metadata

dataset_info:
  features:
    - name: firstname
      dtype: string
    - name: sexe
      dtype: int64
    - name: occurrences
      dtype: int64
  splits:
    - name: train
      num_examples: 98244
license: mit
language:
  - fr
pretty_name: First names in France
size_categories:
  - 10K<n<100K

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

Extraction of first names from death records
Filtering out names with only 1 character
Filtering out names composed of repeated single characters
Removal of names with single occurrence
Gender coding (1 for male, 2 for female)
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.