Home on the Web

By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin

Friday, October 17, 1997

Feds take note
of unique names

You probably don't want the federal government to name your child, but the Census Bureau can help you figure out just how many kids already have the name you are considering.

Go to http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/namesearch.html to have the feds help with your name search.

In a Census Bureau survey, more than 7 million names were collected. There were a total of 88,799 unique last names, 4,275 female first names and 1,219 unique male first names.

There was no explanation for why girls get so many more names than boys.

But if you are a Mary or a James and your last name is Smith, you are No. 1 in the U.S.

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"Home on the Web" is a weekly Friday feature of the Star-Bulletin.
Richard Borreca can be reached by e-mail at rborreca@pixi.com