How popular is the baby name Josiah in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Find out using the graph below! Plus, check out all the blog posts that mention the name Josiah.
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The Commonwealth of Virginia, located on the east coast of the United States, is the 12th most populous state in the country.
Last year, Virginia welcomed roughly 95,000 babies.
What were the most popular names among these babies? Charlotte and Noah, according to the Virginia Department of Health’s Office of Vital Records.
Here are Virginia’s top 15 girl names and top 15 boy names of 2022:
Girl Names
Charlotte
Olivia
Ava
Amelia
Emma
Harper
Evelyn
Eleanor
Sophia
Elizabeth
Lilly
Abigail
Riley
Nora
Chloe
Boy Names
Noah
James
Liam
William
Henry
Theodore
Oliver
Elijah
Levi
Benjamin
Owen
John
Jack
Asher
Lucas
…But that’s not all!
The state also revealed the top names among the state’ four largest ethnic groups: White, Black, Hispanic and Asian. (Virginia’s demographic data for 2022 isn’t out yet, but, two years earlier, the state’s population was roughly 53.9% non-Hispanic White, 20.7% Black, 15.6% Hispanic, and 7.3% Asian.)
These were the top 5 girl names and 5 boy names among Virginia’s White babies:
Girl names, White
Boy names, White
1. Charlotte 2. Olivia 3. Amelia 4. Harper 5. Emma
1. William 2. Henry 3. James 4. Theodore 5. Oliver
These were the top 5 girl names and 5 boy names among Virginia’s Black babies:
Girl names, Black
Boy names, Black
1. Ava 2. Naomi 3. Nova 4. Zuri 5. Leilani
1. Noah 2. Elijah 3. Josiah 4. Amir 5. Micah
These were the top 5 girl names and 5 boy names among Virginia’s Hispanic babies:
Girl names, Hispanic
Boy names, Hispanic
1. Mia 2. Camila 3. Isabella 4. Emma 5. Genesis
1. Liam 2. Mateo 3. Dylan 4. Noah 5. Lucas
And, finally, these were the top 5 girl names and 5 boy names among Virginia’s Asian babies:
Girl names, Asian
Boy names, Asian
1. Sophia 2. Chloe 3. Olivia 4. Mia 5. Charlotte
1. Noah 2. Muhammad 3. Liam 4. Kai 5. Henry
Nearly a decade ago we looked at Virginia’s 2013 rankings, which also included a breakdown of usage by ethnic group.
A few days ago, I stumbled upon a set of baby name data for Austin, Texas, for the year 2017. While it isn’t current, it does seem to be complete — so it includes hundreds of rare and single-use names (which are always fascinating!).
The data accounts for nearly 19,900 births (9,733 girls and 10,163 boys), and features nearly 6,100 names (3,431 given to girls, 2,656 given to boys).
According to this data, which comes from the City of Austin’s Open Data Portal, the top baby names in the capital of Texas five years ago were Emma and James.
Here are Austin’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2017:
Girl Names
Emma, 98 baby girls
Isabella, 88
Olivia, 84
Mia, 81
Evelyn, 77
Sophia, 75
Ava, 73
Abigail, 59 (tie)
Charlotte, 59 (tie)
Emily, 58
Camila, 56 (tie)
Elizabeth, 56 (tie)
Harper, 53
Amelia, 52
Penelope, 51 (tie)
Sofia, 51 (tie)
Scarlett, 46
Ella, 45
Avery, 43 (tie)
Zoe, 43 (tie)
Lillian, 41
Layla, 40 (tie)
Madison, 40 (tie)
Eleanor, 39
Victoria, 38
Allison, 37
Claire, 36 (3-way tie)
Elena, 36 (3-way tie)
Luna, 36 (3-way tie)
Aria, 35 (tie)
Chloe, 35 (tie)
Ellie, 34 (tie)
Katherine, 34 (tie)
Samantha, 33
Hannah, 30 (4-way tie)
Hazel, 30 (4-way tie)
Mila, 30 (4-way tie)
Stella, 30 (4-way tie)
Leah, 29
Cora, 28 (5-way tie)
Genesis, 28 (5-way tie)
Grace, 28 (5-way tie)
Natalie, 28 (5-way tie)
Ximena, 28 (5-way tie)
Clara, 27 (3-way tie)
Eliana, 27 (3-way tie)
Ruby, 27 (3-way tie)
Audrey, 26 (tie)
Sarah, 26 (tie)
Alexa, 25 (3-way tie)
Everly, 25 (3-way tie)
Lily, 25 (3-way tie)
Boy Names
James, 104 baby boys
Noah, 85
Daniel, 83
Benjamin, 82
William, 80
Oliver, 75
Liam, 74
Alexander, 73
Sebastian, 70
Henry, 67
Elijah, 66 (tie)
Mateo, 66 (tie)
Ethan, 65
Jackson, 63
Anthony, 61
Jacob, 60
Aiden, 59 (tie)
Luke, 59 (tie)
David, 58 (tie)
Samuel, 58 (tie)
John, 56
Isaac, 55 (tie)
Julian, 55 (tie)
Michael, 54
Charles, 53 (3-way tie)
Jack, 53 (3-way tie)
Matthew, 53 (3-way tie)
Jose, 52 (tie)
Joshua, 52 (tie)
Wyatt, 50
Aaron, 49 (4-way tie)
Grayson, 49 (4-way tie)
Joseph, 49 (4-way tie)
Levi, 49 (4-way tie)
Dylan, 48
Hudson, 47
Josiah, 46 (3-way tie)
Logan, 46 (3-way tie)
Santiago, 46 (3-way tie)
Jayden, 45
Nathan, 44
Christopher, 43 (tie)
Thomas, 43 (tie)
Andrew, 42 (4-way tie)
Gabriel, 42 (4-way tie)
Luis, 42 (4-way tie)
Owen, 42 (4-way tie)
Lucas, 41
Adrian, 40 (3-way tie)
Axel, 40 (3-way tie)
Christian, 40 (3-way tie)
On the girls’ list, Allison caught my eye. It ranked 26th in Austin in 2017, but 61st nationally the same year. Interesting.
Further down on the boys’ list was Austin itself, in 95th place — vs. 75th nationally — with 21 baby boys. Much further down was Texas, with 2 baby boys.
And now it’s time for the unique names!
One-of-a-kind names were given to 24% of the baby girls and 17% of the baby boys born in Austin in 2017. Here’s a sampling of the names that were bestowed just once:
Some possible explanations/associations for a few of the above:
Cadeau is the French word for “present, gift.”
Ceiba is a type of tree.
Tsumugi Shirogane is a character from the 2017 video game Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.
Ynafets is “Stefany” spelled backwards.
Bruges is the capital of West Flanders (a province of Belgium).
Mistral is a strong late-winter wind in southern France.
The Rigveda is a sacred Hindu text.
I’ve never posted rankings for Austin before, but I have posted rankings recently for two nearby Texas cities: Houston (which is more than twice the size of Austin, population-wise) and College Station (which is about an eighth of the size of Austin).
Years ago, I discovered three documents with relatively complete lists of births for the city of Providence, Rhode Island, for the years 1866, 1867, and 1868. I’ve already created Providence’s baby name rankings for 1866 and 1867 using the first two documents, and today (finally!) I’ve got the third set of rankings for you.
Let’s start with some stats:
1,762 babies were born in Providence in 1868, by my count. According to the introduction of the document I’m using a source, however, the total number is 1,866. I don’t know how to account for this discrepancy.
1,617 of these babies (791 girls and 826 boys) had names that were known at the time of publication. The other 145 babies got blank spaces. Either their names hadn’t been registered yet, or they hadn’t been named yet, or perhaps these babies died young and never received a name.
284 unique names (143 girl names and 141 boy names) were shared among these 1,617 babies.
And now, on to the names!
Top 5
A quick look at the top 5 girl names and boy names in Providence in 1868:
Top baby girl names
Top baby boy names
1. Mary 2. Catherine 3. Sarah 4. Ellen 5. Margaret
1. John 2. William 3. James 4. Charles 5. George
All Girl Names
Mary, 149 baby girls
Catherine, 39
Sarah, 38
Ellen, 31
Margaret, 28
Elizabeth, 25
Alice, 24
Anna, 20
Ann, 16
Emma, 14
Eliza, 13
Clara & Martha, 11 each (tie)
Hannah & Lucy, 10 each (tie)
Bridget, Grace, Jennie, Julia & Maria, 9 each (5-way tie)
Annie, Florence, Jane, Minnie & Susan, 8 each (5-way tie)
Agnes, Caroline, Cora, Ella & Harriet, 7 each (5-way tie)
A while back, I stumbled upon a register of people who were associated with Oxford University in the late 1500s and early 1600s.
Interestingly, the author of the register decided to include a chapter dedicated to first names and surnames, and that chapter included a long list of male forenames and their frequency of occurrence from 1560 to 1621.
The author claimed that, for several reasons, these rankings were “probably…more representative of English names than any list yet published” for that span of time. One reason was that the names represented men from “different grades of English society” — including peers, scholars, tradesmen, and servants.
So, are you ready for the list?
Here’s the top 100:
John, 3,826 individuals
Thomas, 2,777
William, 2,546
Richard, 1,691
Robert, 1,222
Edward, 957
Henry, 908
George, 647
Francis, 447
James, 424
Nicholas, 326
Edmund, 298
Anthony, 262
Hugh, 257
Christopher, 243
Samuel, 227
Walter, 207
Roger, 195
Ralph, 182
Peter (and Peirs/Pers), 175
Humphrey, 168
Charles, 139
Philip, 137
David, 129
Matthew, 116
Nathaniel, 112
Michael, 103
Alexander, 98 (tie)
Arthur, 98 (tie)
Laurence, 90
Giles, 88
Stephen, 86
Simon, 83
Daniel, 79
Joseph, 78 (tie)
Lewis, 78 (tie)
Andrew, 69
Roland, 65
Griffith (and Griffin), 60
Evan, 55
Abraham, 54 (tie)
Leonard, 54 (tie)
Owen, 53
Gilbert, 52
Morris (and Maurice), 51
Bartholomew, 46 (3-way tie)
Oliver, 46 (3-way tie)
Timothy, 46 (3-way tie)
Morgan, 45
Martin, 44 (tie)
Rice, 44 (tie)
Gabriel, 41
Benjamin, 40
Jeffrey/Geoffrey, 38
Ambrose, 36
Adam, 35
Toby (and Tobias), 34
Jerome, 33
Ellis, 30
Paul, 29
Bernard, 28 (3-way tie)
Gregory, 28 (3-way tie)
Isaac, 28 (3-way tie)
Jasper (and Gaspar), 26 (3-way tie)
Josiah (and Josias), 26 (3-way tie)
Randall (and Randolph), 26 (3-way tie)
Miles, 24
Lancelot, 23
Austin (and Augustine), 22 (tie)
Jarvis (and Gervase), 22 (tie)
Brian, 21
Matthias, 20 (tie)
Reginald (and Reynold), 20 (tie)
Jeremy, 19
Theophilus, 19
Joshua 18 (3-way tie)
Marmaduke, 18 (3-way tie)
Valentine, 18 (3-way tie)
Fulke, 17 (tie)
Sampson (and Samson), 17 (tie)
Clement, 16 (4-way tie)
Ferdinando, 16 (4-way tie)
Herbert, 16 (4-way tie)
Zachary, 16 (4-way tie)
Cuthbert, 15 (3-way tie)
Emanuel, 15 (3-way tie)
Vincent, 15 (3-way tie)
Adrian, 14 (3-way tie)
Elias, 14 (3-way tie)
Jonah (and Jonas), 14 (3-way tie)
Tristram, 13
Allan, 12 (6-way tie)
Ames, 12 (6-way tie)
Barnaby (and Barnabas), 12 (6-way tie)
Gerard (and Garret), 12 (6-way tie)
Lionel, 12 (6-way tie)
Mark, 12 (6-way tie)
Abel, 11 (3-way tie)
Erasmus, 11 (3-way tie)
Roderic, 11 (3-way tie)
Did the relative popularity of any of these names surprise you?
The author did note that “the more common names occur more frequently than they ought to…from the tendency to confuse less common names with them.”
For example, a person called ‘Edmund,’ if he is frequently mentioned in the Register, is almost certain to be somewhere quoted as ‘Edward,’ ‘Gregory’ as ‘George,’ ‘Randall’ or ‘Raphael’ as ‘Ralph,’ ‘Gilbert’ as ‘William,’ and so on.
Now here are some of the less-common names, grouped by number of appearances in the register:
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