These pages present mainly statistical data on the first or Christian names and surnames of the first Canadians of the 17th and 18th century and of 19th, 20th and 21st century Québec. Yearly and 5 year period data are given for the 19th and 20th century. Sections treat the length of baby names, the endings of names, the (un)importance of etymology in choosing a name, etc., along with legal aspects and references to books and links to other websites.

Matthew and Emma

19th century Christian names in English Canada

The frequency of the 10 most popular names by 5 year period.

Michel and Louise

are the most frequent names in the total population. A table gives the frequency of the top 100 names for men and women.

Gérard, Thérèse, Sylvie, Maxime, and other first names

This page contains a table giving the first names for every year between 1890 and 2006.

The top 20 by 5 year period since 1800

The frequency of the 20 most popular names by 5 year period.

Pierre, Jean, Jacques

The first Canadian names in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Short or long?

The length of names varies in time, like changing hemlines. See an amazing graph of the variation of names length for the last century.

Names in «ette», in «a» and in «i»

There are 3 main waves in the final sound of names during the 20th century. See the graph.

Graphs of 150 names

The yearly frequency of more than 150 names over a century: Samuel, Ariane, Michel, Louise, Nathalie, Gérard, David, Jonathan and the extraordinary liaison between Roméo and Juliette.

Origin of names

More than one name out of five is of Hebrew origin, like Samuel, Elisabeth, Michel, Anne...
Other important origins are Greek, Roman and Germanic.

The civil code

This page contains the articles of the civil code on the assignment of name.

«Les prénoms, des plus rares aux plus courants au Québec»

This page presents my book on the names given since a century.

Books and links

A few comments on the books and websites I find interesting.

Surnames or family names

Statistics on the surnames in the 17th, 18th and 20th centuries. The top 100 surnames given to babies in 1996. A graph on the double surnames since 1976.

My homepage

A few pictures, a graph of the name Louis and a few words on my small garden.

Comments

This is the place where you will find my address if you wish to send comments and suggestions.

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