Western Girl Names
Names parents in the Mountain West 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
God is gracious | 1,380#221 | Up 43 rank positions in five years | 1947 | ||
Ruby gemstone | 3,554#64 | Up 10 rank positions in five years | 1924 | ||
Hazel tree; light brown colour | 6,318#21 | Up 10 rank positions in five years | 1918 | ||
Light | 6,176#25 | Up 25 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
The month of June, associated with Juno | 1,978#150 | Up 32 rank positions in five years | 1925 | ||
My God is an oath, through Elizabeth | 2,236#123 | Up 110 rank positions in five years | 1918 | ||
Lovable | 1,522#201 | Up 227 rank positions in five years | 1915 | ||
May month name; also a short form of Mary, Margaret, or Mabel | 594#501 | Up 75 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 | ||
Mountain range | 476#616 | Down 82 rank positions in five years | 1998 | ||
Short form of Katherine, traditionally associated with “pure” | 576#522 | Down 110 rank positions in five years | 2007 | ||
Familiar form of Rose, associated with the flower | 1,088#283 | Up 188 rank positions in five years | 1927 | ||
Grace; favor | 1,344#227 | Down 20 rank positions in five years | 2007 | ||
The opal gemstone | 740#423 | Up 226 rank positions in five years | 1918 | ||
Olive tree | 1,597#197 | Down 1 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Gentle strength; other meanings depend on the full name | 3,353#73 | Up 117 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Germanic name with ruler element; full meaning uncertain | 3,208#74 | Up 15 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Home ruler | 2,260#120 | Up 254 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Man; possibly army, through Charles | 2,160#133 | Down 11 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Nobility; noble kind | 1,062#289 | Down 17 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
White, blessed | 384#725 | Up 98 rank positions in five years | 1959 | ||
Priest clearing | 1,362#225 | Down 12 rank positions in five years | 2014 | ||
Wise person; also the sage herb | 1,853#160 | Up 63 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Life or breathing | 577#519 | Down 49 rank positions in five years | 2017 | ||
Help; advantage | 1,183#264 | Up 127 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
Aspen tree | 1,179#266 | Down 42 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
From an Irish name associated with raids or mobilization | 2,077#141 | Up 40 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
The eighth | 982#308 | Up 26 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
Fair or white warrior | 753#415 | Down 214 rank positions in five years | 2017 | ||
Oarsman in the French tradition; other origins also occur | 2,023#145 | Down 20 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
A glowing coal or fragment of a dying fire | 1,952#154 | Up 33 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
Bryn combined with the sound lee | 1,282#243 | Down 52 rank positions in five years | 2019 | ||
Juniper tree | 2,618#100 | Up 71 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Black woodland clearing | 1,638#191 | Down 24 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
Short form of Dorothea, Theodora, or Theresa | 867#353 | Down 50 rank positions in five years | 2018 | ||
Lady | 1,746#176 | Up 2 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Happiness | 653#473 | Down 89 rank positions in five years | 2017 | ||
One who saws wood | 1,056#291 | Down 52 rank positions in five years | 2018 | ||
Crown or wreath | 1,496#203 | Up 202 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Evelyn form; deeper meaning uncertain | 1,012#301 | Up 27 rank positions in five years | 2019 | ||
Oak clearing | 1,933#156 | Up 128 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Possibly rock hill or army hill | 981#309 | Up 15 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
Wren, the small songbird | 1,331#231 | Up 129 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Sunny or cheerful | 798#390 | Up 301 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
Lover | 1,421#214 | Up 85 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Settlement on the Riming stream | 580#513 | Down 152 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
Flower name: poppy | 1,054#292 | Up 165 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
Variant of Sloane | 324#840 | Down 175 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
Dutch or English place-name surname; meaning partly unconfirmed | 550#550 | Up 158 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
From the mouth of the Roe | 658#467 | Up 74 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Short form of Scott | 2,228#126 | Up 1,205 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Sea force, fleet, armed forces of the sea | 935#327 | Up 333 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Variant of Oakley | 565#535 | Up 88 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
From a place name derived from Quintus, fifth | 335#815 | Up 380 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Diminutive of India | 459#634 | Up 107 rank positions in five years | 2022 |
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How this list is built
For each name we compare its share of babies across the Mountain West — Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada — 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.