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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY — PUBLICATION NO. 1 1 



order. This list offers nothing new, but stresses 

 the decline of Francisco. 



From a study of the complete lists of names, it 

 is apparent that there is very little tendency to 

 name children after local heroes, presidents, mo- 

 tion-picture stars, and similar personages. For 

 example, there apparently was no rise in the pro- 

 portion of such names as Lazaro and Manuel 

 during the presidencies of Lazaro Cardenas (a 

 native of Michoacan) and Manuel Avila Camacho. 

 However, most of the persons named Porfirio were 

 born during the rule of Porfirio Diaz, and all of 

 the persons named Adolf o were born since 1933. 

 These two instances are not very significant since 

 the absolute number of cases involved is very 

 small. We can conclude that the customs involv- 

 ing the baptismal names of males have altered very 

 little since records began for Quiroga, and that 

 the Roman Catholic Church and the Franciscans 

 have been the most important factors in determin- 

 ing the popular names, as well as practically 

 all of the other names in vogue. This contrasts 

 decidedly with the situation in the United States. 

 According to a study made some 15 years ago 

 (Longhead, 1934) the most popular male names in 

 the United States (in order) were: William, John 

 and Jack, James, Charles, George, Edward, Frank 

 and Francis, Fred and Frederick, Harry and 

 Henry, Joseph, Tom and Thomas, and Robert. 

 William is the name of about 8.6 percent of Amer- 

 ican males; more than one-third of the males in 

 the United States possess one or another of the 

 first 5 names listed; and the entire 12 names com- 

 prise about 54 percent of the United States male 

 population. Nearly half of our presidents (14 out 

 of 32) have had these names, and all of the kings 

 of England since before the discovery of America 

 had names from this group. In si.xteenth-century 

 England the top 12 names were John, William, 

 Thomas, Richard, Robert, Edward, Henry, 

 George, Francis, James, Nicholas, and Edmund. 

 About half of the 12 names can be considered 

 biblical or with strong religious connotations 

 (John, James, George, Joseph, Thomas, and 

 possibly Edward), while among the top 12 names 

 in Quiroga only Ram6n might not be so considered. 

 We have decided vogues of naming children after 

 movie stars, presidential candidates and presidents, 

 and other ephemeral notables. Furthermore, 

 there has been a great decline, in the United 

 States, in the use of baptismal names selected from 



the Bible. A few generations ago such names as 

 Abraham, Daniel, Joshua, Reuben, Samuel, and 

 Zachary were far more common than now. 



FEMALE BAPTISMAL NAMES 



The female baptismal names were studied in 

 the same fashion as the male names. In the 1940 

 census Quiroga and its ranchos had 1,947 females 

 who possessed 318 different names. The number 

 of different names actually is somewhat smaller, 

 since such names as Paula, Paulina, Paublina, 

 and Pabla are obviously derived from a common 

 source, as are many others, such as Felisa, Feli- 

 citas, and Feliciana. We have considered certain 

 variant forms as the same name because the slight 

 change in orthography is more apparent in the 

 way the census taker or the clerk of the civil 

 register has spelled the name than in the local 

 pronunciation of the name. Among such variants, 

 which we considered as one name, are: Amalia 

 and Amelia, Catalina and Catarina, Elena and 

 Elana, Emilia and Emelia, Ester and Esther, 

 Sara and Sahara, etc. The most common female 

 given name is Maria, which appears alone in 127 

 cases and in combination 187 more instances. 

 What was said of Jos6 holds true for Maria. 

 Since it is an exceedingly common name, quite 

 often the Maria portion is used only on formal 

 occasions, and the individual commonly will be 

 known as Guadalupe, Carmen, Salud, Jesus, Con- 

 cepci6n, etc. In many cases the Maria is lost 

 shortly after baptism and is not used on any oc- 

 casion. Probably several scores of individuals 

 who are listed only with such names as given 

 above were baptized with an initial Maria. It 

 is likely that technically or legally at least half of 

 the females in Quiroga possess the name Maria. 

 When abbreviated, Maria appears as "Ma.," and 

 this usage is quite common. In second place is 

 Guadalupe or Maria Guadalupe; and the third 

 place is held by Carmen or Maria del Carmen. 

 Among women Jesus and Maria Jesus are far less 

 popular than Jesiis and Jos6 Jesus are among the 

 males. We noted two instances of females with 

 names which commenced with the initial "J." (J. 

 Ignacia, and J. Socorro). In these cases the "J." 

 probably stands for Jesiis and not for Jos^, as is 

 invariably true among the males. 



In the following tabulation are listed, in order, 

 the most popular female baptismal names in the 

 Quiroga area. If only one number appears after 



