THE GENDER DIFFERENCE

While 115 entries on the list contain the words Mrs, Ms, Miss, Madam, Lady, Woman, Girl, Queen or Princess, only 87 contain the equivalent Mr, Sir, Man, Boy, King or Prince. I wonder why this is? Of course, there are several other names that make the gender of the 'Ziner obvious, but assimilating all of these into the results would be far too much effort.

ANIMALS IN 'ZINE NAMES

The following animals, or animal-related words, appear in at least one 'Ziner name: aardvark, alligator, antelope, ant eater, ape, armadillo, ass, baboon, badger, bat, bear, bee, beetle, bluebottle, bluetit, bird, budgerigar, budgie, bunny, buffalo, bull, bullfrog, butterfly, calf, canary, cat, caterpillar, chicken, chimpanzee, chinchilla, cockatoo, cod, cow, coyote, crow, cuckoo, dingo, dog, donkey, duck, elephant, ferret, fish, flea, fly, frog, fox, gecko, gerbil, gibbon, goat, goldfish, goose, gorilla, gull, hamster, hedgehog, hen, hippo, hog, horse, hummingbird, hyena, jellyfish, kitten, kitty, koala, ladybird, lemming, lemur, leopard, lion, llama, lobster, manta, marsupial, mole, mongoose, monkey, monkfish, moose, moth, mouse, mule, octopus, otter, owl, panda, penguin, pig, pigeon, pilchard, pony, poodle, possum, puppy, rabbit, rat, raven, rhino, scorpion, sheep, skunk, sloth, slug, squirrel, snail, snake, sow, sparrow, spider, squirrel, starfish, swan, tapeworm, tiger, toad, tortoise, trout, turtle, vixen, vulture, warthog, whale, wolf, wombat, worm, zebra.

Of these, the most common is fish (and its variants), with twenty-five occurrences.

LETTER FREQUENCIES

Below and to your left, a table that shows the number of occurrences of each letter at the beginning of names on the 'Ziners List. Below and to your right, the equivalent table for the ends of names.

Position	Initial Letter	Frequency
1	S	205
2	M	157
3	C	134
4	B	125
5	P	123
6	D	115
7	A	105
8	L	96
9	F	88
10	H	71
11	T	65
12	G	64
13	J	57
14	E	51
15	N	50
16	R	49
17	I	47
18	K	37
19	W	34
20	O	33
21	U	23
22	V	18
23	Q	15
24	Y	10
25	Z	9
26	X	5

Position	Final Letter	Frequency
1	E	379
2	N	225
3	S	199
4	Y	192
5	R	190
6	T	176
7	D	117
8	L	100
9	A	88
10	O	74
11	K	66
12	H	64
13	M	62
14	G	57
15	P	30
16	F	23
17	C	20
18	I	19
18	X	19
20	W	18
21	B	17
22	U	12
23	Z	9
24	J	2
24	V	2
26	Q	0

For the initial letters table, we can see that S is the clear victor. The most surprising statistic is probably that R ranks only 16th. There are also two asterisks, two brackets, one colon, one quotation mark, and four numerical values on the list, which don't make the table.

Only five names on the list begin with X. In addition, there are a huge 445 'Ziners whose names begin with The, so this would have given T a resounding victory had they been included in the psephological analysis.

As to the final letters table, nothing is immensely surprising. E is the winner, and there are no Qs. In addition, there are a further 79 names that do not end in a letter, but with a number, or a punctuation mark (mostly brackets).

LONGEST AND SHORTEST NAMES

The shortest names are I and R. These are just single characters - but have been on 'Zine letters, so there you go. The record for the longest is held by The Man With the Key to the Door of Reality Underneath the Mat of Insignificance, at an enormous 64 characters.

FURTHER READING

A long time ago, Sir Whence Pitchfork compiled some useful data about the then total 662 names on the 'Ziners List. While an update is never going to happen, you can view the old data here.