If you’ve forgotten a guy’s name at Hillsdale and want to hazard a guess, your best bet is John. If it’s a girl, try Sophia. 

The most common name among students is John, with 37 men answering to it, followed by 20 Williams and 19 Samuels, Nathans, and Andrews. 

The most popular woman’s name is Sophia, with 29 of them. There are 27 Annas and 22 Elizabeths, Abigails, and Marys. 

To figure this out, I extracted and counted from the campus directory to identify the most common names of Hillsdale students. To keep things simple, I counted different spellings and hyphenated names (like Jon or John-Henry) as the same root name. 

For some students, the shared name was motivation to build a club around it. 

The nine then-freshmen named Sophia or Sofia in the 2028 graduating class made sweatshirts with the name in Greek and wore them on the same day. 

“It started as a joke,” said sophomore Sofia LaHood. “We were in Olds one night, and we were like, ‘Wait, we could actually do this. This would be really funny.’”

This year, however, the Sophia club hasn’t reappeared.

“We did it one year, and it was just kind of a fun joke,” LaHood said. 

Senior John Frenz is not part of a campus club for the name, but it does link him to seven generations of family history. 

“My father’s name is John, too,” Frenz said. “My grandfather was also named John, and my grandfather’s father, and so on. Seven generations in total, all having different middle names to avoid suffixes, all being firstborn sons. The pressure’s on for me, right?” 

Frenz said he doesn’t think his name is particularly common outside of the college, since people might think it’s bland.

In fact, Frenz said most people call him by his nickname, “Fish.” 

“Some people treat the name John like unseasoned food: There’s always a modifier or spice to add,” Frenz said. 

Sharing a common name leads to funny situations, Frenz said. 

“When two Johns simultaneously raise their hands for the same name, one of us must shamefully lower his hand.”  

The shenanigans that can come out of having a shared name seems to be a common theme at Hillsdale.

“I think that it is easier to make friends with someone who has the same name as it provides an avenue for initial conversation,” said Anna Coyle, one of 27 people with her name. “It can be difficult to have multiple Annas in the same class, since it can be unclear who the professor is referring to.” 

Some common names were worthy of forming a club, or a link to family history. For senior Nathan Emslie, it means being part of a group with rare good looks. 

“Originally my parents were going for Jason, but at the first ultrasound they decided I looked more like a Nathan,” Emslie said. “Considering how dashing the rest of the Nathans on campus look, I think I’m in good company.”