According to New Jersey’s Asbury Park Press, “preliminary data from the state Department of Health has names like Michael and Matthew at the top of the 2013 list for boys, and Sophia and Isabella for girls.”
That preliminary data isn’t yet available at the NJ Department of Health website, but hopefully it will be soon.
According to the SSA, Sophia and Isabella ranked #1 and #2 for baby girls born in New Jersey in 2012. Michael and Matthew ranked #1 and #5.
Also from the source article, this interesting fact about baby names in New Jersey’s Monmouth County:
[R]oughly one-third of the top girls and boys names are Orthodox names, like Chana, Chaya, Esther, Rivka and Batsheva for the girls, and Moshe, Chaim and Yosef for the boys. The Monmouth list, in fact, varies markedly both from the statewide baby names, as well as the national list.
UPDATE, 12/8/2013: Just spotted a different article with the full New Jersey preliminary list. Here it is:
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
| 1. Isabella 2. Sophia 3. Emma 4. Olivia 5. Ava 6. Mia 7. Emily 8. Madison 9. Sofia 10. Abigail | 1. Michael 2. Matthew 3. Jacob 4. Liam 5. Joseph 6. Anthony 7. Ryan 8. Daniel 9. Ethan 10. Mason |
And another interesting fact, this time about the name Sandy:
One gender-neutral name that has trended in the past year, however, did not get the surge experts were predicting some nine months after the biggest storm in New Jersey history.
“We had no babies named Sandy in July and August, when we might have been expecting that,” Waters said.
UPDATE, 5/4/2015: The actual 2013 list, from an article about the finalized 2014 list.
| Girl Names | Boy Names |
|---|---|
| 1. Isabella 2. Sophia 3. Olivia 4. Emma 5. Ava 6. Mia 7. Emily 8. Sofia 9. Madison 10. Abigail | 1. Michael 2. Matthew 3. Jacob 4. Joseph 5. Liam 6. Anthony 7. Daniel 8. Ryan 9. Alexander 10. Ethan |
Sources: Michael, Isabella top list of N.J.’s most popular baby names, Top baby names in NJ for 2013: Michael Still No. 1, N.J.’s most popular baby names of 2014
Image: Adapted from Flag of New Jersey (public domain)
Michael and Matthew? Rolling my eyes here…
Your comments on the popularity lists always crack me up. :)
It could’ve been taken straight out of 1980… lol. Its just so yawn inducing to me
The boy’s names are so conservative compared to some states. For Michael still to be first and Matthew, Joseph, and Anthony in the top 10 makes you realize what a high percentage of Italian and Irish Catholics there are in New Jersey. But that doesn’t show in the girl’s names.
Yeah, NJ still has many white Irish/Italian Catholic families who pick conservative names but Michael, Matthew, Ryan, and Daniel are also popular in East Asian and Hispanic families. NJ has a high percentage of recent and first generation immigrants– from everywhere, really, but especially Latin America (Mexico, Puerto Rico, DR, Ecuador) and Asia (India, China, and especially Korea). I grew up in NJ and know many Asian boys/men named Ryan and Daniel and Matt. Daniel also works great in Spanish, as do Ryan and Michael.
I think the girls’ names are actually similarly conservative… Sofia, Isabella, Mia, Emily all work well in multiple languages and can be considered “safe”. There are no wild cards in the girls’ line up at all, like some Southern/Western states in 2012 that had Brooklyn, Aubrey, Harper, Addison, Aubree, Avery in the top 10. Much newer and trendier/riskier. Madison, the only androgynous name in the girls’ top 10, has been there for a whole decade.
It’s really fascinating to look at NJ’s name stats for the past decade or so… Michael was the top name in 2003, but back then it was given to 1,300+ boys. Last year it was still #1 but only given to 643. I bet it will be even fewer this year.