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Top 100 UK Baby Girls' Names in 1850

Great Exhibition - great names? Try to guess the most common names given to baby girls in England and Wales in the year 1850.
Exact spelling required. There are often many differently-spelled variations of a similar name.
Quiz by ElizaRome
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Last updated: November 3, 2019
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First submittedJanuary 16, 2019
Times taken41,913
Average score28.0%
Rating4.31
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#
Name
1
Mary
2
Elizabeth
3
Sarah
4
Ann
5
Jane
6
Emma
7
Eliza
8
Ellen
9
Margaret
10
Hannah
11
Emily
12
Martha
13
Alice
14
Harriet
15
Maria
16
Louisa
17
Fanny
18
Charlotte
19
Caroline
20
Catherine
#
Name
21
Frances
22
Isabella
23
Anne
24
Lucy
25
Amelia
26
Susan
27
Esther
28
Rebecca
29
Susannah
30
Eleanor
31
Matilda
32
Clara
33
Agnes
34
Julia
35
Catharine
36
Harriett
37
Anna
38
Rachel
39
Lydia
40
Sophia
#
Name
41
Susanna
42
Betsy
43
Ruth
44
Selina
45
Grace
46
Kate
47
Annie
48
Helen
49
Nancy
50
Henrietta
51
Phoebe
52
Rose
53
Betsey
54
Jemima
55
Betty
56
Edith
57
Priscilla
58
Laura
59
Jessie
60
Rosa
#
Name
61
Bridget
62
Amy
63
Dorothy
64
Dinah
65
Lavinia
66
Rhoda
67
Ada
68
Rosina
69
Harriot
70
Georgiana
71
Adelaide
72
Phebe
73
Barbara
74
Florence
75
Hester
76
Christiana
77
Ellin
78
Rosanna
79
Marian
80
Leah
#
Name
81
Georgina
82
Naomi
83
Miriam
84
Isabel
85
Rosetta
86
Rachael
87
Kezia
88
Mercy
89
Janet
90
Angelina
91
Thirza
92
Augusta
93
Letitia
94
Harriott
95
Joanna
96
Helena
97
Bertha
98
Sally
99
Deborah
100
Jennet
+12
Level 74
Nov 3, 2019
Interesting! Kezia and Thirza are new for me. I guessed Eliza thanks to the quiz author's name :)
+6
Level 70
Nov 4, 2019
Aha glad I could help! Thank you for commenting x
+3
Level 66
Nov 19, 2019
The people who got these two must be descendants.
+3
Level 75
Nov 19, 2019
One of my ancestors married a woman named Kezia and she was called Kizzie. Back then in this area many names which ended in an a were pronounced as though they ended in a y. Martha was pronounced Marthy, Lydia was pronounced Liddie, etc.
+1
Level 83
Feb 4, 2024
I thought the same but recently I met a Kezia who is barely twenty, so either it's making a comeback or her parents really liked the Victorian era.
+3
Level 75
Nov 4, 2019
A new featured quizzer - welcome to the club :) I'm a bit confused your profile says you live in Latvia but you don't seem to have visited there yet - how do you manage that?!
+3
Level 70
Nov 4, 2019
Thank you! I thought it would be cheating to list the country in which I live - not visited for a holiday ;-)
+7
Level 77
Nov 19, 2019
I think you're taking "Countries Visited" too literally. The whole purpose of the map is simply to show where in the world you have been. Have you been to Latvia? Of course. Therefore you aren't cheating at all. All that matters is that you've been there!
+4
Level 70
Nov 20, 2019
Yes probably you are right - now I have amended my map to show that I have 'been to' Latvia ;-)
+2
Level 65
Jul 4, 2021
In all the times I attempted this quiz, I never knew you were Latvian. How delightful! I am too.
+5
Level 88
Nov 5, 2019
I wonder how many Victorian squabbles were waged over the Harriet or Harriett debate.
+5
Level 65
Feb 17, 2020
They were too busy deciding about cyprus.
+8
Level 83
Nov 8, 2019
Kind of astounded Victoria isn't on there. Or Abigail, which I'm sure I read was popular in the 19th century?
+2
Level 45
Nov 19, 2019
Agreed, Victoria was the first name I tried
+2
Level 73
Nov 19, 2019
I was surprised about Victoria not being on the list. I wonder if it was improper at the time to name a child after the Queen?
+2
Level 68
Feb 4, 2022
Yes, it was considered presumptuous to name a child after the Queen. Although Queen Victoria's first given name was actually Alexandrina.
+2
Level 75
Nov 19, 2019
The word abigail also referred to a lady's maid - not sure if it was that period or not, but it might explain why people did not want to use it for their daughters.
+1
Level 83
Jun 25, 2020
But I'm sure the reason it was used as a nickname for maids was precisely because there were so many maids who were actually called Abigail
+2
Level 57
Nov 19, 2019
Queen Victoria began her long reign in 1837, so in 1850 she still was a young queen, not the glorious monarch she will be decades later. I bet there were many little Victorias born in the UK between, let's say, 1870 and 1900.
+1
Level 83
Jun 25, 2020
And yet 'Albert' is already high on the boys' name list, despite not becoming popular until Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert.
+1
Level 39
Aug 11, 2020
I too was disappointed about Abigail.😐
+1
Level 71
Nov 19, 2019
That was super tough. It helps that I'm in a European country where there are lots of weird girls' names that seem to come from the 19th century, but still very hard. When I guessed that Susan, Susanna and Susannah were all there, I knew I'd never get every variation of every name...
+3
Level 59
Nov 19, 2019
I wish the results were a little more giving. For example, I got Catherine, but not Catharine. :-(
+3
Level 70
Nov 19, 2019
I am sorry about that, but this is a decision by the Quizmaster when my quiz was featured. It is because there are so many variants of so many names. I hope you still enjoyed the quiz :-)
+2
Level 68
Nov 19, 2019
Reading 19th century novels helped me a lot (Austen, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables)
+2
Level 63
Nov 19, 2019
It would be reasonable to allow all alternative spellings of the same name to come up at once when one is entered. Harriott, really?
+2
Level 70
Nov 19, 2019
I am sorry about that, but this is a decision by the Quizmaster when my quiz was featured. It is because there are so many variants of so many names. I hope you still enjoyed the quiz :-)
+1
Level 75
Nov 19, 2019
Great quiz even though it was hard. Are you going to do one for male names too?
+2
Level 70
Nov 21, 2019
Thank you! Yes I have one for male names already - you should find it in the search box. I hope you enjoy it :-)
+1
Level 48
Nov 19, 2019
Really curious how 6% came up with Thirza :)
+12
Level 67
Nov 20, 2019
They were probably typing "Thirzadorpheus" and got lucky with the type-in.
+1
Level 84
Feb 4, 2022
ROFL!!!!
+1
Level 75
Nov 19, 2019
Is Harriet not the more common spelling of this name?
+1
Level 82
Mar 25, 2020
It is, in 14th place
+2
Level 68
Nov 20, 2019
Yay, finally 100%! Augusta is the elusive one.
+1
Level 70
Nov 21, 2019
Well done! I am so glad you enjoyed it x
+2
Level 68
Nov 30, 2020
Thank you, I used my family tree a lot and BBC costume dramas to help! Good fun.
+1
Level 52
Feb 6, 2022
Lol, so did I.
+1
Level 70
Jun 13, 2022
That is so lovely to hear - how nice to find so many of your ancestors' names here :)
+1
Level 48
Jun 9, 2021
They have Christiana but not Christina or Christine :(

Are they more modern variants, then, or were they just not popular, I wonder?

+3
Level 67
Feb 4, 2022
Spellings taken from the 1850 census records are going to throw up all sorts of issues; with so many parents still illiterate at the time, it would largely have depended on how the census-taker would have chosen to spell the name at the time, on the day. Someone recorded as Harriett or Phebe may well appear in a later census, or a marriage record or a death record, under the more common spellings Harriet or Phoebe. (I've even seen a Phoebe rendered as Febe in an 1850 census record). Segregating between Harriets and Harrietts, for example, could be said to be incredibly harsh, as in truth all of these women would have grown up essentially believing they all had precisely the same name. There's a small argument for separating Harriots, as the last syllable would be audibly different, but even so...
+1
Level 62
Feb 4, 2022
I came here to essentially make the same comment. It's almost impossible to get all of them unless you're willing to keep taking the quiz until you have them all memorized. Which, don't get me wrong is fun and challenging...and might be what I'm doing for the rest of the night.
+1
Level 70
Jun 13, 2022
I am so sorry - this was not how I set up the quiz but it is how the Quizmaster decided to present it. But I hope that you still enjoyed it, and that maybe you will come back to master the challenge ;)
+1
Level 67
Feb 4, 2022
Gertrude?
+1
Level 64
Mar 9, 2022
Interesting quiz, Eliza, thanks you. Sadly I failed to guess even my own name, and am surprised to see it there! ;)

Will be a nice one to come back to though!

+1
Level 70
Jun 13, 2022
Thank you so much! I am really glad that you enjoyed it (and I am sure that you have a lovely name) :)
+1
Level 28
Jun 12, 2022
Not really fair that so many answers are simply different spellings of the same name. Catherine, Catharine, etc. How are we expected to guess all those?
+1
Level 70
Jun 13, 2022
I am so sorry - this was not how I set up the quiz but it is how the Quizmaster decided to present it. But I hope that you still enjoyed it, and that maybe you will come back to master the challenge ;)
+1
Level 35
Mar 4, 2024
I never knew there were Susans Susannas Sussanahs Rachaels Agnes Betsys Selinas Dinahs Lavinias Rhodas Adas Hariots Thirzas Fannys and all those other spellings for different names.
+1
Level 28
Mar 10, 2024
strange that Victoria's not on the list when she reigned all through the 1850s