How names are matched
Names are matched by their full written form. Capitalization does not create a separate name, but accents and different scripts do: Jose, José, Liam, and Лиам are treated as distinct names.
- Related spellings may be linked as variants without being combined.
- Transliterations, cognates, diminutives, and historical forms remain separate entries.
How rankings and trends are compared
Each ranking and chart uses one consistent set of official statistics for a particular place, population, category, and time period. Data from incompatible populations is never joined into one history.
- When official sources overlap, only compatible data is used.
- Changes over five or ten years require data for the exact comparison year; missing years are not estimated.
- Country and regional comparisons use ranks or compatible rates, not raw totals.
Why a name may be missing
Names Over Time publishes a name page only when the available official data provides enough history for a meaningful view. A missing page does not mean the name was unused: an official source may suppress or omit small counts, or there may not be enough comparable data yet.
- Suppressed or omitted counts are not treated as zero.
- Availability can differ by place, category, and year.