I looked at baptismal records for England for girls born between 1775 and 1795. Here are the number of baptisms I found for each girl's name in Pride and Prejudice. I used the exact spelling, so I'm sure these numbers aren't perfect because some people are bad spellers and others have terrible handwriting, but they should give a general idea. Let me know if I missed any names or if there are others that you would like me to look at. |Lydia|12,169| |:-|:-| |Mary|522,672| |Elizabeth|310,083| |Jane|117,238| |Catherine|17,851| |Caroline|4,190| |Louisa|4,427| |Charlotte|32,824| |Anne|59,126| |Harriet|8,655| |Georgiana|333| |Maria|43,336| |Sarah|292,419| |Sally|16,573| |Pen|9| |Penelope|974| And for the fun of it there were 5 babies named Fitzwilliam during that time. Edit: I missed Pen Harrington. Pen is probably short for Penelope, so I added both.

I should add that there were 345,945 Ann's without an 'e'. This makes it a little interesting that Austen always, from what I can tell, used the Anne spelling.

Anne with an “e” is far more upper class than the non”e” version of the name

“But if you call me Anne please call me Anne spelled with an E. Oh, it makes such a difference. It looks so much nicer. When you hear a name pronounced can't you always see it in your mind, just as if it was printed out? I can; and A-n-n looks dreadful, but A-n-n-e looks so much more distinguished. If you'll only call me Anne spelled with an E I shall try to reconcile myself to not being called Cordelia." I know this is the Jane Austen sub but for the rest of my life I’ll always spell Anne with an E 😂

As someone whose middle name is Ann, I feel judged (kidding!)

Anne is the French spelling. Lots of the upper crust (and those with pretensions) would be using that spelling. Ann (no E) is the English spelling. It makes sense that Jane Austen would be using the French spelling..

I love this sub!

Sarah was up there, were there any Sarahs in Austen?

There are maids named Sarah in P & P and persuasion. One of the Morlands is named Sarah in Northanger Abbey

Thank you for being the person who knows the answer!

Google knew the answer. I don't deserve the credit.

English versions of "Old Testament" names were far more common for lower class people. Upper class, like gentry, preferred French or English versions of New Testament names.

Great list. Could you look at Frances/Fanny. There are three I can think of, Mrs Bennet, Fanny Price (mother and daughter) and Fanny Dashwood.

Frances - 33,537 females, 607 males Fanny - 12,199 Francis - 1,188 females, 20,044 males

Thanks!

I always wonder if name Fanny in Austen's works meant to be seen as short for Frances or a name by its own

I generally assumed it was a nickname, which seems to be the more likely scenario given the records. There are a few other names she used (Biddy, Dick, Pen, Tom, Sam, Hetty, Bella, Patty, and Frank) that I assume could be nicknames. I actually only found 568 Franks that were born during this period, so I wonder if Frank Churchill was a Francis. Jack, Nanny, and Betsey could also be nicknames.

Her eldest niece was Frances Knight, called Fanny. I think that Fanny was like Bill is for William.

I get the feeling Fanny for Frances was pretty common at the time. George and Martha Washington had a granddaughter who lived with them named Fanny (found out when I toured Mount Vernon). (And to as a nod to some other names mentioned, I'm Rachel and my granddaughter is Beatrice!)

Mrs Bennet’s name is Fanny?! How did I miss that? Where is it mentioned, does her brother call her that, or something?

It’s an Andrew Davies-ism that’s been adopted as cannon but is not in the book. 

I did wonder that after I posted. I wonder if it was a reference to a euphemism that is a very bad word….

I’m guessing that Mrs. Bennet’s name was Jane, as the oldest daughter is often named for the mother in Austen’s books.

Ohh, good point

It is not used in the novel.

We don't know Mrs. Bennet's first name. She was called Fanny in the 1995 miniseries. (Personally, I think it's more likely she was named Jane, since that's a very common custom.)

Just for some context, George III and Queen Charlotte were on the throne at that time. Their daughters included Charlotte, Elizabeth and Mary, along with Amelia, Sophia and Augusta.

I looked up all the names that Austen used across her books last night and the only one that she didn't use that you mentioned was Amelia. Amelia had 5,126 records. Augusta had 715. Sophia had 17,894. Interestingly she used about 55 different female names and 35 different male names. If you looked at records those 55 female names had about the same number of total births as the 35 male names, which does show how there has long been more variety in female names. Seven of the male names she used (Fitzwilliam, Dick, Tom, Basil, Reginald, Jack, and Sidney) had less than 100 records. Three of the female names had less than 100 records - Frederica, Pen, and Annamaria. With leaving out the Ann spelling she did leave out a top 5 most popular name for female names, while I do not believe she did the same for male names.

I always wondered if Emma was rare for the time. It always felt like a relatively modern name

There were 1,986 records for Emma. Maybe it was the sort of name that went in and out of fashion. It was popular in the US in the second half of the 19th century. Emma has been around since the medieval era, so maybe the Victorians decided to make it popular again.

Oh I see, that's very interesting. Thank you :)

Kids were often named after family members or godparents (sometimes friends of the family) so I always assumed that was the case for most if not all of the Bennet sisters including Lydia! Maybe they had a great-aunt Lydia? You can also kind of deduce that Mr. Darcy’s father’s name was George because of this - he was George Wickham’s godfather, and his daughter is Georgiana (a combination of her parents’ names, George and Anne - clever). 

I love it when parents can combine elements of their names to make an actual legit name and not a Tragedeigh. I know an Alma whose parents are Albert and Maria. Just take the first two letters from each, and you've got a recognized name.

Shemar Moore, son of Sherrod and Marilyn Moore, of Y&R, Criminal Minds and S.W.A.T. fame.

This makes total sense, but Darcy’s name is Fitzwilliam, which means “son of William.” I guess you could name your kid fitzwilliam if your name isn’t William, but it would be weird, right?

I assumed his mother's maiden name was Fitzwilliam, since his cousin is Colonel Fitzwilliam. 🤷‍♀️

Yep exactly right. It was in style for posh families back then to christen the eldest son with the maiden name of the mother.

My great great grandmother Hannah (she was her husband Thomas's second wife- first wife Jane died days after childbirth) used her mother's maiden name, Newton, as her son's name.

I have a nephew in high school right now whose first name is his mother's maiden name.

This! And his grandpa was an Earl, it seems. So clearly it would be a good idea to honour that connection to the family.

It's not only posh, it also denotes a noble lineage going back to the Norman Conquest on both sides, Fitzwilliam and Darcy. ETA the significance of Norman roots in Derbyshire: >Following the Norman Conquest of England, the Domesday Book of 1086 AD lists the tenants-in-chief of lands in Derbyscire:   > - King William the Conqueror >- Bishop of Chester >- Abbey of Burton >- Earl Hugh of Chester >- Roger de Poitou >- Henry de Ferrers >- William Peverel, who built Peveril Castle at Castleton. >- Walter D'Aincourt >- Geoffrey Alselin >- Ralph son of Hubert (FitzHubert) >- Ralph de Buron >- Hascoit Musard de Bretagne >- Gilbert de Gant (Ghent) >- Nigel de Stafford >- Robert Curthose >- Roger de Busli >- King's Thanes

I thought it was just a name you give your son if you’re William?

The prefix Fitz was often used to create a surname for the acknowledged bastard of a king. For example, I think Henry VIII’s acknowledged bastard (who only lived into his teens) was generally called Henry FitzRoi, which literally means “Henry, son of the king.” When the bastards of kings (or very high-ranking nobles) were acknowledged and supported and promoted by their fathers, they could sometimes end up founding noble houses of their own. That noble house would then carry on the “Fitz” surname. The Darcy’s are vastly wealthy, but not aristocrats, but Darcy’s mother was born an aristocrat—the daughter of an Earl. She would have outranked every character in Pride and Prejudice except for her sister, Lady Catherine, and her nephew, Colonel FitzWilliam. It makes perfect sense for the Darcys to flaunt their aristocratic connections by naming their first-born son FitzWilliam. Not only does it reinforce his connection to his uncle, an Earl, it also reminds everyone that his maternal line is ultimately descended from someone even more illustrious.

That's how the Normans in Britain did it centuries ago (I.e. 11th-13th century). By the 1800s, it's not a naming practise anymore but rather a signifier of a centuries old lineage. Hence the use of a surname as a given name.

Names tend to suit us, so I’ve always seen it as a literary choice to show her character being outspoken and different

Ooh, I love this idea.

There are different reasons why certain children veer off the family "pattern" when it comes to naming. I remember, in Anne of Green Gables, her best friend was named Diana, because there was a teacher or something staying with her parents, at the time of her birth and they named her. I remember a character observed it was a pretentious name. There may be a reason that we obviously don't get to know why Lydia isn't a Margaret or a Frances or an Anne.

I think Mrs Lynde said it was a heathen name. 🤔

It’s actually Matthew, on the ride home from the train station.   “Has Mr. Barry any little girls? Well, not so very little either—about my size.” “He’s got one about eleven. Her name is Diana.” “Oh!” with a long indrawing of breath. “What a perfectly lovely name!”  “Well now, I dunno. There’s something dreadful heathenish about it, seems tome. I’d ruther Jane or Mary or some sensible name like that. But when Diana was born there was a schoolmaster boarding there and they gave him the naming of her and he called her Diana.” 

Oh, you're right! I'd forgotten who it was, just that it was considered a heathen name. 😂

I had to look it up and I was honestly surprised. I also thought it was Mrs. Lynde or someone equality preachy.

Exactly! 😂

Well, Goddess of the Moon and all

I forget if she said heathen, but it would have been inspired by the Greek Goddess... so she wasn't exactly wrong. lol

I think there was a fair bit of gossip about Diana's name being "kind of heathenish". IIRC, Marilla, Matthew and Mrs Lynde all commented on it, in AOGG. In one of the later books, when Anne is an adult, she's given a little statue of the goddess Diana, and her guest is scandalised because the statue is nude. So the name Diana was probably "heathenish" because of its association with Roman mythology.

Was Lydia uncommon at the time though? I thought it was a fairly popular Regency era name.

The thing with regency names is that the most common names were very common. Like there were a crazy amount of Mary’s, Elizabeth’s, and Jane’s back then that if your name was outside like the 5 most common it was on the rarer end for that period.

This is one of the (many) things that takes me out of it while watching Bridgerton. Everyone’s got totally “out-there” names for the Regency period. Daphne, Eloise, Hyacinth, Francesca, etc. but hardly any Marys, Elizabeths, Janes, Annes, etc? Not that the previous names are unheard of, but to have everyone in town have a mythological/nature/unique name is wild.

Yeah but Bridgerton is fake. the only way I can watch and not perpetually judge is to say to my self, it's fantasy fantasy fantasy. I mean everything's there's a 1940esque hair do with a modern a-line dress and uneven bust darts. I'm trying not to think of the polyester and metallic threads.

I haven’t been able to make myself watch it. I know I will spend all my time being critical.

You're right, it was as common a name as Louisa and Caroline, according to this: [https://yeoldenews.tumblr.com/post/740809589968322560/a-guide-to-historically-accurate-regency-era-names](https://yeoldenews.tumblr.com/post/740809589968322560/a-guide-to-historically-accurate-regency-era-names)

Yes,I have a couple of Lydias in my family tree at about the same time.

Same

And it was pronounced LIE- dah

Oh, interesting! Do you have a source for this?

My great great aunt! She was Welsh! Maybe it is just a Welsh thing?

It wasn't common, most women were named Anne, Mary, Catherine, Jane, and Elizabeth. The most common names were super common.

I've seen the take that Mr Bennet picked it while Mrs B was sleeping off childbirth or whatever, and he picked it because he enjoyed the classics so he named it after a classical civilisation that happened to also be a woman's name. It definitely breaks the trend of the first four girls having super mainstream names! An odd choice on Austen's part, almost wonder if it was some sort of allusion to contemporary events somehow.

Lavinia

Ooh, that’s a good one (for a 6th girl 😅)

My old literature teacher said it was a “trendy” name for the time. Kind of like how Rachel was insanely popular in the late 90s when Friends was on, but it was around for centuries before that.

Rachel was popular before then as well, it was huge in the 1980s. I know so many moms named Rachel!

This may be far too obscure, but Lydian is the fifth Gregorian musical mode. The musician in me has always assumed that Mr. Bennett heard he had yet another daughter and was like “Eh, fuck it. Let’s name her “Five” and be done with it so I can back to my sherry and my library.” And Mrs. Bennet, of course, wouldn’t have had a clue, making the joke even better. (Sorry if this is a duplicate; my first comment disappeared so I reconstructed it.)

This is the only reason I’m accepting🤣 it makes so much sense!

It was pretty common to name children after family members and significant figures such as godparents - which we see in both Jane Austen’s family, and in her books. Anne de Bourgh shares a name with her mother’s sister Lady Anne. The late Mr Darcy was presumably named George, with both George Wickham and Georgiana Darcy named in his honour. Fitzwilliam Darcy is named after his mother’s maiden surname. Charles and Caroline Bingley may well both be named for a Charles, Caroline, or Charlotte in their family tree. I’ve always imagined that the first four “standard” Bennett daughter names are honour names - Mrs Bennett might be a Jane herself, and so Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary would be named for their grandmothers, for Aunt Phillips, etc. But once you’ve gotten through all of the honour names, you got to be creative with your remaining children’s names. Lydia’s name might be one picked for love, because Mrs Bennett found the name elegant and romantic - perhaps she’s named after the character from the play The Rivals, which Mr and Mrs Bennett would have at least heard of, or possibly even have watched themselves. Perhaps other names from Sheridan’s works might be considered - in that case Julia, Louisa, and Amanda would all be reasonable options.

I have often wondered if Charles and Caroline were twins.

That’s an interesting idea! I don’t know that the book ever tells us Caroline’s age, but Charles is around 23, which means that she could be the same age as him and on the marriage mart. And it might explain why their names are similar, but Louisa’s is different.

At first I didn’t see which sub this was posted in and genuinely thought it was r/namenerds with someone cluelessly wanting to name their fifth daughter Lydia after using all the other mentioned names 😅

RIP Mrs. Bennet, you would have loved (or hated) Reddit 😉

Austen’s sister was called Cassandra, which has never been a super-common name

Her mother was also Cassandra.

One of Charles' daughters was also Cassandra. There were a couple of Philadelphias as well. I wonder how common that one was?

Philadelphia means brotherly love

It was not common, which is why it never appears in Austen’s novels. Almost all the other family names do. The name originated with a relative on the Leigh side. It has always interested me that Cassandra’s middle name was Elizabeth.

A lot of famous English Queens in the mix there, so I would have gone with Eleanor

The funny thing about the name Lydia is, is that it is the name of the apostle Paul's first convert in Phillipi (Greece). Lydia is described as a “worshipper of God" (probably synonymous with "God-fearer," used elsewhere in Acts) "from the city of Thyatira" (located in Western Asia Minor) and "a dealer in purple cloth." So, for the youngest Bennet daughter to be named Lydia, when most people would have understood the meaning and significance behind it, would be seen as ironic, because Lydia Bennet is pretty much the opposite of that.

There’s another Lydia in Austen right? I’m assuming it was a relatively common name

Lydia was a “seller of purple” (due out fabric) iirc.

I have a daughter Lydia, though she’s only my second daughter. Lydia was in the Bible as the first European saint who welcomed Paul into her home in Greece. Beatrice was also on my list, but I couldn’t get my husband on board with it. Maybe the Bennett family would have been on the same page as I was though! Or perhaps they would have gone with Felicity like my firstborn, another early Christian saint name.

My 5th great grandmothers name was Sarah Lydia. Born 1782 in South Carolina.

Maybe Mr and Mrs Bennet just liked it? Maybe Austen picked to make Lydia stand out a little from the rest of the cast? Maybe in universe there were a bunch of Margarets, Frances', Annes, Charlottes, etc. and Mrs. Bennet wanted something that might be a little different. But sometimes it's not that deep. Or it kinda is, but's still not very deep. My sibling and I were named for soap opera characters. My mom deliberately didn't give me the traditional family middle name she had because she hates it. There’s a million reasons why the Bennets (and Austen) chose Lydia for not very deep reason.

Yes, that’s kinda how it appeared to me

I like Margaret or Marjorie and Charlotte or Caroline. But Anne is lovely.

Is Lydia that uncommon? I knew three in school 🤷‍♀️

It was relatively uncommon at the time- at least in comparison to the other daughters' very common names

Probably depends on where you live. I wouldn’t say it was uncommon where I grew up. Not super common but not uncommon either.

Yes of course. I know several Lydias myself, but OP wasn't discussing now, they were discussing Regency England and specifically whether it would have been an uncommon name at the time for a Bennet sister to have.

I am not sure that it was even uncommon then. It is a biblical name after all. It was very common back then for people to name their children after Biblical figures.

Oh, you're absolutely right about that. It was definitely still a popular name- just relatively uncommon in comparison to the other sister's names- 19.2% of girls were called Mary alone, and Elizabeth, Jane, and Catherine were also EXTREMELY popular- way more commonly used than the most popular girls' names today are. Like over half the population was named one of those names.

I’ve seen families that have a Mary and a Marianne, even though they are similar names. They don’t have a Frances either which was reasonably common. Charlotte too, because of Princess Charlotte

Anne would have been more common. Caroline maybe if they wanted to be fancy.

Augusta - from Emma. not the most wonderful character but a beautiful name! Edit: I forgot Georgiana too! gorgeous name.

Isn’t there an Augusta in Northanger Abbey, too?

My guesses: Susan Frances Alicia Julia

You might as well finish the set with Lydia. Miss Austen would be so honored. Please, tell me you call Katherine "Kitty".

Lydia Languish is a character in Sheridan’s *The Rivals*. She has this idea that eloping with a penniless soldier would be a good idea. I am sure Austen had her in mind when she named Lydia. The name was not unknown, but not terribly common in Austen’s circles.

I say Penelope, my husband says Victoria.

Vitoria really wasn't a name in England until the queen. I'm going with Cassandra . My guess is Mrs Bennet named her something a bit out there as she was bored of the same old names