See Which Baby Name Is Most Popular in Your State
Our friends at baby name site Nameberry have parsed the new Social Security national list of most popular baby names of 2014 (you know, the OSCARS OF BABY NAMES BASICALLY) from almost every conceivable angle. A few days after the big list’s release, we got to see which baby names were most popular in which states… and you know what that means: more baby name lists! This time around it’s time to dive into regional patterns.
It turns out that top national baby names Noah and Emma were far from the most popular in every state: Emma was Number 1 in 22 of them, Noah at the top in only nine! It’s also interesting to note such idiosyncrasies in the Top 5 as Aurora as Number 4 in Alaska, Brooklyn as Number 2 in Wyoming, and Lincoln as Number 2 in South Dakota.
It wasn’t unusual to see names spilling over into neighboring states, as in the case of Harper being the top name for girls in both North and South Dakota — and nowhere else. Other unique Number 1s were Elizabeth and Alexander in D.C., Isabella in Florida, Mia in New Mexico, Henry in Minnesota, Benjamin in Massachusetts (and also well used all across New England), Michael in NJ, Henry in Minnesota, and Jackson in Wyoming.
Moving further down the Top 5, some of the other more noteworthy localized choices were Zoe at Number 5 in DC, Aria 4 in Hawaii, Lucy 4 in Utah and Avery Number 5 in Ohio. On the boys’ side, in addition to Lincoln, there was Gabriel in fifth place in Alaska and Hunter at Number 4 in West Virginia, where Colton came in fifth. Plus quite a few Elijahs, Henrys, Owens and Olivers ranking that high.
It’s also interesting to see how some districts have minds of their own and swim against the tide, such as Washington, D.C., the Dakotas, Utah and Hawaii. (Trivia tidbit: Brayden, Aiden, Ayden and Jayden were all in the top dozen boy names in Mississippi.) Some striking outliers among the popular girls and boys name are below.
Most Popular Baby Girl Names by State
Anna (34, the number on the top 100)—8 in Washington, D.C.
Camila (41)–10 in California
Caroline (58)—12 in North Carolina
Khloe (88)—16 in Hawaii
Genesis (68)—6 in Washington, D.C.
Hadley (99)—9 in South Dakota
Hazel (107)—19 in Utah
Leah (35)—12 in New York
Maya (74)—10 in Washington, D.C.
Nora (49)—8 in South Dakota
Paisley (53)—12 in Montana and Oklahoma
Ruby (90)—6 in Utah
Most Popular Baby Boy Names by State
Adrian (59)–17 in Nevada
Bentley (89)—10 in West Virginia
Caleb (35)—8 in Delaware
Cameron (53)—13 in NH
Easton (83)—6 in ND
Ezekiel (181)—10 in Hawaii
Hudson (80)—7 in ND, 12 in SD
Jack (41)—13 in Nebraska
Jaxon (46)—7 in Oklahoma, 11 in Arkansas
Julian (47)—13 in California, 14 in Nevada
Levi (45)—9 in West Virginia
Oakley (657)—18 in Wyoming
Ryker (151)-12 in Wyoming, 14 in Nebraska
And here’s some more intriguing data, thanks to the research of Megan McCleery. How many names do you think were in the Top 100 in all fifty states? For girls it was 25, from Abigail to Zoey. For boys there were 34 names, from Aiden to Wyatt.
What Nameberry found even more interesting was that some of the names found in the Top 100 in only one state — here were some surprising examples.
You can check out all the stats at the Social Security website.
Any surprises in your own state? Let us know in the comments.
This post was originally published on Nameberry by Linda Rosenkrantz
(Photo via John Moore/Getty)