Frosh First Names

Yes, it's time for my annual list of the most popular UGA freshman first names. I've done this every year since 2008 thanks to the good people in the Registrar's office who provide it to me.

And this year, we have -BREAKING NEWS-.

Yeah, yeah, if you're CNN, everything is BREAKING NEWS, but this time I actually kinda sorta have some. For the first time since I started gathering these data, a male name holds the #1 spot all its own.

If you're a William and in this freshman class, congrats. Pat yourself on your back. You're #1. Go find any of the many other Williams and celebrate.

At the bottom you'll find a quick-and-dirty spreadsheet of the top names by year. As you can see, Emily and John tied for #1 last year, but this year William rocketed to the top spot in a stunning upset. Keep an eye on Caroline, though. It's moved up as a name in the last few years and is challenging for a top spot historically controlled by either Emily or Sarah.

I'll provide more analysis next week. Just got these data and wanted to share them to my tens of readers worldwide. Click on the list and you can get a bigger version of the table.