I'm seeing lots of newer parents name their babies more old-fashioned or family names - Cora June, Mattie or Maggie.

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eternal_casserole@reddit

There are definitely different naming trends by region. I moved around a lot as a kid, and every school I went to had a shift in which names were common. New York had a lot of heritage-y names like Dominic or Patrick. Have never met a guy named Trey who wasn't from the South. New England is... well, New Englandy... and then you have Utah where making names impossible to spell is the official state sport.

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Fluffy-Mine-6659@reddit

Trey is often used as a nickname for the third son (the one after junior). Southern thing

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loftychicago@reddit

Nicknames as the actual given name seem to be primarily a southern thing.

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Fluffy-Mine-6659@reddit

My father in laws given middle name was Willie. But he went by his middle name Bruce

LOL I've had some conversations like that. There are also legit names like Jemimah and Jedidiah in my tree.

All the men in my family going back at least 4 generations have the same first name. All of us use a middle name. My grandfather has credit cards that are like ... just his middle name. Which is a pet name version of James.

Then there is my great uncle quintillion benton jr. (Rip uncle ben) or something like that.

I believe this bullshit started with the Ashleigh’s in the 80’s

Actually this bullshit is probably the South’s fault to begin with; they embraced the Lee name (Bc of Robert E obviously) start naming girls Leigh and next thing you know, we start this snowball effect of straight-out Tragedeighs for little children all across the land….

I mean tbf, there's a pretty good reason for them to do so. Especially the further back in time you go. Plus it isn't their fault that men decide certain names are unusable once women start using them too. Honestly it's not even men's fault either, it's a systemic issue.

zombietobe@reddit

Either that or the whole brood gets names starting with the same letter. J, for example. And there’s at least 50% chance that it’s the same letter as the last name.

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MortgageNo8120@reddit

Utahn Mormon here. I always hate this. There was this one family in my neighborhood a bit ago and there names were like Braxton, Brayden, Bradley, Breken, etc.

No one could ever tell them apart or know which name was whom.

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Plenty_Vanilla_6947@reddit

There was a non Mormon family in our neighborhood with 3 sons. They looked so much alike that we referred to them as small, medium and large.

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More_Shoulder5634@reddit

I knew a family like that. Real good friends with the youngest son. It was weird they were all tall handsome blonde athletes. Their mom was tall and blonde but kinda unremarkable looking schoolteacher, and their dad was short and dark kinda squatty hardworking man at a chicken plant. The oldest son was incredible at football, ended up being a war hero got his leg injured in battle, the middle son was great at basketball, and the youngest son had the state record pole vault at one time.

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hooyah54@reddit

My brother, B name, 1st wife, B name, 1st son, biological, B name. They divorced. 2nd wife, B name, adopted 3 kids over the next 12 years, all B names. It's exhausting....No Mormons involved.

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LongOrganization7838@reddit

My mom's SUPER mormon like "we were with Joseph smith since Kirtland" mormon and her parents decided to name all the girls "Carrie, Kathy,Katie,Carolyn, and Carole"

My dad was less mormon but he was named Richard Legrand, after the old Apostle, when my older brother met his wife it tuns out my Father in Law, was also named Richard Legrand named after the same guy

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Realistic_Ad709@reddit

Fuck off, cultist.

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BAMspek@reddit

Such a creative idea that the whole church decided to do it

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zombietobe@reddit

I know you meant “church” in the sense of “whole religion”, but my first thought was:

What happens if two families in the same church (location) use the same letter? Duplicates? Weird social obligation to avoid duplicates?

Communal-Lipstick@reddit

I have only known 1 Hyrum and a lot of Tanners but none were Mormon, the others I've never heard in the Mormon world. But maybe there are a higher density of those names, I have just never seen it with the thousands I've known.

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NightOwl_Archives_42@reddit

Like I said, Tanner is in the "normal outside but weirdly high frequency inside"

Otney@reddit

I try to find a way to respect other folks’ spiritual beliefs…. but yes. My private opinion is more or less what you wrote. Except one day several years ago I was thinking about the Book of Mormon (which I have never read) and the Angel Moroni and I was going to myself “but this is just nuts, just to believe in something in some book!!” and then I thought to myself how is this any different at all than the folks, the literal billions of folks, who believe devoutly in the truth of a different book; the Bible. Caught myself up short there.

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Traditional_Trust418@reddit

Well, Mormons believe in the Bible, too. But I also believe that the Bible is false. I don't believe any Christian religion is true, but Mormonism qualifies as a cult because it...

Has an authoritarian male dominant leadership who control and manipulate their followers
Strict rules that everyone must follow blindly
Creepy rituals that must not be shared with outsiders
"One true church" mindset

pinaple_cheese_girl@reddit

That is what I’m aiming because that’s the class that I was talking about lol

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Also lifelong northeasterner, with decades in a field that connects me with countless non-northeasterners a year. I guess you’ve just missed meeting rich northeasterners? And aren’t including old people besides Arthurs in this question for some reason? And don’t want to defer to the commenter in insurance whose job shows them thousands of names correlated to region? And still ignoring that OP asked about names unique to a region, not ones that are common?

KevrobLurker@reddit

Power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrone_Power

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Otney@reddit

Very.

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KevrobLurker@reddit

Tyrone is an Irish county. It means Owen's Land.

Most people when referring to Appalachia mean “west Virginia, Western Virginia, Eastern Kentucky@

That seems quite a silly specification to use in a conversation like this one, where people are discussing Scots-Irish settlers in the South.

Like, Grandfather Mountain is objectively part of Appalachia, even if one might often use "Appalachia" to mean Virginia.

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Fionaver@reddit

Who is most?

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Ok_Entertainment9665@reddit

Literally everyone I’ve ever met. My dad’s family has lived in the Appalachians since like the early 1700s

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Necessary_Radish1313@reddit

That’s regional bias. Tennessee, the Carolinas, and north Georgia all consider themselves to be Applachia. (Heck, one of the traditional ends of the Appalachian Trail is in Georgia)

And they are more likely to say “Appalachia” than “the Appalachians”.

EmmalouEsq@reddit

I know a male Shannon, a male Leslie, 2 male Kellys, and 2 male Lynns in South Dakota. I've lived in the South and didn't meet any.

FWEngineer@reddit

I would think "bubba" is decidedly southern.

Also double names, like Billy Ray or Billie Bob.

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WthAmIEvenDoing@reddit

As someone who has lived in the Deep South my entire life, I can say that u don’t know a single billy bob or jimmy ray. These names were common generations ago and only currently used as a trope.

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Same-One-380@reddit

What about JoeJim? Legit name I’ve run across of a man thats still alive.

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WthAmIEvenDoing@reddit

How old is Joe Jim? Maybe read what I said again. The fact that you can think of one person…one…kind of proves my point.

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awkwardchip_munk@reddit

Went to high school with a Billy Joe and a James Ray in the same class (fancier than Jimmy)

The latter had a sister named Jimmie Lee.

KevrobLurker@reddit

New York State. It was was a parochial school in Long Island.

Perhaps just the Great Plains portion of Oklahoma belongs in the Midwest?

I don't know of any Bubba up north, nickname or not.

FWEngineer@reddit

Maybe it's a nickname, but it is still used primarily in the south. I've never heard it used at all up north.

Yes let me count in 35 years how may Billy Bobs I’ve met. Okay I’m done.

Bubba is a nickname, never a given name.

The only person I know with a double name is a Mike Lee, to distinguish him from his father Michael, who also goes by Mike, who brought his son into the trade so there'd be a need to use different names. I don't know Mike's middle name because it never gets used but I do know it's not Lee, otherwise Mike would be Mike Senior & Mike Lee Mike Junior.

What definition of "Southern" are you using? Virginia was literally the heartland of the South for over a century.

Nova is its own little thing with a completely different culture and mindset from the rest of VA. I grew up in Arlington and went to VCU. While there we had protests on monument ave. which was named because it was an actual monument to confederacy and as such, used to be lined with huge statues of confederate leaders (most were removed post 2020). There was never a protest where weren’t met with modern confederate counter protesters and daughters of the confederacy.

The first time I was ever called a n*gger to my face was a few minutes outside of Richmond in 2016.

Some other very common first names I think of as likely being southern, but maybe not:

Cooper, goes by Coop

Any name that can be initialed to CJ like Corey James or Charlie Jacob etc etc all CJ same with RJ

Are they all young? It seems to have gone more mainstream and I think more white recently.

My father got away with naming my little sister after a random acquaintance, just because he really liked the name.

But the name was Michelle. Not weird in 1973 or now.

Alpha! Bravo!

Stop picking on Charlie. I'm over here changing Delta's diaper and I can't watch you every minute.

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FaxCelestis@reddit

Oh no, now you’ve done it. We’re gonna get a 26 Kids And Counting where all the kids are named after the phonetic alphabet.

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ray_t101@reddit

Roger, read you Lima Charlie. Over

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sciencefyeah@reddit

10-4

I dunno, man. I've never met a Boudreaux or Thibodeaux that wasn't from southern Louisiana.

I really don't understand what goes through their head. The parent and the kid has to spend their whole life correcting people and spelling it out. Why the f would you do that?

32: West Virginia
41: Oklahoma
48: Kentucky, Wyoming
49: Alabama
58: Mississippi
60: Ohio
67: North Dakota
68: South Carolina
71: South Dakota
73: Georgia
74: Louisiana, New Mexico, North Carolina
75: Maine
82: Nevada
83: Delaware
84: Vermont
85: Alaska
88: Indiana
89: Arkansas
90: Hawaii
91: Connecticut, Maryland
92: Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee
93: Florida
95: Michigan, Wisconsin
99: Idaho
100: Iowa
(no Jaxon listed): Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington

Umm, they’re actually in the Big XII now. Same with BYU.

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crazycatlady331@reddit

I feel like southerners disproportionally have double names. Ie Mary Kate.

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MWSin@reddit

I feel like that's far more common in media than reality. I've only known one person born after 1960 that unironically used a double name.

TumpanyTuna@reddit

Like last names? Or first names? Either way most our names come from somewhere else. Depends heavily on what kind of immigrants went to or continue to go there.

Here in Minnesota we got a lot of Thors, Eriks etc... lot of Dhal names Strom and Son names

Lars Anderson is about as common as Anders Larson.

But in New Prague Minnesota... well a lot of Czech names wouldn't you know?

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ArghBH@reddit

There's a certain lack of vowels in Chicagoland names.

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Raborne@reddit

Misspelling. Not distinct names.

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ThePolemicist@reddit

Chicago has a lot of people from Poland, and the Polish names often don't seem to have enough vowels for the consonants. For example: Szczebrzeszynski and Przemysław and even Wojciech. I mean, a lot of people shorten or Americanize their names, but there are definitely some challenging names out there.

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enancejividen@reddit

We have those guys in the south too.

Tucker Carlson is the exact type of guy I was thinking of! He is very much from the Northeast - he might have lived in California, but his family is from New England, and so was a lot of his schooling.

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december151791@reddit

but his family is from New England, and so was a lot of his schooling.

Bit unsure what you mean by distinctly southern names as you gave no examples.

For an example, there is an old Western TV show called Gunsmoke. One of the characters was named Festus. Now, this show takes place in the West and not the south, but that's a name that to me would be considered 'Southern'.

I know a woman named Dumpy and another named Sootie (Sutie).

Went to school with a non-Japanese student named Kawasaki. Everyone asked why that was his name when no one in his family was of such ancestry. His mother let it slip that it was because he was conceived on one.

People name their kids all kinds of weird shit.

I know sisters named Faith, Hope and Natalie.

This is a well known pattern with boy/girl names. Lots of names were previously primarily used for boys, but then people started using them more for girls. Once they became associated with girls, they fell out of favor with parents having boys. It is generally seen as more culturally acceptable for a girl to have a "boy name" than for a boy to have a "girl name." Leslie, Aubrey, Madison, Lindsay, Marion, Lauren/Loren, for instance, used to be primarily or almost exclusively boy names. Now they have flipped to primarily girl names.

Yes, this is changing over time, with current generations much more comfortable with unisex names. But the historical pattern is there.

I've not lived in the South, not my impression is also that there's perhaps less identification with immigrant cultural roots in favor of identifying as generically "American" and I'm guessing this leads to fewer names intentionally chosen to reflect a particular heritage, e.g. the Bjorns and Brittas in Minnesota.

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SpiritOfDearborn@reddit

“I would venture a guess that Scandinavian names are significantly less popular in most other parts of the US.”

The upper peninsula of Michigan would like a word.

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gangleskhan@reddit

Precisely why I included "most" haha. I think North Dakota is another. But all in the same neighborhood.

Olyfishmouth@reddit

The northwest has names like juniper, sierra, Rainier, sequoia, alder, river...

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ValuableMistake8521@reddit

I feel like you could make the argument that people in each region of the United States have distinct names. Like East Coast/New England types will have more traditional English names (Michael, Anna, Mary, Nicholas). The Midwest will have traditional names mixed with nontraditional and also Nordic names (Sven, Johnny, Chloe, Ellie). The South will have names that are passed down generation to generation and are similar (Grace, Olivia, Jackson, Carter). The west coast and northwest will have “new” names mixed with some traditional (Finn, Cooper, Olivia, Mia).

Again, names are influenced by religion and family. If a family has a Joseph Sr, and a Joseph Jr., chances are there’s a Joseph III

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daveescaped@reddit

I mean, the obvious southern names are the Betty Sue’s and Billy Bob’s and Bubbas. Also, having a crazy first name and going by a nickname seems southern to me. Like your name is Festus but you go by Rusty because why not?.

I’m from the Midwest and we (during Generation X) had incredibly dull, anglophone names like John, Peter, Christopher, Brian and such. So damn many Brads. But that seemed normal. And in my neighborhood it was only contrasted with Jewish fist names like Josh, David, Daniel and such. Pretty mundane.

Every Anthony I know is from New York.

Off the top of my head?

The Midwest has tons of Germanic names die to the big wave of immigration in the 1840’s onwards.

In the Northern part of the Midwest you’ll get a lot of Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch names.

Boston has a lot of Irish and Italian last names.

Maine has a lot of British names due to the high density of Cornish descendants.

Trying to explain to people why I pronounce Richard as Reecharrrd outside of Cajun country has been trying.

Naming will vary based on the state’s history and which country used to own the state… in New England there are lots of English and Irish names, in much of the Midwest the common names are German and Scandinavian. New York has a ton of Dutch names. Vermont has a lot of French names. West and Southwest you see more names that are Spanish. In the Southeast you will often see names that come from French, or use French structure (like multiple names hyphenated).

Beau is a common southern man’s name

Women using their middle name with their first. Like Bobby Jo. Betty sue. Even if they have unusual middle names (like their mothers maiden name or something)

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I once knew a Jerome whose wife's name was Erica. They named their daughter Jerica, which I thought was cute.

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SquashDue502@reddit

I know some older women who are literally named “Missy” 💀

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HighwaySetara@reddit

When I was pregnant, I told my mom we were considering James as a middle name, after her beloved brother Jimmy who died of polio. She told me his given name was actually Jimmy. We, uh, did NOT use Jimmy as a middle name.

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tcmits1@reddit

Taylor Nadine Madison Archie Brock Cody

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nakedonmygoat@reddit

First sons are often named for their father, grandfather, or some other relative. Girls may be named for a relative or friend of the mother, although this doesn't seem to be as common as it used to be. This can keep some names in heavy rotation within a family.

But it's not at unusual for people to move, so new naming influences come into an area and persons with more traditional names in their region may head off to a place where their name is less common. And let's not forget the influence of movies and television!

Where you'll see more clusters of names is in regions where people tend to stay over multiple generations. The reason they stay is often due to high levels of poverty, extreme wealth, or a deep cultural reason not to leave. Often it's two out of three.

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HighwaySetara@reddit

First children who are girls may also be given a feminized version of their dad's name. I think I was like 35 before I realized that was probably how my (Southern) mom got her unusual name.

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tbodillia@reddit

I'm wondering WTF an Southern name is and I'm seeing examples of regular Indiana names. But Indiana prides itself to be the northernmost southern state.

You clearly haven’t visited the upper Midwest — idk anywhere else in the US where you get so many Scandinavian names (first or last).

First name examples: Signe, Freja, Kari, Sonja, Annika, Kiersten, Anders, Lars, Kai, Bjorn, Leif

Cletus

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ATLien_3000@reddit

Having lived both in the south and elsewhere, in my mind it's more distinctly southern naming conventions - there are some maybe but by and large there aren't distinctly southern names.

Among others, the big naming conventions off the top of my head -

Double names (and people going by the double name - Susie Ann Smith, for instance, being "Susie Ann" and not "Susie", to the point of being corrected).

Mom's maiden name as middle name being another - and often when that's the case the kid goes by the middle name, regardless of gender. Southerners were sending their daughters running around with boy's names well before it was cool.

toastythewiser@reddit

The South gets stereotyped a lot. But I have family from the northeast/ mid-Atlantic. My aunt has three sons: Michael Joseph and Jacob. Ie Mikey, Joey, and Jakey.

Fit_Skirt7060@reddit

I have a distant cousin named Dixie. I have known a few Skeeters and Mavericks as well.

I’m in Texas.

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AdAutomatic6654@reddit

I didn’t know names had a region in the US

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fook75@reddit

The Western ranching states have a lot of names related to the American West.

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fook75@reddit

Minnesotan. Nordic names are insanely popular. I know men named Thor, Odin, Lars, Ole, and lots of ladies names Lena, Freya etc.

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GoddessOfOddness@reddit

Well, Hawaii has distinctive Hawaiian names. Leilani, Hakulani, Kalani, Kai, Makaio, Keanu. It also has lots of Japanese names.

The Pennsylvania Dutch, like the Amish and the Mennonite, like biblical names: Josiah, Hannah, Sarah, Jebediah, Abraham

LupercaniusAB@reddit

It’s Cletus, and I’ve never met one.

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goddesskristina@reddit

It can also be Cletties for a female pronounced the same. I'm only saying my elderly aunt is in the south. Name was picked out from a list of popes same as the rest of her siblings names. I know many people with saints' names, but finding out the pope thing in my 20s was new.

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Zealousideal_Draw_94@reddit

I assume by distinctly southern you’re talking about Billy Bob, Jim Bob, Billy Mac, Bobby Jack, and other double nickname names? They aren’t always southerns.

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Ok_Entertainment9665@reddit

The civil war. The south was a mix of wealthy english and french folk vs the north which was poor English and german folk. The south got names like Beauregard and Scarlett and the north got “Elizabeth” and “john”.

Only met people from the south with those. Especially the first two

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