Last year, the California county of Sonoma welcomed about 2,500 babies.
What were the most popular names among these babies? Liam for boys and a three-way tie between Amelia, Camila, and Mia for girls.
Here are Sonoma’s top 50+ girl names and top 50+ boy names of 2024:
Girl names
- Amelia, 13 baby girls (3-way tie)
- Camila, 13 (3-way tie)
- Mia, 13 (3-way tie)
- Emma, 12
- Charlotte, 11
- Luna, 10 (tie)
- Scarlett, 10 (tie)
- Charlie, 8 (6-way tie)
- Elena, 8 (6-way tie)
- Eliana, 8 (6-way tie)
- Gianna, 8 (6-way tie)
- Lucy, 8 (6-way tie)
- Valentina, 8 (6-way tie)
- Grace, 7 (9-way tie)
- Isabella, 7 (9-way tie)
- Isla, 7 (9-way tie)
- Lucia, 7 (9-way tie)
- Madison, 7 (9-way tie)
- Maya, 7 (9-way tie)
- Natalia, 7 (9-way tie)
- Quinn, 7 (9-way tie)
- Sophia, 7 (9-way tie)
- Ava, 6 (15-way tie)
- Ella, 6 (15-way tie)
- Evelyn, 6 (15-way tie)
- Hazel, 6 (15-way tie)
- Layla, 6 (15-way tie)
- Leah, 6 (15-way tie)
- Lillian, 6 (15-way tie)
- Olivia, 6 (15-way tie)
- Riley, 6 (15-way tie)
- River, 6 (15-way tie)
- Ruby, 6 (15-way tie)
- Sofia, 6 (15-way tie)
- Victoria, 6 (15-way tie)
- Violet, 6 (15-way tie)
- Willow, 6 (15-way tie)
- Amari, 5 (7-way tie)
- Genesis, 5 (7-way tie)
- Hannah, 5 (7-way tie)
- Harper, 5 (7-way tie)
- Itzel, 5 (7-way tie)
- Penelope, 5 (7-way tie)
- Sophie, 5 (7-way tie)
- Amaya, 4 (19-way tie)
- Ariel, 4 (19-way tie)
- Athena, 4 (19-way tie)
- Aubrey, 4 (19-way tie)
- Cecilia, 4 (19-way tie)
- Emery, 4 (19-way tie)
- Georgia, 4 (19-way tie)
- Hadley, 4 (19-way tie)
- Jade, 4 (19-way tie)
- Josephine, 4 (19-way tie)
- Kimberly, 4 (19-way tie)
- Leilani, 4 (19-way tie)
- Lia, 4 (19-way tie)
- Lily, 4 (19-way tie)
- Maeve, 4 (19-way tie)
- Mila, 4 (19-way tie)
- Nevaeh, 4 (19-way tie)
- Sienna, 4 (19-way tie)
- Zoey, 4 (19-way tie)
Boy names
- Liam, 22 baby boys
- Sebastian, 17
- Noah, 14
- James, 13 (tie)
- Santiago, 13 (tie)
- Dylan, 12 (tie)
- Mateo, 12 (tie)
- Damian, 11 (tie)
- Luca, 11 (tie)
- Ivan, 10 (3-way tie)
- Julian, 10 (3-way tie)
- Leo, 10 (3-way tie)
- Ethan, 9 (5-way tie)
- Mason, 9 (5-way tie)
- Miles, 9 (5-way tie)
- Theodore, 9 (5-way tie)
- William, 9 (5-way tie)
- Angel, 8 (3-way tie)
- Christian, 8 (3-way tie)
- Lucas, 8 (3-way tie)
- Adriel, 7 (9-way tie)
- Asher, 7 (9-way tie)
- Emiliano, 7 (9-way tie)
- Hudson, 7 (9-way tie)
- Jackson, 7 (9-way tie)
- John, 7 (9-way tie)
- Joshua, 7 (9-way tie)
- Levi, 7 (9-way tie)
- Logan, 7 (9-way tie)
- Benjamin, 6 (9-way tie)
- Cameron, 6 (9-way tie)
- Emilio, 6 (9-way tie)
- Henry, 6 (9-way tie)
- Jaxon, 6 (9-way tie)
- Jesus, 6 (9-way tie)
- Jonathan, 6 (9-way tie)
- Lorenzo, 6 (9-way tie)
- Roman, 6 (9-way tie)
- Adrian, 5 (19-way tie)
- Alejandro, 5 (19-way tie)
- Bodhi, 5 (19-way tie)
- Cooper, 5 (19-way tie)
- David, 5 (19-way tie)
- Dean, 5 (19-way tie)
- Diego, 5 (19-way tie)
- Javier, 5 (19-way tie)
- Leonardo, 5 (19-way tie)
- Luke, 5 (19-way tie)
- Matteo, 5 (19-way tie)
- Michael, 5 (19-way tie)
- Milan, 5 (19-way tie)
- Oliver, 5 (19-way tie)
- Owen, 5 (19-way tie)
- Ryan, 5 (19-way tie)
- Ryder, 5 (19-way tie)
- Waylon, 5 (19-way tie)
- Wyatt, 5 (19-way tie)
And here’s a sampling of the many names that were bestowed just once in Sonoma last year:
| Unique girl names | Unique boy names |
| Alitzel, Brithany, Clary, Daylin, Erandi, Frida, Gielah, Hera, Iana, Janellie, Kalia, Leeba, Marbie, Nevayla, Olema, Ponderosa, Quincy, Roshi, Salacia, Souvenir, Spider Gwen, Trillium, Upsana, Vaila, Wilma, Xiamara, Yanis, Zula | Airam, Branimir, Cinco, Court, Divaldo, Dorje, Essiel, Fidel, Gabino, Heriberto, Isai, Jesiah, Kipono, Laszlo, Macklin, Nelson, Ove, Percival, Quinlan, Rifton, Sylo, Tanjiro, Uriah, Viliamu, Wiley, Xiveer, Yariel, Zaelyn |
Some possible explanations/influences for a few of the above:
- Airam is “Maria” spelled backwards.
- Cinco is the Spanish word for “five.”
- Dorje is a Tibetan name that refers to a diamond, a thunderbolt, “or an indestructible phenomenon.” (Its literal translation is “lord of stone.”)
- Erandi is the Purépecha word for “dawn.”
- Ponderosa is a type of North American pine tree (Pinus ponderosa). The name refers to the tree’s heavy (or “ponderous”) wood.
- Salacia was the Roman goddess of saltwater. Her name is based on sal, the Latin word for “salt.”
- Spider-Gwen is the fan-created nickname of comic book character Spider-Woman (a.k.a. Gwen Stacy).
- Trillium is a type of flower with three petals and three sepals.
- Viliamu is the Samoan form of William.
Finally, here are Sonoma’s 2023 rankings, if you’d like to compare last year to the year before.
Sources:
- Sonoma County Baby Names – Open Data, Sonoma County
- Sonoma County Births by Year – Open Data, Sonoma County
- Dorje discovered by Dorje Lingpa – Project Himalayan Art
- Wikipedia
Image: Adapted from Flag of California (public domain)
The unique names are what I would expect for the geographical area, but Spider Gwen is a bridge too far for me. I hope poor Ponderosa is called Rosa. Souvenir made me laugh. It seems like a mildly risqué joke, like perhaps the baby was a souvenir of their honeymoon.
4 babies named Kimberly is so surprising!
Love that Sonoma County shares their baby names each year. Always fun to check out. It’s interesting how the general impression of Sonoma is that it’s a hippie county, but the only really hippie names on the list are Bodhi and River. The names show that it’s more of a working class Latino county — though maybe the hippie names are underrepresented because of the push to use unique names.
The one local note I’ll add is that Olema (oh-LEE-muh) is a cute small town in neighboring Marin County.
Alex, I was only passing through Sonoma one time (went to California for a wedding in Mill Valley, speaking of Marin) but we stopped for a picnic next to a lake, and I had this thought, which I revisit all the time, “If I lived here, I would feel like nothing bad could ever happen.” It was so startlingly pretty there. I can’t remember what lake it was, but I think it was near or in Santa Rosa.
@Sharky – Kimberly is a personal favorite of mine, so I love when it randomly pops up in a set of rankings. :)
@alex – I’m so appreciative of all the U.S. regions (counties, cities, etc.) that share their baby name rankings/data. Especially right now, since we have no idea if the SSA will be releasing U.S. rankings/data this year…
And thank you for explaining Olema! (According to NPS, the town’s name is a Coast Miwok word meaning “coyote.”)