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A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name [1] that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a family or clan) who have a common surname.
A Dictionary of First Names is an onomastic work of reference on given names, published by Oxford University Press, edited by Patrick Hanks, Kate Hardcastle, and Flavia Hodges in 1990 and 2006. The second edition of 2006 (as paperback 2007) discusses a total of "over 6,000 names".
Proper names are "saturated with meaning". [10] Throughout the Bible, characters are given names at birth that reflect something of significance or describe the course of their lives. For example: Solomon meant peace, [11] and the king with that name was the first whose reign was without war. [12]
Ashley was considered a surname style name at the time. [8] In the 1980s the name had a rise in popularity attributed to the female soap opera character Ashley Abbott who emerged on the still-running TV series The Young and the Restless in 1982. [9] Spelling variants of the name such as Ashlee, Ashleigh, and Ashlie are also in use. [10] [11]
Traditionally a male name, it has been used increasingly for both boys and girls since the 1970s. It comes from the Irish surname Ryan, which in turn comes from the Old Irish name Rían (Irish: Rián). [1] Popular modern sources typically suggest that the name means "champion" and "little king", [2] [3] but the original meaning is unknown. [4]
James is the second most common first name for living individuals in the United States, belonging to roughly 3.4 million people in the United States as of 2021, according to the Social Security Administration. [6] In 2022, in the United States, the name James was given to 12,028 boys, ranking it as the fourth most popular name. [7]
The name Kyle is primarily masculine and has been in use as a given name at least since the 1800s. It has been among the top 1,000 names for American boys at various times since 1902, influenced by American football player Kyle Rote (1928–2002) and his son, soccer star Kyle Rote Jr. (born 1950), and later by the character Kyle Hadley played by Robert Stack in the 1956 film Written on the ...
The masculine first name Gregory or Grégory derives from the Latin name "Gregorius", which came from the late Greek name "Γρηγόριος" (Grēgórios) meaning "watchful, alert" (derived from "ἐγείρω" "egeiro" meaning "to awaken, arouse").