Popular baby names, state by state
It seems odd to me (although perhaps it shouldn’t) that the most popular baby names have a strong regional component.
Take a look:
The most popular girls’ names (Emma, Sophia) are all names that, in my youth, were considered hopelessly old-fashioned and completely passé. Superlative teasing material. But everything old is new again.
None of the recent girls’ name favorites are the traditional and previously-stable choices such as Mary, either. But boys’ most popular names show a mix of the new and the traditional. Tried-and-true names such as William and James and Alexander are still hanging in there, for example—in the South for William, Alaska the lone holdout for James, and a weird NY/NJ/Nevada axis for Alexander.
Florida is an outlier, standing proudly alone with Isabella for girls and Jayden for boys.
But what’s up with Mason? I’d hardly even heard of it as a first name before, except for the guy who wrote “Classical Gas,” and 70s kid ad-star Mason Reese (I know, I know; I’m old). So why has Mason completely conquered most of New England and the midwest, as well as the far-flung states of Washington and Louisiana?
Aha! It’s those super-duper trendsetters, the Kardashians.
and there i thought you would use the man calling 911 on his missing jello to add irrelevence…
I have to admit that I don’t quite get the trend on girls’ names – what, are parents flipping through English fiction of the 1800s? There weren’t two girls named Emma, Sophia, Isabella, Olivia or Ava combined during my entire (Gen-X era) K-12 years – and if they were, we’d have wondered why they got such icky old-fashioned names. What’s up next, Gladys, Mildred and Edna?
My most recent grand daughter is named Cora. The little girl next door is named Gwendolyn, and there is a Martha and a Margaret just down the block. Concerning boys we have a Jonah, a Nathan, a Julian, and an Anthony in the neighborhood. These are far better names than Brooklyn, Dakota, Kinasha, T’Char, and all the rest, including Moon Unit.
My son and his wife wanted to name their daughter–approaching two–something that nobody else would use.
It’s “Laura”.
I think they’re good.
My 3 nephews (ages 4, 3 and 3) are named Ethan, Alexander, and Benjamin. Alexander was almost Jacob, but I asked my pagan sister when she became enthralled with the Old Testament and that ended that name.
My son and daughter (4 years old) are Maximilian ( family name on SWMBO’s side) and Stella ( just a pretty name, in my opinion).
But, there are three boys in their class ( pre-k) named Jayden…
I don’t understand the blending of two names into one. But to each his own.
Half the boys names are biblical. Israel, such a small region, such a big influence.
I can see the NY/NJ axis for Alexander, but isn’t CO the same as the northern plains/mountains? Liam? DE looks like another Alexander to me.
My ex hated her name, the to her, pretense and formality of Catherine Victoria. I liked it and think its the person who defines the name.
But in the 50’s & 60’s no one was familiar with my spelling of Jeffrey as Geoffrey, which led to near constant butchering of my name’s pronunciation. In some ways, America was less sophisticated than it is today.
Given all of this, we were particularly sensitive to providing our daughter with a name chosen for being a bit unusual but readily accepted. We wanted to combine uniqueness with familiarity. We bought baby name books and had numerous discussions about it. In 1984, some names were rare including the one we choose. It was near the bottom in popularity according to the baby books.
Our daughter was born in Jan of 85 and we were stunned to find that within weeks and months of her birth, the name Jessica had apparently gone from rare to in the top five, literally overnight. My daughter knows lots of Jessica’s, prior to her birth neither I nor my ex had ever met even one.
Given this and the maps above I’d say there’s something going on with names, kind of like fads, a kind of mass convergence but how it works is a mystery.
chuck,
The popularity of Jewish names in America is I suspect a reflection of Christianity rather than Israel per se, which didn’t even exist until 1948.
raf:
Brain glitch; I meant Nevada rather than Colorado (will fix). Couldn’t even see Delaware (note to self; put on reading glasses).
NJ and NY are Michael, not Alexander. NV is brown, they are purple. It’s close in color tone, but not the same.
I always think of Mason Williams when I hear “Mason”, too. I heard of him through Mannheim Steamroller.
I’m just glad that Taylor isn’t the top for girls. So… stupid. I can’t stand it when parents gender bend a name.
Ethan is another old name that seems to be making a comeback. I tend to think of Revolutionary War era people being named Ethan (Ethan Allen), and of course there was a book named Ethan Frome from about 100 years ago.
Where in the world did Liam come from?
Tesh:
Those states all look the same color on my computer, but I defer to your more discriminatory sense. I’m not going to change the post again, though, because I really can’t tell which color is which, although I believe you’re correct.
It’s certainly not a big deal. I blame poor mapmakers anyway. 🙂