Given names in 2000: Lieberson on forename taste · 461
Given names shows why a name survives in 2000 under “Lieberson on forename taste.” The figure beside that is 2000. Do not write a baby-name score as if it were a statute. Separate the name you register from the name you call. A generation character and a saint’s name are different technologies for filling the given slot.
The name you are given — saints, generation syllables, fashion files and the gap between a legal forename and what people actually shout. A given name is the personal slice of a naming system: the part that usually distinguishes siblings, not the inheritable family tag. It is “given” by parents, godparents, elders or a ritual — and then given again every time a teacher, clerk or algorithm decides how to say it.
This page stays with forenames: how they are chosen, counted and constrained. Surnames, nicknames and usernames have their own chapters. Is a given name always the first name? No. In much of East Asia the family name is written first. “Given” means bestowed, not left-to-right order.
Where can I see how common a given name is? SSA (U.S. from 1880), ONS (England and Wales) and Statistics Korea publish counts. Always keep the year on the citation. They can be used as signals. Bertrand and Mullainathan showed U.S. employers treating forenames as racial cues on otherwise identical résumés.
Say Given names with 2000, “Lieberson on forename taste,” and 2000. Luck-stars are not those three.2000
Figures to keep
- Year of the rule
- 2000
- Figure on the name
- 2000
- Topic
- Given names
- Line in the record
- Lieberson on forename taste
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