In our branch of the family, Whitney is a unisex middle name, and we sometimes use our middle names as our given names. Hence my uncle Alfred Whitney Murphy, my (female) self, my daughter Mary Whitney Kelting use(d) Whitney as a given name. My cousin Peter Whitney Murphy, my grandson Alexander Whitney Sacchini, my grandmother's cousin Marian Whitney Griffin, my cousin Marian Whitney Barlow, and my nephew Graham Whitney Armstrong use it as a middle name, usually honored only with the initial. I think there was a surge of unrelated Whitneys in the US due to the popularity of Whitney Houston, the singer, and perhaps civil rights leader Whitney Young (especially if there was an uptick of black Whitneys in the 1970-80s). Celebrity names have always enjoyed a certain popularity. I also have two friends who are not related to me who names their daughters Whitney because they liked my name and the distinctiveness, especially in females, that it carried. It's a great name to have. I don't know how many of the Whitneys on this list use Whitney as a given name, but I have always found it terrific; people remember it, before there was gender equality I was able to get credit cards on my own name, and it helped get job interviews. Whitney Keen R R Kyser wrote: > Friends have directed me recently to a couple of online statistical > "engines" devoted to given names, the first for the U.S. and the second > for France: > > http://www.babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/ > http://meilleursprenoms.com/ > > (NB: you need to have Java to use the US one. It's also there to sell a > book.) > > In America, Whitney as a girl's name ranks #684, 459, 66, and 91, > respectively, for the 1960s through 1990s, and places #448 for 2003. > Female Whitneys peaked in the 1980s at over 1300 per million babies (not > clear if that's all babies, or just girls), but have dropped to about > 220/mil for 2003. (Fine with me; who wants all those unrelated people > poaching our name?) > > Whitney as a boy's name cracks the top 1,000 in the 1910s, and again in > the 1960s through 1980s. Male Whitneys peaked in the 1980s at 54 per > million babies, then drop out of sight. > > Oddly, about 65 female Whitleys (per million babies) were born in the > 1990s, the decade Whitney began to slide. I wonder if the parents were > purposely avoiding the too-trendy Whitney-- as no doubt many parents of > Whitneys were running from "Courtney" and "Brittany"! > > Whitney also made a mention in the author/sitemistress's blog for Thursday: > > "For boys, parents [ca. 1900] chose glittering dreams of aristocracy. > Alongside John and George, we saw boys named with the surnames of the > upper crust-- Milton, Sidney, Whitney." > http://www.babynamewizard.com/blog/2005/03/days-when-myrtles-were- > young.html > > Well, not quite... little Milton and Sidney were probably named for the > poets, whom folks actually bothered to read back then, and any Whitney > of the day almost certainly descended from John or Henry. > > Whitney is now showing up as a given name in France. 1993 was the peak > year, with 53 christened. (Did Miss Houston have a major hit around > that time?) Except for a lone(ly) birth in the 1940s (probably to some > Anglo-Saxon couple, and likely male), there were none before the late > 1980s. But, zut alors!, Whitney placed 1,770th for the 20th century, > and was at 763rd for 2000: > > http://meilleursprenoms.com/stats/histogram.php3?recherche=whitney > http://meilleursprenoms.com/Etymologie/Etymologie.php3?search=whitney > > Enter any traditional French name in the box, and you'll notice rather > large troughs coinciding with the World Wars. The names weren't being > given because the children weren't being born. > > Cheers, > Ron Kyser >