In several countries, one of the most pronounced trends in contemporary baby naming is selecting a comparatively uncommon name. Nevertheless, although a well-documented phenomenon, studies of uncommon name use are often limited to forenames. This study analyses approximately 22 million full names from England and 1 million from Wales, given between 1838 and 2014. It addresses the hypothesis that, consistent with the contemporary desire to choose an uncommon name, alliterative names – uncommon by definition – would become increasingly popular. More broadly, this study charts the long-term trends in alliterative naming over time. In both England and Wales, this pattern is consistent with a random expectation for much of the 19^th century but declines significantly throughout the 20^th century to its lowest use in the 1970s. This trend reverses towards the end of the 20^th century, with alliterative naming becoming more common in contemporary records. These three aspects of alliterative name use are thematically referred to as ‘ambivalence’, ‘avoidance’ and ‘appeal’; and may reflect changing attitudes towards alliterative naming. The relatively renewed appeal of alliterative names towards the end of the 20^th century complements previous research on the preponderance of uncommon names and the contemporary ‘need for uniqueness’ in naming.

在一些国家，当代婴儿命名的最明显趋势之一是选择一个相对不常见的名字。尽管如此，尽管有充分记载的现象，但对不常见名称使用的研究通常仅限于形式。这项研究分析了1838年至2014年间来自英格兰的约2200万个全名和威尔士的100万个全名。它提出了一个假说，即与当代人选择不常见名称的愿望一致，代名词（按定义不常见）将越来越流行。更广泛地讲，本研究绘制了随着时间的推移，替代性命名的长期趋势。在英格兰和威尔士两，这种模式是非常重要的19个随机预期一致^个世纪，但在整个20显著下降^日到1970年代使用最少的世纪。这一趋势逆转对20月底^日世纪，随着押韵的命名成为当代记录更为常见。命名名称使用的这三个方面在主题上被称为“矛盾性”，“回避”和“上诉”。并可能反映出对替代性命名的态度变化。押头韵的名字对20月底的相对吸引力再次^日在罕见的名字的优势，并在提名当代“需要独特性”世纪补以前的研究。