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The Most Distinctive Baby Name in Every State

One name per state, chosen by how much more common it is locally than nationally. Fifty-one names, every figure from the 2025 birth record.

Americans move constantly and shop from the same internet, so you would expect baby names to have flattened into one national list by now. They have not. In 2025 there are still names ten times more common in one state than in the country as a whole — and in one case, sixteen.

This is not a list of each state’s most popular name. Those are nearly identical everywhere: Olivia and Liam, from Maine to Hawaii. This is each state’s most distinctive name — the one whose share of local babies most exceeds its share nationally.

How this was measured

For every name given to at least 300 babies nationally in 2025, we compared its share of births in each state against its share across the whole country, matched by sex. A name at 5.0× went to five times as large a slice of that state’s babies as it did of America’s.

Two rules keep it honest. A name must have gone to at least 20 babies in the state, so nothing here rests on three or four children. And each name appears once: where two states shared a top name, the stronger concentration keeps it and the other shows its runner-up.

Every state’s most distinctive name

• Alabama — Anne · 5.0× more common here than nationally (33 of 18,319 girls, national rank #619)
• Alaska — Juniper · 6.0× more common here than nationally (20 of 1,653 girls, national rank #100)
• Arizona — Jesus · 3.3× more common here than nationally (154 of 32,724 boys, national rank #173)
• Arkansas — Honey · 7.6× more common here than nationally (20 of 10,593 girls, national rank #844)
• California — Izael · 2.6× more common here than nationally (105 of 175,474 boys, national rank #767)
• Colorado — Louise · 2.8× more common here than nationally (29 of 23,327 girls, national rank #514)
• Connecticut — Siena · 4.7× more common here than nationally (20 of 11,503 girls, national rank #610)
• Delaware — Brooks · 3.0× more common here than nationally (29 of 2,947 boys, national rank #64)
• Florida — Antonella · 3.3× more common here than nationally (237 of 86,762 girls, national rank #284)
• Georgia — Chosen · 4.1× more common here than nationally (76 of 50,221 boys, national rank #555)
• Hawaii — Kailani · 12.0× more common here than nationally (24 of 2,145 girls, national rank #253)
• Idaho — Ridge · 7.5× more common here than nationally (25 of 8,630 boys, national rank #529)
• Illinois — Zainab · 2.7× more common here than nationally (31 of 44,329 girls, national rank #808)
• Indiana — Wrenleigh · 2.8× more common here than nationally (25 of 27,908 girls, national rank #685)
• Iowa — Clay · 6.0× more common here than nationally (29 of 13,829 boys, national rank #573)
• Kansas — Baker · 2.9× more common here than nationally (46 of 14,046 boys, national rank #217)
• Kentucky — Oaklyn · 4.8× more common here than nationally (29 of 17,251 girls, national rank #637)
• Louisiana — Armani · 6.1× more common here than nationally (41 of 16,370 girls, national rank #562)
• Maine — Sawyer · 4.0× more common here than nationally (31 of 3,844 boys, national rank #122)
• Maryland — Emely · 3.3× more common here than nationally (30 of 19,985 girls, national rank #503)
• Massachusetts — Colin · 4.2× more common here than nationally (74 of 27,021 boys, national rank #343)
• Michigan — Ali · 5.1× more common here than nationally (157 of 40,194 boys, national rank #306)
• Minnesota — Mohamed · 7.3× more common here than nationally (69 of 24,499 boys, national rank #528)
• Mississippi — Kaisen · 8.7× more common here than nationally (20 of 10,836 boys, national rank #803)
• Missouri — Ezra · 3.3× more common here than nationally (20 of 24,299 girls, national rank #834)
• Montana — Colter · 6.5× more common here than nationally (39 of 3,764 boys, national rank #157)
• Nebraska — Merritt · 11.0× more common here than nationally (24 of 7,096 girls, national rank #703)
• Nevada — Esmeralda · 3.4× more common here than nationally (20 of 9,201 girls, national rank #373)
• New Hampshire — Maeve · 6.1× more common here than nationally (56 of 3,797 girls, national rank #76)
• New Jersey — Yehuda · 16.2× more common here than nationally (154 of 39,765 boys, national rank #741)
• New Mexico — Andres · 4.1× more common here than nationally (32 of 6,500 boys, national rank #200)
• New York — Chaim · 11.0× more common here than nationally (260 of 84,423 boys, national rank #666)
• North Carolina — Jakari · 2.6× more common here than nationally (42 of 51,469 boys, national rank #613)
• North Dakota — Hattie · 10.5× more common here than nationally (20 of 2,700 girls, national rank #334)
• Ohio — Cade · 2.4× more common here than nationally (119 of 52,533 boys, national rank #248)
• Oklahoma — Whitley · 5.5× more common here than nationally (26 of 14,780 girls, national rank #677)
• Oregon — Opal · 3.6× more common here than nationally (27 of 13,052 girls, national rank #423)
• Pennsylvania — Martha · 3.7× more common here than nationally (52 of 46,688 girls, national rank #712)
• Rhode Island — Ayla · 3.7× more common here than nationally (22 of 2,452 girls, national rank #77)
• South Carolina — Kahlani · 5.4× more common here than nationally (23 of 18,290 girls, national rank #876)
• South Dakota — Stetson · 4.2× more common here than nationally (29 of 3,843 boys, national rank #136)
• Tennessee — Ruthie · 3.3× more common here than nationally (28 of 32,074 girls, national rank #780)
• Texas — Mauricio · 2.8× more common here than nationally (137 of 175,051 boys, national rank #664)
• Utah — Quincy · 9.6× more common here than nationally (42 of 17,077 girls, national rank #814)
• Vermont — Weston · 4.6× more common here than nationally (21 of 1,212 boys, national rank #55)
• Virginia — Virginia · 3.8× more common here than nationally (56 of 33,741 girls, national rank #525)
• Washington — Tara · 3.4× more common here than nationally (24 of 28,860 girls, national rank #845)
• Washington, D.C. — George · 6.7× more common here than nationally (33 of 2,527 boys, national rank #126)
• West Virginia — Wrenlee · 7.8× more common here than nationally (26 of 5,074 girls, national rank #358)
• Wisconsin — Loretta · 5.4× more common here than nationally (41 of 20,258 girls, national rank #606)
• Wyoming — Aurora · 4.5× more common here than nationally (20 of 811 girls, national rank #15)

What the extremes are telling you

New Jersey’s Yehuda is the most concentrated name in the country at 16.2×, with New York’s Chaim at 11.0×. Both are Hebrew names, and both point at the same thing: names travel with communities, and communities have addresses.

Hawaii’s Kailani at 12.0× is the clearest case of a name belonging to a place. Twenty-four of Hawaii’s 2,145 girls got it in 2025 — better than one in a hundred — against a national rank of #253. Nebraska’s Merritt (11.0×) and North Dakota’s Hattie (10.5×) work the same way in a smaller pool.

Some are simply local taste. Idaho’s Ridge (7.5×), Montana’s Colter (6.5×), Iowa’s Clay (6.0×) and South Dakota’s Stetson (4.2×) form an unmistakable Western belt. Utah’s Quincy (9.6×) is the surprise of the group: only #814 nationally, and Utah is using it at nearly ten times that rate.

And a few are just charming. Arkansas’s most distinctive name is Honey (7.6×). Virginia’s is Virginia (3.8×). Georgia’s is Chosen (4.1×), which almost nobody outside the state uses.

The thing worth taking away

Twenty-one of these fifty-one names run at 5× or more, and five clear 10×. That is a lot of local weather in a country whose top-ten lists look identical everywhere.

It also means “how common is this name” has no single answer. Maeve is #76 nationally, which reads as moderately popular — but New Hampshire is using it at six times that rate, and a kindergarten there will feel nothing like the number on the page. If a name’s quietness is why you love it, the national rank is the wrong number to check.

Every count on this page is a number of real American babies, taken from the official national birth record that runs back to 1880.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration data, 1880–2025.