After writing about country names and city names last week, I fielded a flood of requests for a "red-blue" analysis. For those of you not immersed in American politics, charting red vs. blue has become something of a national pastime since the 2004 presidential election. Just take a U.S. map, shade the areas favoring the Republican party in red, the Democratic party in blue...and a glance at the map will show you that politics isn't the only thing dividing those regions.
The Red states cut a vast swath through the middle of the country, occupying the majority of the geographic territory. The Blue states tend to be concentrated on the coasts, including major urban centers. Blue-staters are more likely to have college degrees and six-figure incomes, but red-staters have a much lower cost of living. And on it goes.
So naturally, the red and blue regions differ in their naming choices, too. The differences actually represent several underlying name cultures (look for a full U.S. naming map here soon), but some broad patterns emerge. I've tallied up a dozen of the reddest and bluest names in America--names with the biggest popularity gap between the top Republican states and the top Democratic states. First, the girls:
BLUE GIRLSRED GIRLSIsabellaHannahKaylaAlexisSophiaHaileyAshleyAbigailSarahAlyssaJuliaLaurenSamanthaTaylorOliviaElizabethJessicaEmilyLilyChloeKatherineAnnaCarolineEmmaSome of the differences reflect the racial diversity of blue states like California and New York. Kayla, for instance, owes its ranking largely to African-American and Latino families. (It's the #1 name for black girls in New York City.) Latino and Asian parents, meanwhile, tend to favor the girls' names that dominated the '80s, like Ashley and Jessica. White blue-state families (or is that blue white-state families?) lean heavily toward gentle antiques like Olivia, Lily and Caroline.
The red girls' list leads with Hannah, an Old Testament/Hebrew Bible name that was seldom heard until the '90s. (It's worth noting here that Hannah, like many of the names on the list, is popular in blue states too--but it averages #13 in blue, #5 in red.) The red list also features several names that started out as male names (Alexis) or surnames (Hailey, Taylor) and have emerged suddenly as girls' hits. Keep those two themes in mind as you look at the boys:
BLUE BOYSRED BOYSRyanEthanNicholasLoganAnthonyTylerMatthewSamuelDanielJacobChristopherHunterJohnJamesJosephAustinMichaelJacksonNoahNathanAlexanderIsaacKevinGabrielThe red boys' list is a marvel of consistency. Except for James, every name either is from the Old Testament or is a common surname. It's notable that Republican voters are more likely to strongly identify themselves as Christians, yet the strongly Christian-identified names--John, Christopher, Matthew--are stacked on the Democratic side. (Even the name Christian leans blue.)
Overall, the blue boys are varied in origin but steady and traditional. Unlike the blue girls, the boys' names are used relatively evenly across races. And unlike the red boys, almost all of the blue boys' names were as common 30 years ago as they are today.
The strength of tradition seems to be biggest theme dividing red and blue names. Red staters are more prone to neologize--to create new names from surnames (Tanner), place names (Brooklyn), or simply appealing sounds (Kaden). Blue staters are more likely to stick to traditional naming stock. Even when they seek fresh territory, it's among traditional first names: antiques (Ava) or foreign imports (Gianna). In other words, the political conservatives turn out to be the naming activists, and the political progressives are the naming conservatives.
Comments
If I don't like any of those names, does that mean I have to vote for Nader or Buchanan?
i have noticed that asian parents tend to go with even older names, like Agnes, Eunice and Myrtle
On the Asian name note, sometimes the names seem really eccentric because they have sounds that are similar to Asian words like the "you" sound in Eunice is popular with Koreans as is "Sue." Chinese names might be more likely to start with a W sound.
That was a very interesting analysis indeed!
This analysis is very interesting. It reminds me of the book “Freakonomics” where it argues that names pass from high class to low class as they become more popular. What I am really curious about is how popular is too popular. In other words what ranking on the naming list equals a child being know as Jennifer C. all through out school. Obviously this depends on the state in which you are located as well as if the population of the neighborhood is predominately white/black/latino…etc. Is there anyway to know that if you were to give you child a name lower than say the 200th ranking then it would be unlikely that they would share their name with classmates?
Is there anyway to know that if you were to give you child a name lower than say the 200th ranking then it would be unlikely that they would share their name with classmates?You'd have to check the popularity chart for your state, then see the number of births for the particular name you like (you can do that in the SSA site) and then consider what kind of names your neighbours/friends are naming their children... Popularity depends on the environment in which the child will live, you may have friends with baby Hazels and Charlottes, which is very different if your friends' kids' names are Taylor & Madison.
I have a question: why is DC such a naming anomaly, and has it always been that way? I would presume it has a lot to do with the concentration of the rich and powerful- but that doesn't seem to account for all of the anomalies. And it's not just because it's relatively small: there are fewer babies in Alaka, but it follows the top 100 fairly closely. So why is it like that, and has it always been that way?
I'd be very interested in a "red county, blue county" map than by states. Texas is a very red state, but there are some dark blue islands. Chicago is a blue state in overall population, but that's mostly concentrated in three urban centers, where the vast expanse is read. I suppose it's heavily confounded with city/country naming differences. My first is due in January, and all three of our top choices don't show up on the top 1000 for any decade. I wonder if they will in the future...
Red state parents seem to choose presidents' names for their children more often than do parents from blue states. Do you think this has to do with a more positive view of national power or are the presidents' names so removed from their origins that parents don't realize they're choosing names of the former commanders in chief? I suppose if thousands of babies next year are named Bush we could draw a more direct link!As for the question about Washington, I would guess that the city differs from other areas because it is a city and as such automatically excludes suburbanites and people who prefer to live in rural areas. Like most big cities, Washington is highly multi-ethnic and boasts residents from all over the world.
Thank you for this most appreciated analysis. First a quick comment about Pa., a so called blue state. It too mirros Illinois in that the big blue patches in the corners over count the large red swatch in the middle. As George Will once said: Pittsburgh on one end, Philadelphia on the other end, Alabama in the middle.And now for something totally controversial but makes sense: Split the Christians into Catholic and Protestatn. Catholics which are more Democrat give traditional Biblical names especially common saints, where as the Republicans, especially the mostly WASPS tend to generate names using surnames as first and middle names, and the manufactured names of occupations, seasons, simple sounds, etc. as you previously mentioned. This finally confirms what I've known for a long time. By the way, I'm James, Catholic, Independent [voted for Ross Perot twice] and live in Pa. So I'm right on all the lists.
I live in Alabama (the ultimate red state), and I definitely see the naming trends you're talking about here. I actively dislike most of the popular names in our state ... my future children will have blue-stater names all the way. I like the "antiques."
As for Asian names, Cantonese tend to name their kids (especially boys) ending in "Y" or "ie" such as Danny, Ricky, etc. I don't know if it has to do with easy pronuniciation.
This analysis leaves a lot to be desired or defined. I suggest an analysis of red or blue by county since that better defines a pattern. Then a again ones net worth can go either blue or red.
I don't understand the relationship implied in the previous post between a county's residents' voting preferences and their net worth. It seems to me that there are plenty of rich and poor in each of the parties.A county-by-county analysis would be interesting (at least for states with large metropolitan areas that sway the state from red to blue as Chicago does for Illinois), but even if that data were available from the Social Security Administration, I think it would be very tedious to get.On a personal level, which of course means a tiny sample size, I haven't noticed a difference in naming between my Republican and Democrat friends, but I have between my Catholic and Protestant friends. I agree with the previous poster about that. My Catholic friends tend to stick with the saints' names while my Protestant friends have used less classic names. I am Catholic and used to argue with my parents about the old tradition of only choosing saints' names. "How will there ever be a Saint Crystal?" I said to my mother once. She shot me one of those famous "mom looks" and that was the end of that conversation! :),
But the majority of Catholics actually voted for Bush...
Not so sure about this analysis. We'd consider ourselves in the "blue" category, but all three of our kids names are from your red column.
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DC is an anomaly because the demographics are so unusual -- the District itself is majority African-American, and of the whites who live there, most move to VA or MD before having children. If you could see an analysis of the whole DC metro area, it would look more like the nation as a whole, although still probably disproportionally African-American.
For those who commented about Asian names: I'm Chinese, born in 84' as Shauna, I don't think my name is either ancient, eccentric, or easier for native Asians to say... most non-Asians don't even pronounce it correctly until I repeat it at least three times.
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