Naming conventions and trends can vary by geographical area, depending on its population, culture mix, immigration trends, and percentage of indiginous people. After reviewing the current popular names data by State from the U.S. Social Security office of the Actuary, we’ve made some interesting observations!

Top Boy’s Name

The top boy’s name for the entire U.S. is currently Liam. However only 20 states list Liam as the #1 boys’ name: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

The states that did not have Liam as the #1 boy’s names are either lagging behind, or predicting the future. What do you think?

Oliver is #1 in 16 states: Alaska, Arkasas, Colorado, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, and Washington State.

Noah has 7 states: Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, South Carolina, and Wyoming.

Henry has 2 states (1 city): Washington D.C., Vermont, and Wisconsin.

William was favorited by 2 states: Alabama and Montana.

And those with unique #1 names are Mississippi with James, New Hampshire with Theodore, and West Virginia with Asher. You might remember that we tracked Asher as the #1 trending boy’s name for 2023 by our users, so that’s interesting!

Top Girl’s Name

The top girl’s name for the entire U.S. is currently Olivia. 27 states have Olivia as their #1 name: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Washington State.

Charlotte is #1 for 12 states, 1 city: Washington D.C., Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Amelia took the #1 spot in Vermont and West Virginia. Ava has Maryland and Mississippi. Evelyn has Maine and South Dakota. Sophia has Delaware and New Mexico.

Alaska (appropriately) chose Aurora as the #1 girl’s name. New Jersey ranked Emma as #1, while Kentucky is the only state with Harper on top.

The Most Unique Names

Interested in the most unique names by state? Here are the names that appeared on only one state’s top 100. Note, the Social Security office does not combine stats for alternate spellings, so Catherine and Katherine are considered separate names.

Alabama: Katherine

Alaska: Alaina, Alex, Alora, Bristol, Killian, Lauren, Mark, Timothy, Winter

Arizona: Aziel, Javier

California: Nicolas

D.C.: Dior, Eve, Frances, Kairo, Nasier, Reign, Sevyn, Simon

Delaware: Noelle

Georgia: Kali, King, Malachi

Hawaii: Hawaii had the most unique names, not surprisingly, because of the high concentration of indigenous and Polynesian peoples: Aila, Ailani, Aleia, Anela, Azalea, Duke, Halia, Hezekiah, Hope, Israel, Kaia, Kailani, Kamana, Kaiya, Kalea, Keanu, Keilani, Kiana, Kiara, Kira, Koa, Koen Leila, Lilinoe, Mahina, Maia, Makoa, Malia, Noelani, Tristan

Idaho: Evelynn, Grant

Louisiana: Demi, Evangeline, Kash

Massachusetts: Laura

Maryland: Amy

Maine: Gavin, Poppy, Reid

Michigan: Cade

Minnesota: Aisha, Mabel, Mohamed

Mississippi: Jamir, Karson, Kashton, Kenndi, Kyria, Malaysia, Miracle, Royalty, Taylor, Trinity

Montana: Montana seems to have the most “themed” unique names with Bodie, Colt, Daxton, Maggie, and Ridge

Nebraska: Palmer

Hew Hampshire: Abel, Callum, Colby, Maisie, Rory

New Jersey: New Jersey has four names not found on the other states’ lists, all Hebrew: Shmuel, Yaakov, Yehuda, Yosef

New Mexico: New Mexico reflects its cultural demographics with many unique Latinx names. Names from NM that were not on any other state’s list includes Aitana, Angela, Cataleya, Daleyza, Kimberly, Luciano, Manuel, Mariana, Nayeli, and Selena

Nevada: Jasmine

New York: Abraham, Muhammad

Oklahoma: Baker

Oregon: Harlow

Rhode Island: Armani, Briella, Jeremy, Lilliana

South Dakota: Atticus, Blair, Kyler, Kylie, Lilly, Oaklee, Odin

Texas: Matias, Regina

Utah: Big surprise that Utah had only four names that were not on any other state’s top 100: Crew, Lola, Navy, and Scottie. Utah parents had a reputation for creating names, as well as combining names to create new names. However in 2022 the statistics say otherwise!

Vermont: Brantley, Esme, Fiona, Hattie, Louis, Otis, Vera, Warren, Willa

West Virginia: Charlee, Gracelyn, Gunner, Jensen, Remington

Wyoming: Adelaide, Augustus, Avianna, Boone, Colson, Dorothy, Hadlee, Kimber, Lukas, Opal, Ophelia, Tobias

Want to see the top 100 most popular names for your state? Check out the top names by U.S. state by the U.S. Social Security office for 2022.