40 Years of Amish First Names

What is a typical “Amish” first name? Well the answer to that question, at least in some communities, seems to change – a lot – over time.

Jim Halverson shares an interesting feature in Die Blatt, an Amish publication out of the large northern Indiana settlement. They’ve compiled and published the first names Amish parents gave their babies in 1983, 2003, and 2023. Looking at this in 20-year increments can show how things have really changed over time.

Like other Amish newspapers, Die Blatt publishes birth announcements, and that’s how they’re able to compile this. In just the past four years, it has average over 1,000 births each year in the areas it covers (besides northern Indiana, it is read in other communities including in Michigan).

As you’ll see by the lists below, some Amish baby names are Biblical – but not all. Some of them are popular in families and perpetuate on as boys and girls are named after uncles, aunts, parents, and grandparents. For that matter, if you visit different Amish communities, you’ll notice certain names are popular in different places.

Observations

A few observations here:

The variety of names has increased over the past 40 years, as you’d expect. For one, there are simply more babies – a lot more, comparing 2023 with four decades prior.
Another thing affecting this may simply be a community becoming more progressive over time, and being influenced by trends in non-Amish communities. The Elkhart-LaGrange County settlement is one of the most progressive, influenced in part by the predominant RV industry.
What’s interesting is that every 20 years, it seems like a new set of names takes over as most popular, both for boys and girls. “Mary” stays in the top five from 1983 to 2003, but by 2023 it was nowhere to be found on the list. Similarly with boys’ names, I’m having trouble spotting one that stayed in the top 10 across all 40 years.
Interesting names I notice on these lists include “Hadassah”, “Kenlynn”, “Makiah”, and “Alivia”
The closer to the present we go, the more variations in spelling we find: Lucas/Lukas, Madalyn/Madeline/Madelyn, Jalen/Jalin/Jaylin/Jaylon
When I sold books in the large northern Indiana settlement in 2006, I seem to recall a lot of parents I spoke to with names like Marlin, Merlin, Glen, Waneta, Ruth, and Miriam. Some of these names I remember show up on these lists, but not too many in the top spots, at least not for 2003 and 2023. Tradition is important in Amish communities, but things change in different ways, and in some communities more than others.

Below I’ve posted the top 10-15 names for each year, followed by the full list in image form from Die Blatt.