By longest absence from the record

The longest run of consecutive years, inside a name's own recorded period, in which no registrar ranked it at all.

Measured only between two years that do have a ranking, so it is an absence inside the record rather than the years before or after it. An absence means the name was below every published list's cut-off in those years — not that it was unused, and not that anything caused it to return.

8,208 records across 5 bands, ordered by longest absence first.

• A single year missing

  Names whose longest absence inside their recorded period is a single year.

  2,490 names

• 2 to 3 years missing

  Names whose longest absence inside their recorded period is 2 to 3 years.

  2,864 names

• 4 to 9 years missing

  Names whose longest absence inside their recorded period is 4 to 9 years.

  2,197 names

• 10 to 19 years missing

  Names whose longest absence inside their recorded period is 10 to 19 years.

  471 names

• 20 or more years missing

  Names absent from every published list for at least 20 consecutive years inside their recorded period.

  186 names