eltorio/french_first_names_insee_2024

French First Names from Death Records (1970-2024)

This dataset contains French first names extracted from death records provided by INSEE (French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies) covering the period from 1970 to September 2024.

Dataset Description

Data Source

The data is sourced from INSEE's death records database. It includes first names of deceased individuals in France, providing valuable insights into naming patterns across different generations.

The extractor source code can be found on Github sctg-development/french-names-extractor

Time Period

• Start: 1970
• End: September 2024

Features

The dataset contains three columns:

• firstname: The first name of the deceased person
• sexe: Gender indicator (1 = male, 2 = female)
• occurrences: Number of occurrences of the name in the records

Data Processing

The following filtering criteria were applied to clean the data:

• Names with length > 1 character
• Names not composed of repeated single characters
• Only names with at least 2 occurrences are included

Data Format

• File format: CSV
• Encoding: UTF-8
• Separator: comma (,)

Usage

This dataset can be used for various purposes, including:

• Historical analysis of French naming patterns
• Demographic studies
• Gender classification of French names
• Cultural evolution studies
• Genealogical research

Loading the Dataset

from datasets import load_dataset

dataset = load_dataset("eltorio/french_first_names_insee_2024")

License

MIT License

Citation

@dataset{french_first_names_insee_2024,
  author = {Ronan Le Meillat},
  title = {French First Names from Death Records (1970-2024)},
  year = {2024},
  publisher = {Hugging Face},
  source = {INSEE},
}

Dataset Creation

Data Collection

The data was extracted from INSEE's death records database, which maintains official records of all deaths in France.

Preprocessing

1. Extraction of first names from death records
2. Filtering out names with only 1 character
3. Filtering out names composed of repeated single characters
4. Removal of names with single occurrence
5. Gender coding (1 for male, 2 for female)
6. Counting occurrences of each name

Dataset Structure

DatasetDict({
    'train': Dataset({
        features: ['firstname', 'sexe', 'occurrences'],
        num_rows: [NUMBER_OF_ROWS]
    })
})

Additional Information

Source Data

The original data was obtained from INSEE (Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques), the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies.

Maintenance

This dataset is a static snapshot and reflects death records up to September 2024.

Known Limitations

• The dataset only includes names from death records, which may not fully represent contemporary naming patterns
• Historical records might have some inconsistencies in spelling or recording
• The dataset only includes names with at least 2 occurrences, which might exclude some rare or unique names

Acknowledgments

Thanks to INSEE for making this data publicly available.