1950s spelling families

Counted together, the Steven family spellings would rank #7 in the decade's rankings for their sex. The most common spelling, Steven, ranked #11 on its own.

Yearly data for the Steven family family

Yearly SSA births by spelling variant, 1950–1959

Year	Steven	Stephen	Combined
1950	23,250	20,511	43,761
1951	28,363	22,474	50,837
1952	32,037	23,055	55,092
1953	33,721	21,807	55,528
1954	36,628	21,878	58,506
1955	37,847	22,155	60,002
1956	38,413	21,204	59,617
1957	36,842	19,726	56,568
1958	32,968	17,962	50,930
1959	33,597	16,504	50,101

Steven family spelling variants, ranked separately and as a group

Variant	1950s births	Decade rank	Share of family
Steven	333,666	#11	61.7%
Stephen	207,276	#20	38.3%

Why these are grouped: Steven and Stephen are established U.S. spelling forms with a shared conventional pronunciation in most use; the family view keeps both underlying records visible.

Counted together, the Catherine family spellings would rank #12 in the decade's rankings for their sex. The most common spelling, Catherine, ranked #32 on its own.

Yearly data for the Catherine family family

Yearly SSA births by spelling variant, 1950–1959

Year	Catherine	Katherine	Katharine	Kathryn	Cathryn	Combined
1950	9,655	6,205	373	7,863	320	24,416
1951	10,566	6,930	321	8,460	336	26,613
1952	11,053	6,891	359	8,504	351	27,158
1953	10,849	6,559	337	8,324	321	26,390
1954	11,079	6,740	322	8,137	347	26,625
1955	11,636	7,239	416	7,640	335	27,266
1956	12,056	7,082	405	7,594	368	27,505
1957	11,151	6,637	408	7,211	303	25,710
1958	10,769	6,433	405	7,324	318	25,249
1959	10,025	6,139	366	6,746	272	23,548

Catherine family spelling variants, ranked separately and as a group

Variant	1950s births	Decade rank	Share of family
Catherine	108,839	#32	41.8%
Katherine	66,855	#65	25.7%
Katharine	3,712	#471	1.4%
Kathryn	77,803	#57	29.9%
Cathryn	3,271	#507	1.3%

Why these are grouped: Catherine, Katherine, Katharine, Kathryn, and qualifying Cathryn forms are established orthographic variants; this reviewed grouping combines separately ranked spellings without treating their bearers as interchangeable.

Counted together, the Jeffrey family spellings would rank #20 in the decade's rankings for their sex. The most common spelling, Jeffrey, ranked #24 on its own.

Yearly data for the Jeffrey family family

Yearly SSA births by spelling variant, 1950–1959

Year	Jeffrey	Jeffery	Combined
1950	7,644	1,216	8,860
1951	9,713	1,631	11,344
1952	12,006	2,183	14,189
1953	15,949	3,042	18,991
1954	19,052	3,935	22,987
1955	22,533	5,466	27,999
1956	23,285	6,569	29,854
1957	23,982	7,508	31,490
1958	24,223	6,842	31,065
1959	26,281	7,487	33,768

Jeffrey family spelling variants, ranked separately and as a group

Variant	1950s births	Decade rank	Share of family
Jeffrey	184,668	#24	80.1%
Jeffery	45,879	#86	19.9%

Why these are grouped: Jeffrey and Jeffery are direct transposition spellings recorded separately by SSA; Geoffrey is deliberately excluded as a less certain semantic match.

Counted together, the Theresa family spellings would rank #19 in the decade's rankings for their sex. The most common spelling, Teresa, ranked #30 on its own.

Yearly data for the Theresa family family

Yearly SSA births by spelling variant, 1950–1959

Year	Theresa	Teresa	Combined
1950	5,628	4,724	10,352
1951	6,190	6,213	12,403
1952	6,809	7,294	14,103
1953	7,715	8,932	16,647
1954	8,509	10,841	19,350
1955	9,620	13,126	22,746
1956	10,841	14,464	25,305
1957	11,188	15,687	26,875
1958	11,452	15,602	27,054
1959	11,656	17,400	29,056

Theresa family spelling variants, ranked separately and as a group

Variant	1950s births	Decade rank	Share of family
Theresa	89,608	#39	43.9%
Teresa	114,283	#30	56.1%

Why these are grouped: Theresa and Teresa are established spelling forms whose separate conventional ranks divide their shared demographic footprint.

Counted together, the Brian family spellings would rank #33 in the decade's rankings for their sex. The most common spelling, Brian, ranked #34 on its own.

Yearly data for the Brian family family

Yearly SSA births by spelling variant, 1950–1959

Year	Brian	Bryan	Combined
1950	4,441	737	5,178
1951	5,101	809	5,910
1952	5,741	849	6,590
1953	6,665	1,049	7,714
1954	8,078	1,225	9,303
1955	10,109	1,568	11,677
1956	14,666	2,438	17,104
1957	17,519	3,374	20,893
1958	19,279	4,091	23,370
1959	20,737	4,488	25,225

Brian family spelling variants, ranked separately and as a group

Variant	1950s births	Decade rank	Share of family
Brian	112,336	#34	84.5%
Bryan	20,628	#148	15.5%

Why these are grouped: Brian and Bryan are established spelling forms recorded separately; this family combines their counts while retaining each variant as its own entry.

Counted together, the Rebecca family spellings would rank #28 in the decade's rankings for their sex. The most common spelling, Rebecca, ranked #28 on its own.

Yearly data for the Rebecca family family

Yearly SSA births by spelling variant, 1950–1959

Year	Rebecca	Rebekah	Combined
1950	9,425	98	9,523
1951	10,932	146	11,078
1952	12,227	173	12,400
1953	12,959	189	13,148
1954	13,208	197	13,405
1955	12,398	202	12,600
1956	12,168	210	12,378
1957	11,482	208	11,690
1958	10,416	197	10,613
1959	10,475	202	10,677

Rebecca family spelling variants, ranked separately and as a group

Variant	1950s births	Decade rank	Share of family
Rebecca	115,690	#28	98.4%
Rebekah	1,822	#708	1.6%

Why these are grouped: Rebecca and Rebekah are established spelling forms with different orthographic traditions; the reviewed grouping is demographic rather than personal.