America Is Home to 1,513 George Washingtons

But he's not even close to claiming top spot for most popular founding father name
By Elizabeth Armstrong Moore,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 4, 2014 3:25 PM CDT
America Is Home to 1,513 George Washingtons
People pass a giant American flag displayed at Brooklyn's Borough Hall, in New York, Thursday, July 3, 2014, on the eve of the annual Fourth of July holiday.   (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

George Washington, America's first president, can claim 1,513 namesakes alive in the US today, according to a new WhitePages analysis, but that actually ranks fourth on the list of most popular Founding Father names. Second president John Adams tops the list with 9,893, while Revolutionary War financier Robert Morris comes in second at 7,367 (perhaps both are a coincidence given John and Robert as well as Adams and Morris are common to begin with). Congressman and famous signature-writer John Hancock, meanwhile, claims a far more modest (but likely more intentional) 1,616 namesakes, ranking a distant third.

"It's interesting to note that the top two most common names, John Adams and Robert Morris, are most popular in Florida," says Liz Powell, culture and trend expert from WhitePages, in a news release. "While Florida may have been the 27th state to enter the Union, it is the number one state for patriotic names." Only one name, meanwhile, belongs to a woman (WhitePages admits she wasn't a Founding Father but gave her a spot all the same), and that's seamstress Betsy Ross. She came in 14th on the list of 14 with 163 namesakes. And while several names are probably to be expected (Samuel Adams comes in 5th place, Thomas Jefferson in 8th, and Benjamin Franklin in 9th), Abraham Lincoln's name is rather mysteriously missing. In the realm of more general patriotic names, LiveScience points out that Liberty ranked 532nd as far as girls' baby names go last year; America took the 777th spot. (Click to read about a much more unusual first name.)

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