It's not so much the number of mentions as the variety of names, hence my lists. Johnnys and Willys are so frequent because they were the commonest names.

I did find a D'Oiley Bussell, way back in 1710 but somehow I don't think he'll be mentioned in many songs... Over the years the name corrupted into Dailey. I suspect the original was named for the local lord of the manor.

To determine the 'gender' of the narrator, you have to work through the song as a whole. Some are definately male perspective (I met a maiden and shagged her), some are female (I met a pretty ploughboy who shagged me), some indeterminate (I met a maiden who told me she'd been shagged by a ploughboy) and others 'bi' as it were... being 'doable' by either male or female voices. Some can be re-jigged to cover either sex ('Moved through the fair' is one that it works for) and some just don't matter.

Of course, in this day and age, gender specific songs are no longer so specific...

LTS