Our oldest daughter we named after a prominent character from the book series The Work and the Glory by Gerald N. Lund. For those of you who may not know, the nine-part series chronicles the early growth of the LDS Church and ending in 1847 when the pioneers settle in the Salt Lake Valley. The story line includes both fictional and actual events. The release of the last two books coincided with the birth of our oldest daughter. My wife first suggested the name but one night and while I was reading I came to the same conclusion. We loved the classic pioneer name Lydia and the values the character from the book held. Her middle name is my grandma's maiden name - one that is closely tied to our family.
When we were discussing what to name our oldest daughter, another name in the running was one of the character's names from the T.V. show Party of Five. I admit my interest in the name Julia was partially because I liked the nickname they used for the character -- Jewels. When my second daughter was born this name came into play again because it also ended in the letters IA, like my oldest daughter's. We soon knew this was the name that we wanted. Her middle name is my wife's first name as well as a great grandmother among others.
When my youngest daughter was born we struggled finding a name that we really liked. We wanted a classic name to go along with her sisters but none of them really spoke to us. I googled,"names that end in IA" and got a list that included; Alexia, Alivia, Alexandria, Asia, Cynthia, Georgia, Leia, Malia, Virginia, Nadia, Portia, Octavia, and Gloria. The funny thing was that my grandmother's name was Gloria but it didn't seem to fit. I also had a relative named Octavia, which sparked a genealogical interest in me. How many relatives do I have whose names end in IA?
A quick search in my Legacy database gave me a list of more than 350 females with the letters IA in their given name. I sorted out those that ended in IA; Octavia, Gloria, Maria, Livinia, Sophia, Aqualina, Celia, Julia, Anthonia, Lydia, Leticia, Olivia, Victoria, Cornelia, Amelia, Angelia, Pamelia, Berthia, Patricia, Cordelia, Clestia, Lorania. Nellia, Armedia, Elviria, Euphemia, Letia, Eugenia, Mahalia, Lelia, Loucia, and Idoshia. That does not include the names that sound like they end in IA like Keziah or Mariah. Two of these names we had already used, one my sister-in-law used for their daughter and a few were other cousins or their children's names. Some we admittedly did not even consider because they were too obscure or odd.
I could not believe how many female relative had names that ended in IA. But a name did not jump out at us from the list. We decided to look at a group of names that end in A. Wow! I was blown away. My mother, sister, both daughters, both grandmothers, three of four great-grandmothers, and five out of eight of my great-great-grandmothers all have names that end in the letter A.
According to statistics from the Social Security Administration, names that end in the letter A make up 25%-40% of all female names. This is a trend that began in the 1930's when female names that end in E declined in popularity just as names that end with A began to become more popular.
Similar statistics for the letter A can be found in a different configuration below. A link to the source of this and more information can be found here.
| year | letter | contains | initial | final | sex |
| 1880 | a | 74.52002 | 10.25793 | 34.5587 | F |
| 1881 | a | 73.86439 | 10.22783 | 34.34397 | F |
| 1882 | a | 73.31201 | 10.20028 | 33.87668 | F |
| 1883 | a | 73.29374 | 10.35594 | 34.1251 | F |
| 1884 | a | 72.94415 | 10.32692 | 33.85469 | F |
| 1885 | a | 72.65341 | 10.09883 | 34.12724 | F |
| 1886 | a | 72.16987 | 9.973432 | 33.97055 | F |
| 1887 | a | 72.07258 | 10.16358 | 33.52605 | F |
| 1888 | a | 71.66794 | 9.925096 | 33.27642 | F |
| 1889 | a | 71.06888 | 9.917304 | 32.87136 | F |
| 1890 | a | 70.78339 | 9.770562 | 32.7312 | F |
| 1891 | a | 70.30779 | 9.684985 | 32.66175 | F |
| 1892 | a | 69.73444 | 9.53251 | 32.17799 | F |
| 1893 | a | 69.17856 | 9.464226 | 31.85475 | F |
| 1894 | a | 69.04433 | 9.412709 | 31.68418 | F |
| 1895 | a | 68.74601 | 9.29714 | 31.24714 | F |
| 1896 | a | 68.50438 | 9.25009 | 30.92736 | F |
| 1897 | a | 68.29945 | 9.079808 | 30.80602 | F |
| 1898 | a | 68.03982 | 8.914025 | 30.58677 | F |
| 1899 | a | 67.89158 | 8.990529 | 30.3455 | F |
| 1900 | a | 67.57361 | 8.794808 | 29.99073 | F |
| 1901 | a | 67.55282 | 8.859448 | 30.15931 | F |
| 1902 | a | 67.26472 | 8.862499 | 29.46694 | F |
| 1903 | a | 66.96046 | 8.790949 | 29.44147 | F |
| 1904 | a | 66.61752 | 8.773223 | 29.1246 | F |
| 1905 | a | 66.4471 | 8.823449 | 28.82948 | F |
| 1906 | a | 66.28841 | 8.949821 | 28.36317 | F |
| 1907 | a | 66.07694 | 8.770894 | 28.35465 | F |
| 1908 | a | 65.85693 | 8.744709 | 28.05043 | F |
| 1909 | a | 65.44659 | 8.565487 | 27.69376 | F |
| 1910 | a | 65.54522 | 8.597112 | 27.3392 | F |
| 1911 | a | 65.33518 | 8.50459 | 27.05126 | F |
| 1912 | a | 65.0141 | 8.441961 | 26.72905 | F |
| 1913 | a | 64.89015 | 8.346371 | 26.59693 | F |
| 1914 | a | 64.69564 | 8.318866 | 26.23658 | F |
| 1915 | a | 64.42025 | 8.249278 | 26.15908 | F |
| 1916 | a | 64.43673 | 8.102422 | 26.06758 | F |
| 1917 | a | 64.30105 | 8.029007 | 25.87358 | F |
| 1918 | a | 64.13086 | 7.814209 | 25.7134 | F |
| 1919 | a | 63.80567 | 7.658949 | 25.53694 | F |
| 1920 | a | 63.77343 | 7.514951 | 25.23755 | F |
| 1921 | a | 63.90863 | 7.428988 | 25.28748 | F |
| 1922 | a | 63.81817 | 7.302301 | 25.26306 | F |
| 1923 | a | 63.40946 | 7.144894 | 25.1091 | F |
| 1924 | a | 63.32793 | 7.029301 | 25.27369 | F |
| 1925 | a | 63.14525 | 6.938364 | 25.42985 | F |
| 1926 | a | 63.03616 | 6.866805 | 25.4158 | F |
| 1927 | a | 63.0742 | 6.623449 | 25.50903 | F |
| 1928 | a | 63.25977 | 6.531078 | 25.64643 | F |
| 1929 | a | 63.40437 | 6.381267 | 25.48332 | F |
| 1930 | a | 64.10109 | 6.265058 | 25.61394 | F |
| 1931 | a | 65.06745 | 6.193562 | 25.78578 | F |
| 1932 | a | 65.91598 | 6.111032 | 26.13958 | F |
| 1933 | a | 66.72413 | 6.004704 | 26.21639 | F |
| 1934 | a | 66.98664 | 5.849401 | 26.19668 | F |
| 1935 | a | 66.55249 | 5.702531 | 26.0573 | F |
| 1936 | a | 67.86346 | 5.65234 | 26.26164 | F |
| 1937 | a | 69.39654 | 5.49249 | 27.44675 | F |
| 1938 | a | 70.30747 | 5.322434 | 27.94419 | F |
| 1939 | a | 70.71503 | 5.103105 | 28.30608 | F |
| 1940 | a | 71.15364 | 4.909787 | 29.09582 | F |
| 1941 | a | 71.96129 | 4.594606 | 29.50641 | F |
| 1942 | a | 72.93857 | 4.34592 | 29.59836 | F |
| 1943 | a | 73.34266 | 4.168121 | 29.82674 | F |
| 1944 | a | 73.27979 | 4.031697 | 30.11592 | F |
| 1945 | a | 73.71489 | 3.993885 | 30.55909 | F |
| 1946 | a | 74.12495 | 3.840462 | 30.95404 | F |
| 1947 | a | 75.0905 | 3.661339 | 33.23117 | F |
| 1948 | a | 75.61626 | 3.598272 | 33.98351 | F |
| 1949 | a | 75.96036 | 3.516051 | 33.82277 | F |
| 1950 | a | 76.14923 | 3.537081 | 33.65552 | F |
| 1951 | a | 76.22307 | 3.490477 | 33.78995 | F |
| 1952 | a | 75.93782 | 3.494524 | 33.69351 | F |
| 1953 | a | 76.05362 | 3.520718 | 34.28271 | F |
| 1954 | a | 75.46679 | 3.460659 | 34.23176 | F |
| 1955 | a | 74.60811 | 3.522066 | 34.28779 | F |
| 1956 | a | 73.82887 | 3.677775 | 34.12489 | F |
| 1957 | a | 72.71391 | 3.714535 | 33.71853 | F |
| 1958 | a | 71.81864 | 3.926097 | 33.10452 | F |
| 1959 | a | 71.82456 | 4.162689 | 33.79188 | F |
| 1960 | a | 71.45237 | 4.396511 | 34.18437 | F |
| 1961 | a | 71.38987 | 4.481171 | 34.42071 | F |
| 1962 | a | 71.04506 | 4.629981 | 34.70586 | F |
| 1963 | a | 71.07125 | 4.920509 | 35.46933 | F |
| 1964 | a | 71.01789 | 5.356587 | 35.47587 | F |
| 1965 | a | 70.94085 | 5.873634 | 36.26026 | F |
| 1966 | a | 69.89726 | 6.037679 | 36.41239 | F |
| 1967 | a | 69.76717 | 6.626788 | 36.63929 | F |
| 1968 | a | 69.25942 | 6.764074 | 36.54414 | F |
| 1969 | a | 68.98531 | 7.034294 | 36.2349 | F |
| 1970 | a | 69.15822 | 7.653253 | 35.89144 | F |
| 1971 | a | 69.16791 | 8.393432 | 36.37819 | F |
| 1972 | a | 68.65932 | 8.569965 | 36.66013 | F |
| 1973 | a | 69.24464 | 9.14052 | 36.75871 | F |
| 1974 | a | 69.51673 | 9.788963 | 36.66867 | F |
| 1975 | a | 70.65961 | 10.81685 | 36.92111 | F |
| 1976 | a | 71.84192 | 10.99666 | 36.98978 | F |
| 1977 | a | 72.0654 | 10.8712 | 37.34323 | F |
| 1978 | a | 72.393 | 11.08134 | 37.48599 | F |
| 1979 | a | 73.2616 | 12.00301 | 38.15735 | F |
| 1980 | a | 73.576 | 12.08846 | 37.82477 | F |
| 1981 | a | 74.31998 | 12.24014 | 37.7197 | F |
| 1982 | a | 74.83111 | 12.37926 | 36.93488 | F |
| 1983 | a | 75.70983 | 13.36083 | 36.3424 | F |
| 1984 | a | 76.58066 | 13.59029 | 36.32794 | F |
| 1985 | a | 77.38397 | 14.09718 | 36.29746 | F |
| 1986 | a | 78.01985 | 14.53631 | 36.43987 | F |
| 1987 | a | 78.84387 | 14.98302 | 37.24889 | F |
| 1988 | a | 79.16256 | 14.5784 | 37.24228 | F |
| 1989 | a | 79.52662 | 14.59811 | 37.5996 | F |
| 1990 | a | 79.73598 | 14.53891 | 37.88208 | F |
| 1991 | a | 79.79202 | 14.37685 | 37.93236 | F |
| 1992 | a | 79.94197 | 13.9194 | 37.86326 | F |
| 1993 | a | 80.18098 | 14.03269 | 37.64151 | F |
| 1994 | a | 80.23309 | 14.1828 | 37.42792 | F |
| 1995 | a | 80.30071 | 14.13233 | 37.44394 | F |
| 1996 | a | 80.53618 | 14.18185 | 37.38367 | F |
| 1997 | a | 80.93557 | 14.53033 | 37.58975 | F |
| 1998 | a | 81.28899 | 14.78679 | 37.51978 | F |
| 1999 | a | 81.01342 | 14.62272 | 37.39282 | F |
| 2000 | a | 81.06005 | 14.92776 | 37.23858 | F |
| 2001 | a | 81.20947 | 15.49007 | 37.44748 | F |
| 2002 | a | 81.10929 | 16.14537 | 37.95363 | F |
| 2003 | a | 81.00319 | 16.2188 | 38.5146 | F |
| 2004 | a | 80.93975 | 16.25751 | 38.75734 | F |
| 2005 | a | 81.1341 | 16.54111 | 39.44685 | F |
| 2006 | a | 81.1969 | 17.0129 | 39.72795 | F |
| 2007 | a | 80.89849 | 17.47492 | 39.2715 | F |
| 2008 | a | 80.29398 | 17.31019 | 38.40526 | F |
| 2009 | a | 79.85439 | 17.49569 | 38.2201 | F |
| 2010 | a | 79.04827 | 17.58943 | 38.12531 | F |
| 2011 | a | 78.37639 | 17.75527 | 37.46902 | F |
| 2012 | a | 78.17938 | 18.09132 | 37.2413 | F |
It was hard to think that we had inadvertently named both of my daughters with names that ended in A. But this made me even more convinced that I was on the right path for my third daughter. We settled on the name Eliza. Her middle name is both my grandmother's and my wife's grandmother's middle name.
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