100 Years Ago At Kent State: The Most Popular First Names on Campus in 1922 - and Today

Mildred, Hazel, Fern, Howard. These were some of the names you would hear if you were listening to conversations among students at Kent State Normal College in the early 1920s. But what were the most common names on campus in 1922? 

The list below ranks the names on Kent State’s campus in the academic year 1921-1922 by how often they appear in the list of enrolled students. “Helen” takes the top spot, with 21 students sharing that name. The list contains more female names because in the total enrollment for that year (380 students), there were 317 women on campus and just 63 men. 

Enrollment grew throughout the 1920s and 1930s. The College Blue Book of 1923 named Kent State as “the fastest-growing college in America.” However, female students were still in the majority until fall 1939 – the first year there were more men enrolled than women. 

The Class of 2022

Now, 100 years later, what are the top student names at Kent State? The answer is not a direct “apples-to-apples” comparison because the 1921-1922 list includes the entire student body for that year. The list below was distilled from just the 4,900+ Kent State seniors on track to graduate in May 2022. 

In 2022, Kent State’s total current student population had slightly more women than men and “Emily” took the top spot on this list, with about 70 members of the Class of 2022 sharing that name. “Michael” topped the list of most common male names, with more than 40 students expected to walk across the stage at spring commencement when that name was called.

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When asked how children and young adults might feel about having a name that’s unique among their peers or sharing the same name as many of their classmates, she said, “As emerging adults, we like to think we are unique. Developmental psychologists call this ‘egocentrism’. So, imagine you are one of 10 Hannahs in a KSU classroom or one of 300 Michaels graduating from Kent State this spring. What do you do to distinguish yourself, to make yourself stand out? Dye your hair blue? Graduate summa cum laude?” 

And if the converse is true? “And what if you are the only one with a unique name? Some students love it, and others choose a nickname, so they don't stand out,” she said. “For example, I once had a student named ‘Unique’ who went by ‘Nicky.’ Interestingly, she was the third ‘Unique’ I had taught.” 

Neal-Barnett offered one other observation: “One perk of having the same name as over 300 Kent State spring 2022 graduates, the announcer at commencement is guaranteed to pronounce it correctly.”