Google Ngram is an amazing tool to plot word handles and see how often they've been used since the 1800s.
https://books.google.com/ngramsYou wanted to find the word's preferred spelling in British English from 1914? Done.
You wanted to plot names and see their popularity grow and wane? Done.
I'm leaving you with a link to a TED talk that explains how Google Ngram came to be and how it can be used. I hope you find it as useful a tool as I have.
http://www.ted.com/talks/what_we_learned_from_5_million_booksGoogle Ngram
