Statistical Problems and Solutions in Onomastic Research: Exemplified by a Comparison of Given Name Distributions in Germany throughout the 20th Century

• Autores: Denis Huschka, Gert G. Wagner
• Localización: Onoma: Journal of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences, ISSN 0078-463X, Nº. 47, 2012 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Names and law), págs. 329-365
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The German Socio Economic Panel Study (SOEP) offers the rare opportunity to look at patterns of given names in a representative sample of more than 50,000 people born since 1900. This article develops an exemplary picture of typical frequency distributions among given names and their development over time. We first discuss the advantages and limitations of various databases which have been widely used to study the distribution of given names. Second, we address the problem that name distributions are typically characterised by a �Large Number of Rare Events� (LNRE) zone. With regard to this phenomenon, we focus our attention on the difficulties associated with comparing name distributions. Third, we apply some measures of the concentration of distributions from other lines of research (economics and computational linguistics). Finally, we stress the problem of the statistical significance of differences in name distribution based on samples.