Want to give your baby a head start on becoming a genius? You might want to consider nixing those unique, hipster baby names from your list. Genealogy research website MooseRoots compiled the names of nearly 15,000 philosophers, writers, mathematicians, scientists, inventors, artists, composers, Nobel laureates and MacArthur fellows to make up a list of the most common names of geniuses — and none were the kind of trendy names celeb babies have been given recently.
Researchers at Moose Roots tracked the popularity of each of the "genius names" in the U.S., England and Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Scotland and Belgium since 1880. Female geniuses are underrepresented, both historically and on the list, but other girl names that appear in the findings include Charlotte, Helen, Jane, Dorothy, Alice, Anna, Ruth, Susan, Margaret, Anne and Maria.
The top 15 names on the list, regardless of gender were:
- John
- Robert
- William
- Charles
- David
- James
- Richard
- Johann
- George
- Paul
- Thomas
- Peter
- Joseph
- Mary
- Elizabeth
If these names don't exactly appeal to your sensibilities, you could always look at new baby-naming trends, most popular baby names around the world, most popular baby names by decade or baby names inspired by global cities for more ideas!
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