SQL: How can I return the highest ranking record of similar records, based on one column value?

Question

This seems like it should be easier than I\'m finding it. I have a table that contains both first and last names (specified by a type ID) and a frequency of how common the name

Answer 1

If you want top 2 for both first and last name, you can do UNION ALL.

select name 
FROM table
where Nametype = 1
order by FrequencyPercent desc
limit 2
UNION ALL
select name 
from table
where nametype = 2
order by FrequencyPercent desc
limit2