The Most Common Christmas Names: Carol and Virginia
Once again, Whitepages, that huge storehouse of the names of people residing in the U.S., continues its practice of putting together interesting—and often humorous– statistical reports on the popularity of names, particularly focused on holidays.
And Christmas is no exception. The current list of Christmas names is of the twelve most festive first and last names in the country, released just in time for the holiday season. Carol (first name) and Bell (last name) were at the top, with 1,148,024 and 385,651 people sharing the names, respectively.
Rounding out the top five first names are Virginia (577,805 people), Holly (298,910 people), Jesus (284,001 people), and Joy (214,192 people). For last names, Noel took second place (41,100 people), followed by Rudolph (27,025), Joy (18,871), and Holly (12,438 ). Interestingly enough, there are 439 people with the first name Christmas, and 7,525 people with it as a last name.
“Many names on the lists are associated with seasonal songs or stories we all know and love, making this data the perfect holiday party conversation topic,” says Christine Morrell, culture and trend expert from Whitepages. “Another fun fact to share – there is one Kris Kringle in the U.S., but he’s not at the North Pole.”
Whitepages data also shows that Americans won’t be searching for Ebenezer Scrooge’s address for their holiday cards, as there is no one with that name in the U.S. (The company’s website and mobile app searches do see an increase in consumers looking up addresses for friends and family during the final weeks of December, peaking with a 217% increase on Dec. 18th.)
The Whitepages Top 12 Holiday Names list breaks down how many people share the names in the U.S., as well as the states where the most people with these names are living—a disproportionate number of them in California.
Top Christmas Names
Carol – 1,148,024; 65,229 in Pennsylvania
Virginia – 577,805; 41,313 in California
Holly – 298,910; 21,041 in California
Jesus – 284,001; 89,465 in California
Noel – 71,816; 10,536 in California
Rudolph – 47,598; 2,719 in Pennsylvania
Merry – 14,226; 560 in Michigan
Claus – 1,614; 70 in Washington
Yule – 121; 22 in California
The 12 Last Names of Christmas
Rudolph – 27,025; 2,176 in California
Joy – 18,871; 1,470 in California
Holly – 12,438; 1,151 in California
Merry – 5,050; 385 in California
Claus – 4,979; 413 in California
Carol – 3,985; 546 in California
Jesus – 3,342; 990 in California
Virginia – 1,598; 327 in California
Yule – 1,506; 190 in California
To learn more about name popularity in the United States, you can visit: http://www.whitepages.com/.