New Search Tool Reveals What's in a Name

April 19, 2007; 09:27 AM
What is the most popular name in the United States? Is Brad Pitt really a unique person? What is the most popular name in New Mexico? Curious consumers can now answer these spellbinding questions and more by visiting http://names.whitepages.com. The site enables Internet users to search for specific name combinations and pull real-time data, such as the number of listings for a specific name, which names are most popular and who’s most sought after. The data can be filtered by state and offers insight into the United States and the people who make it the unique place it is.

Through this “name rank” site, genealogy enthusiasts can research and map family lines and potentially track down long-lost relatives. Ego surfers can find out if they have any “name twins” and in what states. Trivia junkies can revel in scads of information generated at the click of a mouse, such as Patel is the second most common last name in New Jersey, following the mainstream Smith, which reigns as the most common last name in 40 states and in the District of Columbia.

Behind the Letters in a Name: names.whitepages.com
 

-- Reveals the top 10 most popular first and last names in the United States (http://names.whitepages.com/)
 

-- Breaks down the top 10 most popular first and last names by state (Hispanic last names rule in New Mexico: http://names.whitepages.com/New_Mexico)
 

-- Helps parents choose a unique name for their new child by ranking popularity of specific name combinations and revealing the names that directly precede and follow in popularity (Where does Karen Butler rank as a name? http://names.whitepages.com/karen/butler)
 

-- Visually depicts the distribution of U.S. names through a map interface ("Smiths" are alive and well nationwide, but especially in Texas: http://names.whitepages.com/last/smith)
 

-- Shows the number searches conducted over the past month for specific first and last name combinations (How many look ups for Harold Taylor? http://names.whitepages.com/harold/taylor)

“Finding the phone number of a friend or family member on WhitePages.com is valuable, but discovering that your name is one-of-a kind is priceless,” said Alex Algard, founder and CEO of WhitePages.com. “Ego surfers will especially enjoy names.whitepages.com where they can see how unique they and their friends are, or to help them dominate picnic chatter on July 4 with the exact number of Thomas Jeffersons in the United States.”

Searches on names.whitepages.com aren’t just limited to the practical. Consumers can also find more light-hearted information like what’s behind the name Lance Armstrong. For many, the only Lance Armstrong that comes to mind is the seven-time Tour de France champion. However, when conducting a name search, the following fun facts are revealed.

Searching for Lance Armstrong (http://names.whitepages.com/lance/armstrong)
 
-- Number of unique Lance Armstrong listings as of April 2007: 21
 
-- Number of searches for Lance Armstrong in March 2007: 7
 
-- Most popular states for Lance Armstrong as of April 2007:
 

-- California: 3 listings

-- Florida: 2 listings

-- North Carolina: 2 listings

-- Pennsylvania: 2 listings

-- Texas: 2 listings
 
-- Lance listings in database as of April 2007: 28,026 (as a first name it ranks as 425th most popular out of 2,634,850 first name listings)
 
-- Armstrong listings in database as of April 2007: 36,314 (as a last name it ranks 198th most popular out of 6,843,982 last name listings)

Names.whitepages.com leverages WhitePages.com’s powerful contact database, which includes more than 150 million U.S. and Canadian residential, business and email listings. WhitePages.com is the premier People Search site that provides fast, convenient access to phone, address and email contact information. With more than 22 million unique users per month who conduct more than 130 million monthly searches, WhitePages.com leads the growing people search category, and is a top 40 Web site according to comScore Media Metrix.

About WhitePages.com, Inc.

WhitePages.com, Inc., a privately held company based in Seattle, is the most trusted and comprehensive online source for consumers to quickly and easily find relevant, accurate contact information in North America. The company's network of sites include WhitePages.com (www.whitepages.com), WhitePages.ca (www.whitepages.ca), 411.com (www.411.com), PhoneNumber.com (www.phonenumber.com), and its 1,300 partner sites including MSN, Superpages.com, YellowPages.com and the Yellow Pages Group in Canada. The company also provides a mobile site for users of Web-enabled mobile devices. To learn what’s in a name, please visit http://names.whitepages.com.