Randy Seaver and his excellent blog, Genea-Musings puts out a challenge each week called Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, or SNGF. I do it whenever time allows and I have the ability to complete the task... which is not too often. This week's challenge is at : http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/11/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-baby-name.html
The challenge directs you to a web site where you can see how popular your own name has been over the years. Go here: http://www.babynamewizard.com/
On Randy's post he gives us his chart, but I can't figure out how to do that and copy it so that it appears in my post here. My screen shot key simply won't cooperate and copy and paste eludes me.
What the chart tells me about my own name is curious. Here are the rankings by year and popularity listed below. Curiously, the chart starts with 1910.
1910 205 on the popularity list
1920 453 Whoops, Diane isn't too popular!
1930 115
1940 22
1950 17
1960 36
1970 123 Looks like the party for naming babies Diane is over!
OK, so I was born in the 1940s. About 10 years before there was song "Diane" that enjoyed popularity. You can read about the songs of that title here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_(song)
Mom said that I was named after that song, which she thought was beautiful. She also liked Charmaine and you can read about that here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charmaine_(song) .
I'm glad she picked Diane over Charmaine. She admits that she did not name me after any Dianes on the family tree.
What we both have come to realize is that there are Diane's of many spellings going way back on her family line! My 2nd GGM is Diane Thomas (1832 - 1871). Diane, Diana, and even a Dianah litter Mom's side of the tree.
Diane's meaning - because Randy asked - goes back to Greek mythology and Diana the Huntress, a virginal figure of towering female strength. (No comment.)
The URL for this post is: http://nutsfromthefamilytree.blogspot.com/2012/11/sngf-how-popular-was-your-name_27.html
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