I took the most popular R first names in the era from 1930-1950 (Robert, Richard, Ronald, Raymond, Ralph, Roger, Roy) and their popular nicknames (Rob, Bob, Bobby, Rick, Rich, Dick, Ron, Ronnie, Ronny, Ray). Then I matched them with the 80 or so last names (present) that start with an H that are among the 1,000 most common last names (U.S., of course). I wanted to see how many and which ones matched the Z13 letter distribution (1 triple, 3 pairs). Doing the math, it seems like I went through 1300+ names. This is what I found:
46 total possible names (about 3 percent match)
5 names that match perfectly in 13 letters (3 of them being nicknames)
4 names that match the pattern in 12 letters (3 nicknames). This means they would match by adding a middle initial that is not 1 of the letters already in the name. These also would fit with a blank space.
37 that would match the pattern only by adding certain middle initials.
13 characters, exact match:
Richard Howard (#2 R first name from 1930-1950, #5 H last name currently)
Ralph Holloway (#5, #46)
Ronny Holloway (#3 – nickname, #46)
Ronnie Hendrix (#3 – nickname, #81)
Robbie Harrell (#1 – nickname, #55)
12 characters, matching distribution pattern:
Ron Henderson (#3 – nickname, #7) MI: No more repeats
Richard Hardy (#2, #34) MI: No more repeats
Robbie Hoover (#1 – nickname, #47) MI: No more repeats
Ronnie Hoover (#3 – nickname, #47) MI: No more repeats
12 characters, needs a certain middle initial
Ron Hernandez (#3 – nickname, #1 MI: O, H, A, D, Z
Ray Hernandez (#4 – nickname, #1) MI: Y, H, D, Z
Ronald Howard (#3, #5) MI: D, A, O, R
Rob Henderson (#1 – nickname, #7) MI: E, O, N, R
Bob Henderson (#1 – nickname, #7) MI: E, O, N, B
Roy Henderson (#7, #7) MI: Y, H, D, S
Rich Harrison (#2 – nickname, #11) MI: S,O, N, A, C
Robert Hunter (#1, #13) MI: H, U, N, O, B
Ronnie Hunter (#3 – nickname, #13) MI: O, I, H, U, T
Ronny Hoffman (#3 – nickname, #21) MI: R, Y, H, M, A
Robbie Harper (#1 – nickname, #22) MI: O, I, A, P
Robert Howell (#1, #24) MI: R, O, L, E
Robbie Howell (#2 – nickname, #24 MI: R. I. H, W
Ronnie Howell (#3 – nickname, #24) MI: R, N, L, E
Ronald Hanson (#3, #25) MI: R. L, D, H, S
Ralph Holland (#5, #28) MI: N, D, R, P, O
Ronny Holland (#3 – nickname, #26) MI: R. Y, H, A, D
Ronald Horton (#3, #32) MI: A, L, D, H, T
Raymond Hardy (#4. #33) MI: M, O, N, H
Robbie Horton (#1 – nickname, #32) MI: I, E, H, T, N
Bobby Higgins (#1- nickname, #34) MI: O, Y, H, N, S
Ronny Higgins (#3 – nickname, #34) MI: R, O, H, S
Ronald Harmon (#3, #35) MI: L, D, H, M
Ronnie Harmon (#3 – nickname, #35) MI: I, E, H, A, M
Ralph Hubbard (#5, #39) MI: U, D, L, P
Bobby Hammond (#1 -nickname, #40)MI: Y, H, A, N, D
Richard Heath (#2, #53) MI: T, I, C, D
Bobby Hensley (#1 – nickname, #54) MI: N, S, L, O, H
Ronny Hensley (#3 – nickname, #54) MI: R, O, H, S, L
Bobby Harrell (#1 – nickname, #55) MI: O, Y, H, A, E
Bobby Hancock (#1 – nickname, #57) MI: H, A, K, N, Y
Ronny Hancock (#3 – nickname, #57) MI: R, Y, H, A, K
Robbie Henson (#1 – nickname, #61) MI: R, I, H, S
Robert Hannah (#1, #71) MI: O, B, E, T
Robbie Hannah (#1 – nickname, #71) MI: R. O. I. E
Robbie Hester (#1 – nickname, #79) MI: O, I, H, S, T
Robbie Hinton (#1 – nickname, #80) MI: R, E, H, T
A few thoughts:
Robert was easily the most popular R name in that era. But there are no exact matches for Robert. There are an assortment, however, for its nicknames.
Robert Hunter is the top formal Robert name that matches with certain middle initials. (Henderson is more common, and matches with Rob or Bob, with certain middle initials) Interesting, since there is a POI by that name. However, the POI’s middle initial is not a match.
Richard Howard seems like a likely name (#2 first name, #5 last name, exact match). Only the Hernandez matches are from a presently more popular last name. The only 2 formal names that have the right distribution are Richard names (Howard and Hardy). And it might be that some of the Robert/Rob/Bob/etc. names would be more common. I’m not a statistician.
Obviously, this exercise is not meant to point the finger at any specific person – only to go through names that could in theory match the Z13 puzzle.
