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Regional baby names: where American names are most concentrated

Willie nine times more common in Mississippi than nationally, Manuel in New Mexico, Marion in Vermont, Gordon in North Dakota: the names with the strongest local roots in the United States.

Most popular names are spread across the whole country. But some have a strong home base. To find them, we compared, for each state, the share of babies given a name with its share in the whole country, over all the years since 1910. A ratio of 3 means the name is three times more common in that state than nationally.

We looked only at names given at least 150,000 times since 1880, and only at states with at least 200 babies of the name.

The Deep South

Mississippi stands out more than any other state. Willie is 9.3 times more common there than nationally, ahead of Alabama (6.3) and South Carolina (5.5). Several other names share this pattern, with Mississippi first:

The Southwest

Manuel is 7.5 times more common in New Mexico than nationally, then Arizona (4.8) and Texas (3.2). Jesus is most concentrated in Arizona (5.4), and Juan in Texas (4.3).

Arkansas and Oklahoma

Billy (5.0 times the national average in Arkansas), Bobby (4.5) and Jimmy (4.3) all have their strongest base in Arkansas, with Oklahoma close behind.

New England and the North

Marion (girls) is 5.0 times more common in Vermont than nationally. Francis (boys) is most concentrated in Massachusetts (4.3), and Pauline in Maine (4.0). Further west, Gordon has its strongest base in North Dakota (4.2).

How to read these figures

These ratios cover a name's whole history since 1910: they mix several generations, and say where a name took root, not why. Every name page has an animated map of the states, year by year. The Social Security does not publish a name given fewer than 5 times in a year in a state, so small states have fewer names in their records.

Figures: U.S. Social Security Administration baby names data (births since 1880). See Data and methods.