Most Regional Names
Most names are used at about the same rate everywhere. A few are not — they belong to one part of the country. These are the names whose share of babies varies most from state to state over the last decade, so state population is already accounted for: a name here is genuinely tied to a place, not just common where lots of people live.
Girls’ names with the most lopsided geography — where a name is common in one corner of the country and rare in the rest.
| Save name | Name & meaning | History 1926–2025, yearly counts; individually scaled | Babies 2025 · rank | 5-year rank movement | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Small | 318#855 | Down 31 rank positions in five years | 1963 | ||
Queen | 786#395 | Up 37 rank positions in five years | 1962 | ||
Probably laurel; Lauretta and Loreto connections | 485#606 | Up 337 rank positions in five years | 1938 | ||
European familiar form; Nino variant; fire in Quechua and Aymara | 946#324 | Up 3 rank positions in five years | 1980 | ||
Uncertain; possibly beloved, with other traditional interpretations | 1,262#246 | Up 22 rank positions in five years | 1924 | ||
Home ruler, through Harriet | 923#334 | Up 87 rank positions in five years | 1918 | ||
Short form of Penelope, possibly “duck”; also the English coin word | 368#740 | Down 13 rank positions in five years | 1963 | ||
Messenger or angel | 399#705 | Down 52 rank positions in five years | 1975 | ||
Who is like God? | 364#748 | Down 204 rank positions in five years | 1998 | ||
Night | 1,193#259 | Down 54 rank positions in five years | 2010 | ||
Home ruler in the Henrietta family; also a familiar ending | 281#930 | Down 6 rank positions in five years | 1920 | ||
Dark, in the Irish-derived form; Russian origin uncertain | 801#385 | Steady | 2005 | ||
Feminine form of Ximeno; meaning uncertain | 1,686#183 | Down 53 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
Gold; golden | 469#621 | Up 404 rank positions in five years | 1915 | ||
An Eileen variant; deeper meaning uncertain | 340#799 | Down 103 rank positions in five years | 2009 | ||
Victory | 167#1,337 | Down 491 rank positions in five years | 1994 | ||
Frenchwoman | 984#307 | Up 148 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Short form of María Soledad; also associated with sea and sun | 423#667 | Up 311 rank positions in five years | 1996 | ||
White, blessed | 384#725 | Up 98 rank positions in five years | 1959 | ||
Lou with the ending -ella | 349#780 | Up 194 rank positions in five years | 1918 | ||
Hawaiian Maria form; deeper meaning uncertain | 872#349 | Down 90 rank positions in five years | 2009 | ||
Intoxicating | 3,153#76 | Up 98 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Pearl | 291#908 | Down 168 rank positions in five years | 1967 | ||
Hearing or listening | 254#998 | Down 138 rank positions in five years | 1988 | ||
Living or alive | 910#337 | Up 199 rank positions in five years | 1977 | ||
Divine in the Hawaiian tradition; other origins | 366#743 | Up 156 rank positions in five years | 1996 | ||
Elaborated form of Julia; deeper meaning uncertain | 205#1,136 | Down 352 rank positions in five years | 2006 | ||
Aspen tree | 1,179#266 | Down 42 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
From the country name, ultimately the Indus River | 118#1,722 | Down 704 rank positions in five years | 2001 | ||
A glowing coal or fragment of a dying fire | 1,952#154 | Up 33 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
From Laurentum | 148#1,455 | Down 738 rank positions in five years | 1999 | ||
Famous in battle | 407#697 | Up 28 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
Juniper tree | 2,618#100 | Up 71 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Short form of Katarina or Katariina; meaning uncertain | 1,618#193 | Up 107 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
Altar of heaven | 364#746 | Up 249 rank positions in five years | 2002 | ||
Variant of Kylie | 190#1,202 | Down 369 rank positions in five years | 2011 | ||
Small | 346#784 | Up 50 rank positions in five years | 2002 | ||
Uncertain; associated with the ceibo legend | 623#482 | Up 147 rank positions in five years | 2006 | ||
A form of Leah; deeper meaning uncertain | 1,033#297 | Down 1 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
Mother in Greek; other meanings depend on tradition | 715#433 | Up 65 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Star | 477#612 | Up 127 rank positions in five years | 2005 | ||
Vigorous, brave | 530#566 | Up 4 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
Bailiff | 227#1,069 | Down 219 rank positions in five years | 2000 | ||
Head + ugly, through Kennedy | 398#709 | Down 185 rank positions in five years | 2015 | ||
Oak clearing | 1,933#156 | Up 128 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Alternate transcription of Dimi | 804#381 | Down 42 rank positions in five years | 2020 | ||
Reborn | 635#481 | Up 27 rank positions in five years | 1980 | ||
Lily | 315#859 | Up 295 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Form of Iohanna | 304#878 | Down 134 rank positions in five years | 2005 | ||
Dainty, pleasing, gentle, kind, through joli | 243#1,030 | Down 314 rank positions in five years | 2008 | ||
Variant of Jaylene | 218#1,098 | Down 549 rank positions in five years | 2011 | ||
Moon | 436#658 | Up 98 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Sea + sky | 1,215#253 | Up 29 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Meaning uncertain in the cited reference | 562#538 | Down 161 rank positions in five years | 2014 | ||
Literal meaning not recorded | 324#838 | Down 309 rank positions in five years | 2011 | ||
Form of Guiomar | 665#463 | Up 146 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
Son of Ermanno | 534#562 | Down 69 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Form of Juliet | 1,086#285 | Up 331 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Literal meaning not recorded | 257#984 | Up 35 rank positions in five years | 2007 | ||
Possibly royal + fortress | 278#936 | Down 251 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
Malaysia country name | 269#958 | Down 334 rank positions in five years | 2014 | ||
Elaboration of Yara | 343#794 | Up 43 rank positions in five years | 2009 | ||
Diminutive of Antonia | 1,087#284 | Up 274 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition | 206#1,133 | Down 77 rank positions in five years | 2004 | ||
Safe | 278#937 | Up 111 rank positions in five years | 1999 | ||
God is gracious, through Іва́нна | 530#567 | Up 30 rank positions in five years | 2017 | ||
At dawn, through zòra | 264#969 | Down 94 rank positions in five years | 2019 | ||
Feminine form of Alexius | 937#326 | Up 177 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
Vigor | 329#828 | Down 20 rank positions in five years | 2013 | ||
Gracious or dear in Slavic; meeting or union in Sanskrit-derived use | 362#753 | Down 118 rank positions in five years | 2013 | ||
Literal meaning not recorded | 360#754 | Up 141 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
Feminine form of Galileo | 446#647 | Up 60 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
Variant of Kinsley | 367#742 | Down 288 rank positions in five years | 2018 | ||
Literal meaning not recorded | 203#1,143 | Down 129 rank positions in five years | 2008 | ||
Literal meaning not recorded | 255#994 | Down 7 rank positions in five years | 2002 | ||
Beautiful, beloved | 135#1,565 | Down 675 rank positions in five years | 2017 | ||
Possibly army | 600#494 | Up 556 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Possibly radiance, beauty, through Eileen | 313#863 | Up 109 rank positions in five years | 2012 | ||
Variant of Romana | 569#531 | Up 137 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
Briar | 778#400 | Up 167 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Short form of Scott | 2,228#126 | Up 1,205 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Modern coinage; no established literal translation | 239#1,041 | Down 215 rank positions in five years | 2019 | ||
Boundary, through Marley | 261#976 | Down 252 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
Sea force, fleet, armed forces of the sea | 935#327 | Up 333 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Literal meaning not recorded | 203#1,142 | Down 192 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
Form of Landric | 279#935 | Down 52 rank positions in five years | 2018 | ||
Transferred from a surname; no fixed literal translation | 228#1,067 | Down 161 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
Variant of Oakley | 565#535 | Up 88 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed | 301#888 | Down 66 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
Ending | 547#555 | Up 10 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Glorious heaven | 383#727 | Up 31 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Possibly golden | 208#1,126 | Down 627 rank positions in five years | 2020 | ||
One who gathers information covertly | 254#997 | Down 125 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Variant of Journey | 345#786 | Down 81 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
Diminutive of India | 459#634 | Up 107 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Royal; relating to a king or queen | 125#1,663 | Down 889 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
Form of Áile | 329#827 | Up 73 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
Dane ford | 326#836 | Up 60 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
Variant of Seven | 518#575 | Up 185 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
| 293#904 | Down 6 rank positions in five years | 2021 |
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Used evenly nationwide
The opposite end: names whose share of babies is almost identical in every state. If you want a name that reads the same across the whole country, these are the flattest maps in the data.
How concentration is measured
For each name we take its share of babies in every state over 10 years (2016–2025) — the number of babies given the name per 100,000 in that state, not the raw count, so a big state like California doesn’t top every list simply for being big. A name used at the same rate everywhere has shares that barely differ; a regional name has shares that swing wildly. We rank by how much those shares vary (their coefficient of variation).
A name is ranked only when it appears in at least 25 states. That gate matters: birth hides any name used fewer than five times in a state in a given year, so a truly rare name shows up in only a few states — and without the gate it would look “regional” when really it’s just uncommon everywhere. Some famously local names are therefore absent here: they don’t clear five uses a year in enough states to measure. Absence means uncommon, never invalid.
The measure is a spread of shares within a single decade, so — unlike most statistics on this site — it needs no adjustment for the fact that far more babies were born mid-century than at the record’s edges.