemann: The composition of old German personal names. In: Journal for comparative linguistic research in the field of German, Greek and Latin (= Kuhns Zeitschrift) 1, 1852, pp. 97–116, reference pages 102, 103.
  7. ^ Adolf Bacmeister: Old family names. In: Adolf Bacmeister: Germanistic little things. Kröner, Stuttgart 1870, pp. 1-52.
  8. ^ Karl-Heinz Best : Adolf Lucas Bacmeister (1827-1873). In: Glottometrics. 13, 2006, pp. 79-84. (PDF full text ). Also in: Karl-Heinz Best: Studies on the History of Quantitative Linguistics. Volume 1. RAM-Verlag, Lüdenscheid 2015, ISBN 978-3-942303-30-9 , pp. 7-13.
  9. ^ Karl-Heinz Best: Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann (1822–1906). In: Glottometrics. 12, 2006, pp. 77-86. (PDF full text ). Also in: Karl-Heinz Best: Studies on the History of Quantitative Linguistics. Volume 1. RAM-Verlag, Lüdenscheid 2015, pp. 51–61, reference pp. 55 f. ISBN 978-3-942303-30-9 .
  10. ^ Karl-Heinz Best: Ranking of German proper names. In: Gabriel Altmann , Iryna Zadorozhna, Yuliya Matskulyak (eds.): Problemy zagal'noho, hermans'koho ta slov'janskoho movoznavstva do 70-riccja professora VV Levic'koho / Problems of General, Germanic and Slavic Languages. Papers for 70-th Anniversary of Professor V. Levickij. Chernivtsi: Books - XXI 2008, pp. 454-460.
  11. ^ Karl-Heinz Best: Quantitative Linguistics. An approximation. 3rd, heavily revised and expanded edition. Peust & Gutschmidt Verlag, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-933043-17-4 , p. 84 f.
  12. ^ Karl-Heinz Best: Diversification of proper names. In: Peter Grzybek & Reinhard Köhler (Eds.): Exact Methods in the Study of Language and Text. Dedicated to Gabriel Altmann on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019354-1 , pp. 21–31.
  13. ↑ Hermann Bluhme: Comments on the forms of the name "Schmidt". In: Peter Grzybek & Reinhard Köhler (Eds.): Exact Methods in the Study of Language and Text. Dedicated to Gabriel Altmann on the occasion of his 75th birthday. Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019354-1 , pp. 33-38, table p. 36.
  14. ↑ Examples of much greater diversification in names in the article by Best (2007), in the same volume as that of Bluhme.
  15. ^ Karl-Heinz Best: Quantitative Linguistics. An approximation. 3rd, heavily revised and expanded edition. Peust & Gutschmidt Verlag, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-933043-17-4 , p. 102.