My Name Is Losing Popularity
Jose used to be the most popular Hispanic name there was. Not so anymore. The latest data I could find is that it’s dropped from number one to lower than number 50 in recent years.
All this makes me wonder. If there are about 26,000 Miers around the world now, what percentage of those are going to be Jose Mier? In 2010 about 7,600 Joses were born. Not a lot and that number is going to include much fewer Miers (if any). If ten percent of Mier boys were given the name Jose that would be about 2,500. I’m probably being to generous here, too so let’s say one percent were given the name Jose. That’s only 250 in the whole world. So perhaps it’s between 2,500 and 250. There’s almost no way for me to find the real figures, especially for other countries like Cuba whose records are not easily accessible. My research shows several others with my name living in California and several around my home of Sun Valley (Los Angeles suburb) so I could be totally off base here about the numbers.
Still, it’s something I ponder. If I were to try to record every Jose Mier living in the world today could I accomplish it? It’s possible. But then again, that’s only a part of what my name search is about. I look for any combination of Jose and Mier living or deceased. I like it that way. I like to find those who have or had my name and record them. Some are so obscure I feel like I’m almost bringing them back to life like the recent Jose I profiled who was a school administrator in 1870s Cuba. Or there’s the one who married the Ecuadorian woman in the 1600s. There’s an element of archeology to my research.
Regardless, the number of living Joses does cross my mind. Like many things I find as I continue my search I fear there will never be an answer. That won’t stop me from trying, though.
