The Most Popular Comedian's name is..?

Reading the programme for the Leicester Comedy Festival, I started spotting clusters of names. Obviously, being a comedy festival, it is dominated by blokes doing stand up. But unlike, say, the Edinburgh Fringe programme, it's still manageable enough in size for one to pore over it and tot up the various names and how often they appear. It's also alphabeticised by first names which may well infuriate grammatical purists but is very helpful for this little game.

There are women in the Festival, of course, the most common female names being Holly, of which there are two, Burn and Walsh; and Harriet, of which there are also two, Dyer and Kemsley. Of the 498 acts in the programme, only 76 are female (or include a female member, eg Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain which has 2 girls & 6 boys but still counts). So yay Feminism, but some work still to do.

So here, apropos of nothing, are the Most Popular Comedians' Names, using Leicester's line-up as a representative sample (do please try guessing before you scroll down the list):

Bubbling under

With 4 apiece we have:
Andrew (Bird, O'Neill, Ryan & Stanley)
Ben (Briggs, Hustwayte, Norris & Van Der Velde)
Chris (Martin, Mayo, Ramsey & Stokes)
Joe (Bor, Lycett, Ross-Williams & Wells)
Sean (Hughes, McLoughlin, Morley & Turner)
and Simon (Donald, Evans, Feilder & Lilley)

Also on 4 is David, who would be higher up the chart if you count the 2 Daves and a Davey, which I don't. (Elms, Morgan, O'Doherty & Trent +, if you must, Griffiths, Johns & Connor)

Then in equal 5th place, with 5 comedians sharing the same first name we have:

James (Bannon, Campbell, Hately, Loveridge & Mullinger)
&
Mark (Cram, Olver, Restuccia, Simmons & Smith)

In equal 4th place, with 6 comics of a similar nomenclature, we find:

Matt (Dwyer, Forde, Hollins, Price, Reed & Rudge + one more spelled Mat, Ewins)
&
Rob (Beckett, Coleman, Deering, Gee, Halden & Rouse + one more if you count Robert Newman)

In 3rd place, with 7 comedians to its name, is:

John (Cooper, Cooper-Clarke, Gordillo, Hastings, Kearns, Lynn & Robins)

In 2nd place, with 8 comics of that ilk, we see:

Tom (Binns, Craine, Deacon, Rosenthal, Stade, Toal, Wrigglesworth & Young)

And at number one, the most popular name for comedians at this year's Leicester Comedy Festival, with an impressive 10 men bearing the same monicker, it's...

Paul  (Chowdry, Currie, F Taylor, Foot, Kerensa, McCaffrey, Revill, Ricketts, Savage & Tonkinson)

Does this tell us anything, other than that the names of my childhood seem to be having something of a revival (my 1st year high school class included 5 Pauls, so many in fact that two had to be moved to another tutor group because it was getting too confusing)? I don't know. But thanks for letting me waste your time.



Scottish Falsetto Socks Spring Tour 2014:
Feb 19 - Macrobert Arts Stirling
Feb 22 - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
Mar 15 - Largs Barrfields Pavilion
Mar 20, 21 - Dram, Glasgow
Mar 22 - Spread Eagle, Croydon
Mar 29 - Kings Lynn Arts Centre
Mar 31 - Bath Comedy Festival - Natural Theatre
Apr 3 - Adam Smith Theatre Kirkcaldy
Apr 12 - Stroud Subscription Rooms
May 9 - Exeter Barnfield
May 14 - Camden Head, London
May 17 - Brighton Komedia
May 23 - Keighley Exchange
May 31 - Aylesbury Limelight
June 6 - Hazlitt Theatre, Maidstone
June 7 - Butlins, Bognor
June 11 - Camden Head, London
June 19 - Phoenix Arts, Bordon Hants
June 20 - Derby Assembly Rooms
June 21 - Halifax Square Chapel
June 22 - Derby (family show)
July 9 - Bedford Fringe
July 13 - Sheffield New Barrack Tavern 2pm
July 17 - Larmer Tree Festival, Wilts
July 18 - Leeds Carriageworks
July 19 - Cradley Heath Comedy Festival
July 22 - Comedy Den Cardiff
More dates to be announced
August - Edinburgh Fringe 2014