The names each state gives more often than the nation
Measured against what each name’s national share predicts year by year, the most state-specific name in the record is Kaimana in Hawaii: 142.1 times as many births there since 1910 as the national share predicts. Every state has names like it.
States: SSA state baby-name file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s state data.
Each state’s most over-represented names
Ratios: observed births in the state over the births predicted from each year’s national share and the state’s births that year; names with at least 500 births in the state.
Method and limits
For each state, year and sex, the expected births of a name are the state’s births that year times the name’s national share that year; the ratio sums observed births over expected births across 1910-2025. Standardizing by year keeps a state that grew late, such as Nevada or Arizona, from favoring recent names. SSA lists a name in a state only when 5 or more babies of one sex got it there that year, so the smallest counts are missing.
Method: see the methodology page; data: SSA’s state data.