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:
| Unique Girl Names | Unique Boy Names |
| Aubrion, Autry, Blue Jay, Cadeau, Ceiba, Dulceluna, Eeriemoon, Fiza, Gilana, Holleen, Itzigueri, Jill, Kasleen, Lillabee, L’Oreal, Mauzie, Millioni, Nincye, Nobelina, Orchid, Princess Plethora, Qiwei, Roshnee, Scepter, Shanze, Thais, Tsumugi, Umutoni, Vyga, Wengiel, Xyzla, Ynafets, Zieglind | Ashton Alchimist, Bruges, Cayenne, Dalbus, Eames, Fenghua, Ganesh, Getsai, Hackett, Itzae, Jizael, Kavelli Kaine, Linnaeus, Linux, Mazoree, Mistral, Naranna, Nimbus, Olince, Penn, Qhing, Rigveda, Shooter, Syphax, Tavoric, Templar, Urfan, Vetri, Wajahat, Xavi, Yoonbin, Zaxton |
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).
Sources: From Aadhav to Zyva: 6,087 Names of Babies Born in Austin in 2017 | Open Data | City of Austin Texas, Wiktionary
Image by MJ Tangonan on Unsplash
