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.
Jennifer Moss (she/her) is the founder of BabyNames.com, author of The Baby Names Workbook, and Producer of The Baby Names Podcast. Jennifer is widely regarded as the leading expert on popular baby name trends and the naming process, serving as the authoritative source on the subject for national and international media.
Jennifer entered the tech arena in the 80s as a software developer and database architect, and became a pioneer in the Internet industry. In addition to operating BabyNames.com, Jennifer owns a web development agency in central California.
