Southern Baby 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Favor; grace, in the Hannah family | 225#1,076 | Up 29 rank positions in five years | 1957 | ||
Strength in battle (Matilda); lady (Martha); gift of Yahweh (Matthew) | 249#1,005 | Up 40 rank positions in five years | 1920 | ||
Nobility; other meanings depend on the full name | 176#1,272 | Up 46 rank positions in five years | 1920 | ||
Candle maker or seller | 342#753 | Down 184 rank positions in five years | 1999 | ||
Variant of Kylie | 190#1,202 | Down 369 rank positions in five years | 2011 | ||
Variant of Braylen | 289#848 | Down 311 rank positions in five years | 2009 | ||
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 | ||
Kayleigh or Callie form; meaning depends on route | 56#2,973 | Down 1,290 rank positions in five years | 2001 | ||
Kennedy form; Gaelic surname origin | 398#709 | Down 185 rank positions in five years | 2015 | ||
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 | ||
Hermitage + woodland clearing, glade | 170#1,309 | Down 356 rank positions in five years | 2011 | ||
Modern coinage; no established literal translation | 507#579 | Down 54 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Candle maker or seller | 296#895 | Up 73 rank positions in five years | 1995 | ||
Lathe worker; also an occupational name for a tumbler | 195#1,107 | Down 103 rank positions in five years | 2019 | ||
White clearing | 420#677 | Up 269 rank positions in five years | 1988 | ||
Modern coinage; no established literal translation | 90#1,785 | Down 556 rank positions in five years | 2005 | ||
English surname name; deeper meaning unconfirmed | 91#1,772 | Down 417 rank positions in five years | 2012 | ||
Song, poem, through Carmen | 105#1,875 | Down 562 rank positions in five years | 2008 | ||
Modern coinage; no established literal translation | 311#802 | Down 188 rank positions in five years | 2015 | ||
| 39#3,798 | Down 1,866 rank positions in five years | 2008 | |||
Variant of Brierley | 84#2,199 | Down 721 rank positions in five years | 2009 | ||
Fisherman | 319#791 | Up 117 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Possibly to be bitter, through Maria | 75#2,399 | Down 1,073 rank positions in five years | 2009 | ||
Spring + valley, through Kendall | 99#1,951 | Down 732 rank positions in five years | 2011 | ||
Literal meaning not recorded | 256#990 | Up 195 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 | ||
Free man, through Carly | 67#2,588 | Down 818 rank positions in five years | 2010 | ||
Boundary, through Marley | 261#976 | Down 252 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
Possibly to be low, humble, subjugated, through כְּנַעַן | 212#1,044 | Down 94 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
Variant of Harmony | 252#1,000 | Down 298 rank positions in five years | 2020 | ||
Holly trees | 206#1,132 | Up 338 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Variant of Harley | 138#1,534 | Down 542 rank positions in five years | 2017 | ||
Outer castle wall, through Bailey | 78#2,332 | Down 1,028 rank positions in five years | 2012 | ||
Free man, through Carly | 45#3,424 | Down 2,021 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed | 282#926 | Up 612 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
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 | ||
Transferred from a surname; no fixed literal translation | 103#1,896 | Down 655 rank positions in five years | 2015 | ||
Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed | 217#1,026 | Down 247 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Heath + woodland clearing, through Hadley | 198#1,171 | Down 202 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
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 | ||
Form of Caesar | 296#836 | Up 31 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
| 187#1,137 | Up 223 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
Surname name; deeper derivation uncertain | 407#694 | Up 333 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Place name used as a given name; older meaning unconfirmed | 139#1,525 | Down 135 rank positions in five years | 2014 | ||
| 238#1,045 | Down 176 rank positions in five years | 2018 | |||
Boundary gate | 401#703 | Up 828 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Roe-deer woodland or clearing | 104#1,894 | Down 428 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
| 149#1,451 | Down 182 rank positions in five years | 2018 | |||
Variant of Lakelynn | 421#673 | Up 519 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Variant of Carson; surname meaning uncertain | 168#1,209 | Down 511 rank positions in five years | 2020 | ||
Literal meaning not recorded | 84#2,195 | Down 572 rank positions in five years | 2014 | ||
| 194#1,190 | Down 433 rank positions in five years | 2020 | |||
One who operates a mill | 528#571 | Up 952 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
| 293#904 | Down 6 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
Elaboration of Lake | 596#498 | Up 966 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
| 62#2,756 | Down 1,238 rank positions in five years | 2017 | |||
| 132#1,587 | Down 233 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 149#1,447 | Down 82 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 83#2,215 | Down 373 rank positions in five years | 2019 | |||
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 | ||
| 170#1,313 | Up 140 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 249#946 | Up 542 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 117#1,503 | Down 356 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 87#2,140 | Down 232 rank positions in five years | 2019 | |||
| 169#1,199 | Down 162 rank positions in five years | 2023 | |||
| 235#974 | Up 310 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 228#1,068 | Up 901 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
Variant of Wrenley | 414#685 | Up 3,758 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.