Paternoster Row

I was very pleasantly surprised to receive information from a scholar of medieval history. I'd like to frontpage a comment from Chris Laning, who responded to a question in my post, Joys and concerns:

Just discovered your blog and have been reading back issues. :)

You wrote: By the 16th century, though, reform movements in Europe championed by people like Martin Luther, John Hus, John Calvin, and John Wycliffe (were most men named John at that time?) . .

Actually -- yes, more or less. By modern standards, the Middle Ages and Renaissance on the whole had a remarkably small number of common first names, and especially for men, the most common were *very* common. In 16th century England, nearly one out of every three men was named John (about 30%) and 70% of all men were named John, Thomas, William, Richard, or Robert. Seventy percent of all women were named Elizabeth, Joan, Margaret, Anne, Alice, Agnes, Mary, Jane or Katherine. If you're interested: http://www.s-gabriel.org/names/christian/fairnames/

How about that? Isn't the Internet great?

 Chris blogs at Paternosters, and also maintains an informational website,  Paternoster Row, about historical rosaries and paternosters. Both very interesting sites. (Oh, and she knows a lot about the history of knitting, including knitting before 1600 AD.) Again, isn't the Internet great?