According to the SSA, the most popular baby names in the permanently inhabited U.S. territories of Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa — all four regions combined — in 2016 were were Olivia and Daniel.
Here are the top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names for the four regions, which which have a combined population of roughly 380,000 people.
Girl Names
1. Olivia, 14 baby girls
2. Angela, 12 (2-way tie)
3. Sophia, 12 (2-way tie)
4. Amy, 11 (2-way tie)
5. Faith, 11 (2-way tie)
6. Aria, 10 (2-way tie)
7. Chloe, 10 (2-way tie)
8. Amelia, 9 (3-way tie)
9. Athena, 9 (3-way tie)
10. Grace, 9 (3-way tie)
Boy Names
1. Daniel, 22 baby boys
2. Jason, 19
3. Aiden, 17
4. Liam, 16
5. David, 15 (2-way tie)
6. Jayden, 15 (2-way tie)
7. Ethan, 14 (3-way tie)
8. James, 14 (3-way tie)
9. William, 14 (3-way tie)
10. Aaron, 13 (2-way tie with Lucas, #11)
In 2015, the top names were Ava and David. The year before they were Olivia and Daniel.
Three of the names in the girls’ combined top 10 were not in the U.S. top 100: Angela (214th), Amy (176th), and Athena (142nd).
One intriguing name on the boys’ list is Eason, which ranked 23rd-ish. (A 4-way tie between Alexander, Andy, Eason, and Logan spanned 21st to 24th place.) I wish I could tell which of the four territories is using it. In the U.S., Eason is rising quickly. In fact, it jumped into the top 1,000 for the first time last year (rank: 902nd).
Note: The SSA doesn’t include baby name data from the five permanently inhabited U.S. territories in its annual rankings (e.g., the top 1,000). But it does release two separate lists: one for Puerto Rico (the most populous territory at 3.5 million people), one for the four other territories combined. Click below to see the complete sets of rankings.
My guess for Eason would be that Guam and the Marianas are using it – Eason Chan is a popular Cantopop singer and those territories have large East Asian populations.
Oh that’s an interesting theory. Thanks, Becca. I’ve never heard of Eason Chan before. (Here’s the Eason Chan Wikipedia page for anyone who wants to learn more.)