Southern Boy Names
Names parents in the American South choose far more often than the country as a whole, based on each name’s share of official U.S. birth records from the last decade. Compare meanings, popularity, and history to find regional favorites.
| Save name | Name & meaning | History 1926–2025, yearly counts; individually scaled | Babies 2025 · rank | 5-year rank movement | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Candle maker or seller | 342#753 | Down 184 rank positions in five years | 1999 | ||
Elf ruler | 70#2,093 | Down 822 rank positions in five years | 1926 | ||
Variant of Braylen | 289#848 | Down 311 rank positions in five years | 2009 | ||
Son of Laurence 1 | 830#381 | Down 24 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
From English place names; meaning varies | 165#1,226 | Down 61 rank positions in five years | 1921 | ||
Hugh’s town | 402#675 | Up 56 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
Little dove in the Colmán tradition | 148#1,311 | Down 289 rank positions in five years | 1997 | ||
Holly trees | 266#894 | Up 125 rank positions in five years | 1921 | ||
House, through Cason | 480#597 | Down 231 rank positions in five years | 2019 | ||
Son of Judd | 252#934 | Down 61 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
Combination of De- and Marcus; deeper meaning uncertain | 66#2,168 | Down 870 rank positions in five years | 1991 | ||
Variant of Braylon | 366#725 | Down 224 rank positions in five years | 2011 | ||
House | 291#846 | Down 179 rank positions in five years | 2014 | ||
Modern coinage; no established literal translation | 507#579 | Down 54 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
English place-name surname; exact root unconfirmed | 104#1,623 | Down 498 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
Literal meaning not recorded | 422#653 | Down 241 rank positions in five years | 2017 | ||
Lathe worker; also an occupational name for a tumbler | 195#1,107 | Down 103 rank positions in five years | 2019 | ||
Surname name; deeper derivation uncertain | 822#386 | Up 72 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
Son of Brandr | 165#1,222 | Down 347 rank positions in five years | 2014 | ||
Sheep herder, shepherd | 1,408#246 | Up 349 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Modern coinage; no established literal translation | 90#1,785 | Down 556 rank positions in five years | 2005 | ||
Long, tall + stone | 227#1,000 | Down 306 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
English surname name; deeper meaning unconfirmed | 91#1,772 | Down 417 rank positions in five years | 2012 | ||
Modern coinage; no established literal translation | 311#802 | Down 188 rank positions in five years | 2015 | ||
Fisherman | 319#791 | Up 117 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Crooked mouth in the Scottish tradition; other surname origins occur | 337#764 | Up 402 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Possibly to be low, humble, subjugated, through כְּנַעַן | 212#1,044 | Down 94 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
| 462#613 | Up 270 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 122#1,461 | Down 625 rank positions in five years | 2020 | |||
Modern coinage; no established literal translation | 272#879 | Up 18 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
From Old English Hāmtūn; literal meaning unconfirmed | 124#1,444 | Up 254 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed | 217#1,026 | Down 247 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed | 95#1,717 | Down 442 rank positions in five years | 2019 | ||
Modern coinage; no established literal translation | 75#2,009 | Down 914 rank positions in five years | 2014 | ||
Variant of Bentley | 94#1,730 | Down 838 rank positions in five years | 2012 | ||
Literal meaning not recorded | 90#1,787 | Down 482 rank positions in five years | 2012 | ||
Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed | 113#1,530 | Down 233 rank positions in five years | 2010 | ||
Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed | 112#1,544 | Down 461 rank positions in five years | 1998 | ||
Form of Caesar | 296#836 | Up 31 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
| 187#1,137 | Up 223 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed | 268#892 | Up 29 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
| 104#1,628 | Down 645 rank positions in five years | 2020 | |||
Variant of Carson; surname meaning uncertain | 168#1,209 | Down 511 rank positions in five years | 2020 | ||
| 123#1,452 | Down 65 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 311#800 | Up 252 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 202#1,072 | Up 426 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed | 540#555 | Up 919 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed | 138#1,361 | Up 156 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
| 249#946 | Up 542 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 117#1,503 | Down 356 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 169#1,199 | Down 162 rank positions in five years | 2023 | |||
| 235#974 | Up 310 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
Variant of Colson | 523#566 | Up 1,350 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Variant of Chosen | 571#523 | Up 2,621 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
| 161#1,242 | Up 308 rank positions in five years | 2023 |
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How this list is built
For each name we compare its share of babies across the American South — Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Oklahoma — with its share across the whole country, using U.S. birth birth records from 2016–2025. A name appears here when it is at least 1.6× more common in the region than nationwide, given to enough babies across at least 4 of the region's states that it is a real regional pattern rather than one small state's noise. Because we compare shares, not raw counts, a big state can't crowd the list — the ranking is by the multiple, most region-tied first.
The birth data records how often a name was used, never why, so this is a map of where names cluster, not a claim about the families who choose them. Names given to fewer than five babies in a state in a year aren't published, so a name absent from a state may simply be rare there, not unheard of.