On Female Names in Lit. Stories

1. Introduction.

As a writer of mainly one-shot stories, I find myself in the constant process of having to find names for my characters. Sometimes the title, setting or plot of a story will suggest a perfect or resonant name, but a lot of the time, I'm left scratching my head and digging through old stories to try and find common names which I haven't used recently. As a reader on Literotica, I often see the same names used for similar stories. As a parent, I've also had the more important dilemma of finding names for my children which are neither too boringly common nor too outlandish.

When choosing titles I sometimes use the Literotica search function to see if and how many times it has been used before, and, when I've decided to use a particularly rare name for a character, I do the same. The search function will report how many stories it appears in. I occurred to me that it was a relatively simply matter to automate the process for a list of common names and see which ones were the most popular. It is also possible to limit the search to one particular category and so to see which names are relatively more popular in various categories.

This was intended to be a quick and fun little project, but, as is often the case, it grew and also a number of issues with the process came to light while doing it -- many not fixable without significantly expanding the scope of the project. I'll go into some of the issues below, but since it was done primarily out of interest, and since it may be useful for other writers when choosing how to name their characters, I thought it was worth sharing with other authors.

This report investigated which female names are relatively more and less common across nine different Literotica categories. The categories are BDSM, Lesbian Sex, Transgender and Cross-Dressing, Incest and Taboo, First Time, Loving Wives, Mature, Sci-Fi and Fantasy and NonConsent/Reluctance.

2. Methodology

I started by finding a list of the most common 5,000 female names from the Internet. Then I programmed a short Python script that would take each name in turn and query the Literotica search function for how many different stories that name appeared in. A pause of a couple of seconds was built in after each request so as to not unduly stress the Literotica servers.

Sorting the list of names into order from most to least common order showed a serious problem. By far the most common female name was apparently 'Love' which appeared in 403,538 stories. The second most common was 'Happy' with 266,752 stories. Obviously in the vast majority of these stories, these words were not being used as female names. I had predicted that this might be a problem but not quite the scale at which it was occurring. I went through the top 1,005 entries on the list and removed any which I felt was not an unambiguous female name. This left 653 names on a final 'master list'.

I then adapted the script to limit its search to a category and ran it over the master list of names for each one. The results were then entered into a spreadsheet and the relative differences in position for each name from their general position and their position in a specific category was calculated.

The data was collected between the 21st and the 30th January 2023.

3. Limitations

As noted above, there were quite a number of issues both large and small with collecting and analysing the data.

The first thing to stress is that the results count how many individual story submissions use each nameat least once. That is to say if a story has a main character called Alice and mentions her a hundred times and it also mentions her mother, Betty, once, the results count plus one for both Alice and Betty. Altering the program to count how many times each name was used would involve downloading every single story on Literotica to parse then and would be substantially more work.

Similarly, many longer stories on Literotica are divided up into multiple story submissions (chapters, parts etc.). The program is not able to distinguish between these so if a story has ten individual submissions and the character Mary features in each one, the name Mary will receive a plus ten to the count. Some stories on Literotica run to a hundred or more individual submissions and the names of the characters in these stories are likely to be overrepresented both in the general results and especially in the matching category for that series.

Because it is impossible to scan a text and decide which names are female, it was necessary to use a pre-compiled list of female names. While the list I used did contain many non-Western names, it was obviously biased toward Western and especially English-language names. This was unavoidable but given that Literotica is itself a Western focused platform and I was only looked at English-language stories, probably acceptable. In any case, I was unable to find a more globally inclusive list on the Internet. That said, I have myself used names which were not represented in the original list (for Japanese, Chinese, Indian and Kenyan origin characters).

It should be noted that 1,005 names was not an completely arbitrary choice. Of the original 5,000 names -- around 800 had never been used on Literotica, around 2,000 had been used less than ten times and around 3,800 had been used less than 100 times. Since Literotica divides its English stories into more than 30 categories, these names would likely still be rare in any individual category and searching for these results would be a waste of effort and bandwidth. After the 1,005th name the number of results dropped below 400 and these seemed like an good ending point. Any name missing for the 5,000 name list would of course not appear in these results, no matter how common it was.

Choosing which names to remove from the list proved a significant problem. I went through the list several times removing names which had a clear double meaning. These included places (France, Sydney, Adelaide), animals (Bunny, Raven, Kitty), car brands (Mercedes, Chrysler), virtues (Grace, Patience, Faith), flowers (Heather, Daisy, Holly) and months (April, May, June) as well as any other common English words. Unfortunately this excluded a large number of words which probably were used often as female names in the stories. It is impossible for the computer to separate when, say, April is used as the name of a woman and when it's used as the name of a month. Unfortunately, I'm sure that, if we were able to limit ourselves to counting only when it's used as a female name, that April would indeed be a common name (my gut says top 100 but certainly top 500), but it had to be excluded.

I also excluded any names which were either unisex (e.g Alex, Francis, Lindsey) or more commonly male (Chris, Tommy) but which had been included in the original female list. I generally kept female-variant spellings (so Danny was removed but Danni was kept).

While I tried to apply these rules consistently, there were of course many judgement calls about where to draw the line. A stickler might observe that we can't be sure how many of the references to Susan were in fact referring to 'a Lazy Susan', but I felt comfortable not excluding this name. I agonized over whether Barbie should stay, but eventually followed the same principle for other famous female names (Marilyn, Aphrodite) and kept her.

I also inevitably will have missed some. For example, only while writing up this report did I notice that, while I'd excluded Florida, Texas, Georgia and Dakota from my list of names, Virginia slipped through (hey, I'm not American!). Similarly I'd excluded most flowers and herbs, but missed Jasmine. I've had to keep them in rather than redo everything now.

Another limitation was that it was not possible to study all thirty one different English story categories within a reasonable time. I chose categories which were big enough to have enough significant data to study and which I felt might show interesting results. For example, there didn't seem much point searching for female names in the Gay Male or Essay and Review categories. Some categories such as Letters and Transcripts were too small to be likely to yield meaningful results. There were some categories such as Romance and Fetish that I would have like to have done given more time, but had to finally skip -- I left these to last as I assumed that Fetish would be similar to BDSM and Romance similar to the general results pattern, but this may not have turned out to be the case. Given the issues with the list being culturally Western, I felt that including Interracial in the categories might give misleading results.

4. Results

4.1. General Results

Below are the list of the top ten names in all categories listed line by line and then the remaining top one-hundred in groups of ten.

1st. Mary

2nd. Sarah

3rd. Lisa

4th. Jane

5th. Amy

6th. Victoria

7th. Jenny

8th. Susan

9th. Julie

10th. Jennifer

11th-20th: Karen, Jessica, Kelly, Beth, Rachel, Anna, Linda, Emily, Cindy, Kate

21st-30th: Sally, Maria, Alice, Laura, Michelle, Marie, Ann, Kim, Amanda, Samantha

31st-40th: Sara, Jill, Anne, Emma, Elizabeth, Katie, Helen, Tina, Lucy, Ashley

41st-50th: Becky, Claire, Jess, Angela, Nancy, Jasmine, Melissa, Donna, Kay, Rebecca

51st-60th: Virginia, Liz, Stephanie, Julia, Janet, Barbara, Megan, Sharon, Betty, Kathy

61st-70th: Debbie, Annie, Sandra, Mandy, Wendy, Maggie, Monica, Nicole, Charlotte, Molly

71st-80th: Diane, Barbie, Gina, Lauren, Tiffany, Brenda, Jackie, Pam, Stacy, Mel

81st-90th: Hannah, Angie, Kat, Jo, Janice, Jenna, Natalie, Lynn, Chloe, Olivia, Margaret

91st-100th: Belle, Ellen, Tracy, Sophie, Tammy, Diana, Judy, Cathy, Mia

4.2. Category Results

There was a lot of data collected and the options for displaying it on Literotica are limited. As a result, I have chosen to present it in terms of how much a name moves (up or down) from it's ranking in the all-categories list to its new position in the ranking list of a specific category. I have presented this information in brackets after each name. For exampleDiane (+27 to 47th) means that the name Diane is 74th in the general list and 47th in the category list and so has moved up 27 places.

The significance of how many places a name moves is relative to its starting and ending position. So for example, if a name moves six places, this might be highly significant if its moving from sixth place in general to first place in a specific category. However if it's moving from 568th to 563rd, this is far less significant. Therefore the results are presented in the following way:

* Small movements in the top ten and then top twenty are presented first.

* After that names which show a greater movement within the top one hundred (typically ten places or more) are presented. Then names which move more than ten places and either enter or leave the top one hundred are listed.

* Finally, the names which show the greatest amount of movement, regardless of starting position are listed, along with names which move more than 100 places to either enter or leave the top 250.

This method of reporting results, while a little complex, allows us to focus on the names which have had significant movement and hopefully draw our attention to important trends.

From here on, this report is a collection of data in for each category. The reader is advised to focus on the categories they are most interested in, rather than to continue reading it line-by-line through like a story, lest they go mad.

4.2.1. BDSM

The big mover into the top ten was Alice (+14 to 9th), otherwise the most common names remained mostly the same. Other common names which became more popular were both Anne (+16 to 16th) and Jasmine (+18 to 30th) where as the losers were Jenny (-20 to 27th) and Kelly (-13 to 26th). Sarah changed first and second places with Mary to become the most common overall name in this category and noticeably variant-spelling Sara also had gains (+10 to 21st).

In the medium range the bigger movers were Diane (+27 to 47th) along with Diana (+34 to 68th), Chloe (+46 to 48th), Sophie (+43 to 57th), Andrea (+55 to 58th) and both Catherine (+49 to 66th) and Katherine (+47 to 69th). Finally Ellie (+72 to 72nd), Eva (+77 to 79th) and Alexis (+77 to 81st) made big strides into the back half of the top one-hundred.

In the lower ranks the biggest mover was Dominique (+398 to 196th) followed by Marisa, Colette and Leila (all moving up 300+ places into the 200s). Other names which moved up by 200 or more places were Kali, Dido, Francesca, Hayley, Kari and Cherie.

Names which moved up a hundred or more places into the top 250 were Isabelle, Rosette, Tori, Marcia, Claudia, Agnes, Justine, Roxanne, Daphne, Serena, Monique and Greta.

The biggest losers in the lower ranks were Luna (-259 to 457th), Carole (-237 to 537th), Mara (-218 to 605th), Corey (-201 to 643) and Kyle and Lois (both -200 to 513rd and 518th).

Names which moved down a hundred or more places to drop out of the top 250 were Britney, Kimberly, Piper, Teresa, Jesse, Courtney and Peggy.

4.2.2. Lesbian Sex

Overall the Lesbian category had very little change. The top four names (Mary, Sarah, Lisa, Jane) all remained the same and Jenny swapped fourth place with Amy for sixth. Rachel and Emily both rose 6 places to 9th and 12th respectively. Susan (-9 to 17th) and Julie (-16 to 15th) both dropped out of the top ten.

Within the top 100 there was a similar lack of movement. Some names which did make big gains were Kat (+44 to 43rd), Angela (+36 to 53) and Angie (+26 to 60th), Erin (+31 to 96th). Katherine (+29 to 87) moved significantly but Catherine (+17 to 98th) less so.

Names which dropped out of the top 100 were Stacy (-18 to 101st), Ally (-58 to 102nd), Brenda (-25 to 105th), Molly (-37 to 110th), Lynn (-22 to 115th), and Ellen and Tracy (both -42 to 141st and 142nd).

In the lower ranks, by far the biggest mover was Jodie (+332 to 134) and Jodi also moved significantly (+156 to 421st). Ann-Marie and Marie-Ann (+319 to 318th) were the joint second highest movers. (Due to the hyphen, the Literotica search engine treats them as the same). The other names which rose more than 200 places were Karin, Kristin, Milly, Jenni, Sylvie and Zara. It should be noted that Kristen only moved +8 to 228 and Sylvia dropped 37 places to 203.

Only two names moved more than a 100 places to enter the top 250: Kimmy and Tabitha.

4.2.3. Transgender and Cross-Dressing

The transgender category saw a lot of movement from the overall list. While Mary was still the most common name overall, Victoria moved up 4 places to 2nd. Other names which made significant gains in the top 20 were Michelle (+19 to 6th), Samantha (+21 to 9th), Alice (+12 to 11th), Cindy (+7 to 12th), Amanda (+16 to 13th), and Stephanie (+40 to 15th).

Names which dropped significantly included Susan (-8 to 16th), Amy (-12 to 17th), Julie (-9 to 18th) and Karen (-9 to 20th).

One name which should have been excluded was Cami. It moved up +171 to 41 in transgender, but I hadn't realized this was also short for Camisole, an item of lingerie.

Within the top 100 the following names moved up significantly - Barbie (+46 to 29th), Tiffany (+46 to 33rd), Wendy (+28 to 39th), Jackie (+35 to 46), Lauren (+28 to 50), Natalie (+37 to 55) and Mia (+22 to 78th).

The names moving into the top 100 from outside were Nikki (+57 to 64th), Carla (+74 to 54th), Veronica (+31 to 76th), Cassie (+52 to 67th), Chrissy (+150 to 98th), Suzie (+119 to 97), Michele (+321 to 75), Cheryl (+39 to 85), Danielle (+56 to 85), Andrea (+26 to 87), Caroline (+41 to 88)

Usually popular names which dropped a significant number of places included Beth (-26 to 40th), Anne (-32 to 65th), Ann (-21 to 48th), Elizabeth (-22 to 57th), Becky (-24 to 66th), Marie (-48 to 74th), Megan (-25 to 84th), Janet (-33 to 90th), Debbie (-28 to 91st) and Sharon (-36 to 96).

Names which lost enough places to drop out of the top 100 included Virginia, Barbara, Kathy, Angie, Hannah, Diane, Pam, Kat and Janice and Maggie.

In the lower orders, the name which had the biggest movement was Raquel (+404 to 193rd) followed by Candi (+366 to 145th), Bobbi (+319 to 211st) and Marci (+305 to 286th). Other names which increased by more than 200 places were Karla, Silvia, Kelli, Leanne, Lia, Ashleigh, Andi, Bambi, Genevive, Kimmy, Dolores, Maxi, Danni, Shelia and Desiree. Names which moved more than 100 places to enter the top 250 were Darla, Marcy, Yvonne, Tori, Josephine, Brandi, Roberta, Trisha, Roxanne, Cass, Alexa, Kylie, Charlene and Penelope.

The name which saw the largest single drop was Betsy (-333 to 597th). Other names which dropped more than 200 places included Marge, Gretchen, Lois, Luna, Eleanor, Kathryn and Buffy. Names which dropped more than 100 places out of the top 250 included Deb, Paige, Piper, Teresa, Joanne, Peggy, Eva, Ruth, Anita, Bonnie, Rita, Connie, Pamela, Gail, Aphrodite, Alyssa, Brooke, Kristen, Meg, Abigail, and Lydia.

4.2.4. Incest and Taboo

This category was another reasonably stable one, though it did have a couple of big movers, most noticeably Beth (+8 to 6th) Jill (+17 to 15th), Katie (+15 to 21st) and Becky (+20 to 22nd). A couple of names dropped a little including Jane (-4 to 8th) and Victoria (-5 to 11th) and more substantial drops included Anna (-18 to 34th) and Alice (-10 to 33rd).

Movers within the top 100 included Liz, Megan, Cathy, Janet and Debbie which all moved up around 10 places into the 40s. Pam, Brenda Jackie Hannah Angie and Jenna also moved up by about the same amount into the 60s and 70s. Names which dropped included Jasmine (-22 to 70th) and Maria (-20 to 42nd) and Virginia (-47 to 100th)

Names entering the top 100 from lower down included Cathy (+41 to 63rd), Patty (+47 to 98th) Cassie (+25 to 94th) Christine (+35 to 87th) Tammy (+23 to 78th) Melanie (+25 to 89th).

In the lower ranks big movers included Krissy (+375 to 267th), Didi (+290 to 312nd) and Kaylee (+202 to 441th). The only two names which moved more than a 100 places to enter the top 250 where Teri (+152 to 182) and Brandi (+104 to 232)

Those dropping out of the top 100 included Charlotte (-37 to 107th), Kat (-23 to 110th),Chloe (-22 to 116th) Sophie (-24 to 124th), Jade (-61 to 132), Belle (-60 to 157).

The biggest drop were Luna (-256 to 454), Buffy (-229 to 640) and Ada (-226 to 594). No names dropped by more than 100 places out of the top 250.

4.2.5. First Time

There were some noticeable names that moved forward in the top 20 in this category including Jenny (+3 to 4th), Emily (+11 to 7th), Jennifer (+2 to 8th), Jessica (+3 to 9th) and Rachel (+5 to 10th), Anna (+4 to 12th), Kim (+9 to 19th) and Amanda (+9 to 20th). Names which dropped included Victoria (-5 to 11th), Julie (-7 to 16th) and Susan (-9 to 17th).

Other names which moved significantly in the top 50 included and Jill (+10 to 22nd), Becky (+17 to 25th), Claire (+12 to 31), Jess (+12 to 33rd), Nancy (+11 to 36th) Stephanie (+18 to 37th), Mandy (+23 to 43rd), Debbie (+18 to 45th) and Jackie (+32 to 49).

In the second half of the top 100, the following names made leaps forward: Pam (+25 to 57th),, Chloe (+27 to 67th), Natalie (+23 to 69th), Cathy (+40 to 64th), Abby (+57 to 68), Carrie (+36 to 73), Alison (+48 to 79th), Sheila (+28 to 82), Suzy (+105 to 91st), Christine (+26 to 96th) and Melanie (+17 to 97th)

Names which dropped down in the top 100 include Marie (-13 to 39th) and Maria (-19 to 41st), Samantha (-14 to 44th) Ashley (-12 to 53rd), Elizabeth (-24 to 59th), Lily (-29 to 66th), Megan (-21 to 80th) and Sandra (-22 to 87th) Names dropping out of the top 100 entirely include Barbie (-31 to 106) Ruth (-36 to 112), Ally (-73 to 117), Hannah (-46 to 131), Jade (-68 to 139) Janice (-51 to 141), and Olivia (-62 to 157).