In 1990, the most popular baby names in California were Michael for boys and Jessica for girls. More than 8,200 boys born that year, and 6,600 girls, had those names. Since then, Californians, and American in general, have become much more creative in naming their babies, with many more sources of influences, ranging from pop culture to hobbies, and alternative spellings.
“Americans are diverging in their name choices,” said Laura Wattenberg, a baby name expert and author who takes a data-driven and scientific approach to baby name analysis. “We all try to be creative. We don’t want to be anything like each other,” she added.
But even in the era of creativity and originality, people tend to gravitate toward commonalities, birthing new popularities to take over from Michael and Jessica, she said. The latest trend has included more lyrical-sounding names, and boys’ names that end with the letter “n,” for instance.
The Social Security Administration, which tracks baby names through Social Security card registrations, recently released data on the most popular baby names in the United States in 2020. The most popular names in 2020 in California were Noah, Liam and Mateo for boys, and Olivia, Camila and Emma for girls. That’s not so far off from the list of most popular baby names nationwide, at least for boys. Wattenberg says that’s because California has such a huge population and larger populations are represented better in the data.
But California is also distinct from other states in that it tends to have a lot more Hispanic baby names, especially ones that are crossovers between English and Hispanic names, such as Sebastian or Julian. The 2020 data shows that Californians are far more likely to name their boys Sebastian and Julian than the rest of the country.
Sebastian and Julian are both in the top five in California, but nationally, they rank 18th and 34th, respectively. Emiliano and Maximiliano are also particularly popular names in California.
For girls, Camila was wildly popular in California, ranking at No. 2, but nationally, it was only No. 11. Jayleen, which Wattenberg says is a popular Latina name, was another name that was much more popular in California than elsewhere, according to the Chronicle’s analysis. Nine out of the 10 most popular California girl’s names in 2020 ended with the letter “a.” Four out of the 10 most popular boys names in California end in “n.”
People draw influences from all sorts of things, including their careers, hobbies, favorite television shows and celebrities to give their babies unique names, Wattenberg said. California tends to have a smaller share of babies named after Hollywood celebrities, though.
But generally, people choose what sounds good to them, she said, and it turns out, many people think alike, which is why so many babies ended up being named Noah and Olivia in 2020. “By trying to be an individual, we’re actually sounding more alike than ever before,” she said.
Yoohyun Jung is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: yoohyun.jung@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @yoohyun_jung
The Chronicle this year hired five journalists who will use data-driven techniques to cover news stories across the Bay Area. The team's work will appear in the newspaper on Sundays and Mondays. See more of their stories, analyses and interactive features at sfchronicle.com/data.
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Sebastian, Julian, and Camila were unusually popular baby names in California in 2020. Here’s why - San Francisco Chronicle
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