# Joannes in Buffalo

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joannes-in-buffalo/50728>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 18, 2001, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joannes-in-buffalo/50728 "2001-01-18T18:31:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2001, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joannes-in-buffalo/50728/1 "2001-01-18T18:31:48Z")

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I just got back from short trip back home, visiting the 'rents in Buffalo, New York.

The following was something I’ve always noticed, but spending a few days back in the City of No Illusions brought it back to the forefront of my mind. There’s a _lot_ of women in Buffalo named “Joanne.” I mean, maybe one out of every 20 or 30. When I lived in New Mexico, I encountered no Joannes. Here in Colorado, I estumble upon a Joanne maybe every couple of months. In Buffalo, I encountered several Joannes in a day.

I have no idea why “Joanne” is such a popular name in Buffalo. I’m thinking that it might be a popular name among Italian-Americans, of which there aren’t too many in Denver or New Mexico, but that’s just a wild guess. So, does anyone have any idea on why this name has such a large popularity in the region?

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**Author:** ![Nurlman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Nurlman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nurlman)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2001, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joannes-in-buffalo/50728/2 "2001-01-18T19:47:19Z")

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I practiced law in Buffalo for four years, and can’t recall running across a single one.

An experiment: searching the online versions of the [Buffalo News](http://www.buffalonews.com) and [Denver Post](http://www.denverpost.com) yields the following results:

**"Joanne"**  
Buffalo: 201 hits  
Denver: 48 hits  
Ratio\*: Roughly 4 women named Joanne in Buffalo for every 1 named Joanne in Denver.

- Obviously, the Buffalo News has a bigger or broader archive than the Post. Calculating the ratio of one to the other should compensate for this.

Now let’s compare these figures to the top 5 female first names in the U.S. according to the [U.S. Census](http://www.census.gov/ftp/pub/genealogy/names/):

**"Mary"**  
Buffalo: more than 500  
Denver: 58  
Ratio: at least 10 women named Mary in Buffalo for every 1 named Mary in Denver

**"Patricia"**  
Buffalo: 392  
Denver: 12  
Ratio: 32:1

**"Linda"**  
Buffalo: 429  
Denver: 38  
Ratio: 11:1

**"Barbara"**  
Buffalo: 454  
Denver: 65  
Ratio: 7:1

**"Elizabeth"**  
Buffalo: 387  
Denver: 26  
Ratio: 15:1

O.k, how about the names that cluster around “Joanne” (ranked 147th) in the census?

**"Jamie"**  
Buffalo: 340  
Denver: 9  
Ratio: 37:1

**"Eleanor"**  
Buffalo: 84  
Denver: 5  
Ratio: 16:1

**"Valerie"**  
Buffalo: 63  
Denver: 6  
Ratio: 10:1

**"Lucille"**  
Buffalo: 65  
Denver: 0  
Ratio: ?

While this isn’t a very scientific method of surveying the information, it at least suggests that your observation is incorrect.

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**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\
**Post date:** [January 18, 2001, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/joannes-in-buffalo/50728/3 "2001-01-18T22:12:33Z")

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[arthur dent]: Is she…