Pope Francis is officially the most talked about name of 2013 -followed by Ed Snowden and Kate Middleton

Pope Francis, pictured right, was the most commonly used name across the web in the past year. The Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton, pictured left, was the highest scoring British person to make the names list

Despite the royal birth in the UK and the controversy President Obama's health reforms caused in the U.S., the person most commonly talked about across the web in 2013 was Pope Francis. 

The Catholic figurehead was so popular over the past year online, his Twitter handle @ponitfex was also the fourth most used word. 

These results come from research by The Global Language Monitor (GLM) - a Texas-based analytics firm that uses online tools to track and scan conversations on blogs, social networks and news sites. 

GLM’s Word of the Year rankings are based on how many times certain words, phrases and names were used online throughout English-speaking countries.

To make the list, a word, name or phrase had to have been used a minimum of 25,000 times, appeared in various forms of media, and were not specific to a particular country, profession or social group. 

Names included the names of people, but also businesses, societies and groups. 

GLM's NarrativeTracker technology scans blogs, social media and news sites from the leading 275,000 print and electronic worldwide magazines and newspapers.

News about the National Security Agency (NSA) accessing people’s personal records and intelligence, leaked by former NSA contractor and CIA employee Edward Snowden meant that ‘NSA’ and ‘Ed Snowden’ made the top five names list.

The Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton was the highest scoring British person to make the names list.

The most popular word in 2013 was 404, which refers to an online technical error code. This number appears when a user clicks a link or tries to access a site that is not available.

The Catholic figurehead was so popular over the past year online, his Twitter handle @ponitfex was also the fourth most used word. The rest of the top 20 list was dominated by tech-based words including '404' 'hashtag', 'Surveillance' and 'drones'

It can appear when a story is taken down, for example, or if a page can’t load. This was often used in conjunction with second-place word ‘fail’.

The word ‘fail’ came in second place and was followed by words including ‘surveillance’, ‘drone’ and deficit’.

The rest of the top 20 list was dominated by tech-based words including ‘hashtag’, 'drones' and 'surveillance'.

Other common tech words included ‘Nano’, referring to nanotechnology, or technology that works with items on an atomic and molecular level, and ‘Meme’ relating to internet memes such as Grumpy Cat. 

The term ‘The Cloud’ came in at 18th and refers to the location where online data is stored.  

The top phrase of 2013 was ‘Toxic Politics’ - a term used for political campaigns that attempt to ‘scorch and burn’ the opponents.

GLOBAL LANGUAGE MONITOR'S TOP WORDS, PHRASES AND NAMES OF 2013

TOP WORDS OF 2013

1. 404 

2. Fail 

3. Hashtag 

4. @Pontifex 

5. The Optic

6. Surveillance 

7. Drones  

8. Deficit 

9. Sequestration

10. Emancipate 

11. Filibuster

12. Nano 

13. Twerking

14. Deadlock 

15. Franken

16. Meme 

17. Stalemate 

18. The Cloud 

19. Phony 

20. Comet 

TOP PHRASES OF 2013

1. Toxic Politics 

2. Federal Shutdown 

3. Global Warming/Climate Change 

4. Federal Deficit 

5. Tread Lightly 

6. Boston Strong

7. Marathon Bombing 

8. Chemical Weapons

9. All Time High 

10. Rogue nukes 

11. Near-Earth Asteroid 

12. Arab Spring 

13. Solar max

14. Big Data

15. Ethical/Sustainable Fashion 

TOP NAMES OF 2013

1. Pope Francis 

2. ObamaCare 

3. NSA – The National Security Agency 

4. Ed Snowden 

5. Kate Middleton 

6. IRS - The Internal Revenue Service

7. Ted Cruz - Tea Party supporter and Texas senator

8. Chris Christie - Governor of New Jersey

9. Tea Party 

10. Marathon Bombers 

11. Malala Yousafzai - The Pakistani girl shot by terrorists 

12. Xi Jinping - China's leader

13. President Obama

14. Hassan Rouhani — Newly elected president of Iran.

15. Sochi Olympics - The Olympic Winter Games taking place in February 2014, in Sochi, Russia.

These popular terms related to the recent shutdown of the federal government in the U.S which happened because Congress failed to pass a budget before the start of the financial year on 1 October. It led to the shutdown of many government and state-funded businesses.

Other news-related terms included ‘Boston Strong’ and ‘Marathon Bombing’, in response to a terrorist bombing at the finish line of the 2013 Boston marathon in April in which five people died and 280 people were injured. 

‘Near-Earth Asteroid’ just missed out on a top 10 position in the top phrases list. It related to the space rock that landed in Russia in February, causing widespread damage to buildings.

Source/dailymail