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2 years ago in Historical Archaeology , History By Joshna
Where can one find reliable data on baby name frequencies or registrations in 17th-century England?
I'm conducting a demographic and cultural study. Parish baptismal registers are the obvious source, but are there any compiled datasets, published analyses, or digitized collections that aggregate this data, allowing for analysis of trends over the century or comparisons between regions?
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By Akash Answered 10 months ago
Comprehensive centralized data doesn't exist, but robust sources do. Your foundation is transcribed and published parish registers, many available through county record societies or online via TheGenealogist or Ancestry. For aggregated analysis, I recommend the Cambridge Group for the History of Population & Social Structure (CAMPOP) datasets, which include name frequencies from sample parishes. Scholarly works like Scott Smith-Bannister's *Names and Naming Patterns in England 1538-1700* provide analyzed trends. Start with a defined region, utilize these transcriptions, and build your dataset, noting the challenges of spelling variation and record survival.
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