In this post, we have a table of names ending in the -ette suffix, given to American girls in 2012, 1962 and 1902, that began with the letters M through Y. (See A through L here). The -ette suffix was primarily used to form a pet name or diminutive out of a mainstream name. As the years went by, people began to change the spelling of many names in order to make their child’s name unique. You can see in the table that the name Nicolette had only 2 spellings in 1962. By 2012, there are 4 different versions. It can work the other way, too. The name Suzette has 4 different spellings in 1962, but only one spelling made it to 2012.
This table is in alphabetical order to facilitate comparison. Here are the top 5 names in each year:
2012: Juliette, Colette, Scarlette, Annette, Bridgette
1962: Annette, Jeanette, Yvette, Lynette, Bernadette
1902: Jeanette, Jeannette, Antoinette, Annette, Bernadette
| 2012 (23) | 1962 (54) | 1902 (8) | |||
| Manette | 11 | ||||
| Margarette | 7 | Margarette | 32 | Margarette | 14 |
| Mariette | 19 | ||||
| Marnette | 7 | ||||
| Marquette | 9 | ||||
| Marvette | 9 | ||||
| Miette | 13 | ||||
| Minette | 10 | Minette | 5 | ||
| Minnette | 11 | Minnette | 7 | ||
| Monette | 40 | ||||
| Nanette | 13 | Nanette | 583 | Nanette | 6 |
| Nannette | 7 | Nannette | 232 | ||
| Nicholette | 18 | ||||
| Nickolette | 6 | ||||
| Nicolette | 158 | Nicolette | 91 | ||
| Nicollette | 9 | ||||
| Nikolette | 11 | ||||
| Ninette | 5 | Ninette | 18 | ||
| Odette | 40 | Odette | 51 | Odette | 9 |
| Olivette | 8 | ||||
| Paulette | 85 | Paulette | 742 | ||
| Pearlette | 7 | ||||
| Perette | 16 | ||||
| Pierrette | 8 | ||||
| Polette | 12 | ||||
| Ranette | 9 | ||||
| Raynette | 20 | ||||
| Reinette | 5 | ||||
| Renette | 22 | ||||
| Rennette | 6 | ||||
| Robinette | 23 | ||||
| Ronette | 15 | ||||
| Ronnette | 20 | ||||
| Rosette | 8 | Rosette | 6 | ||
| Roxette | 6 | ||||
| Scarlette | 264 | Scarlette | 16 | ||
| Shanette | 5 | ||||
| Shawnette | 7 | ||||
| Skarlette | 23 | ||||
| Starlette | 7 | Starlette | 13 | ||
| Suezette | 6 | ||||
| Susette | 28 | ||||
| Suzette | 38 | Suzette | 594 | ||
| Suzzette | 17 | ||||
| Toinette | 8 | ||||
| Tonette | 58 | ||||
| Tonnette | 23 | ||||
| Trinette | 6 | ||||
| Vanette | 14 | ||||
| Vannette | 6 | ||||
| Vernadette | 5 | ||||
| Vernette | 23 | ||||
| Vidette | 5 | ||||
| Violette | 104 | Violette | 21 | ||
| Vylette | 6 | ||||
| Waynette | 18 | ||||
| Willette | 34 | ||||
| Williette | 11 | ||||
| Wynette | 20 | ||||
| Wynnette | 8 | ||||
| Yamilette | 16 | ||||
| Yanette | 8 | ||||
| Yevette | 29 | ||||
| Yolette | 5 | ||||
| Yuvette | 7 | ||||
| Yvette | 152 | Yvette | 1926 | Yvette | 6 |
These statistics were compiled from U.S. Social Security (SSA) name data for 2012, 1962 and 1902. The figures to the right of each name shows the number of births the name was attributed to. The SSA does not publish statistics for names given to less than 5 children in any year. In the early 1900s, there were undoubtedly a lot more children born at home as well and some of them probably had an -ette name. One syllable names, like Bette, Brette and Jette, don’t really qualify as names with an -ette suffix, so they were not included.
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