Alabamians last year relied on tradition and the Bible in naming their babies, according to data released Thursday by the Social Security Administration.
The agency, which produced the data from applications for Social Security cards, determined that 398 Alabama boys got William for a first name. That was the most popular boy name in Alabama last year and ranked third nationally.
William also was most popular in eight other states. And the Irish version of the name, Liam, was first nationally and was most popular in 16 states.
Among girls, Ava was most popular in Alabama, with 358 newborns getting the name. It was third nationally. Ava was most popular in six other states plus the District of Columbia.
Overall, the most popular baby names in Alabama closely tracked the nation. William, James, Elijah, Noah, Mason and Liam all ranked in the top 10 both in Alabama and the nation. Among girls, Ava, Olivia, Emma, Amelia, Charlotte and Evelyn ranked among the top 10 both locally and across the nation.
There were some disparities, however. The biggest was Grayson, which ranked 10th most common in Alabama but only 34th nationally. John also was an outlier — No. 4 in Alabama but only 27th nationally.
The other points of disagreement were Samuel (eighth in Alabama and 21st nationally) and Jackson (ninth in Alabama and 20th nationally).
In the other direction, Benjamin is the name with the biggest disparity. It ranked No. 6 nationally last year, but came in 27th in Alabama.
There was more agreement between Alabama and the nation on girls names. The four popular Alabama names that did not make the top 10 nationally all came fairly close. Harper, No. 4 in Alabama, just missed the top 10 nationally at 11th place. The other three names were Elizabeth (sixth in Alabama but 13th nationally), Avery (eighth in Alabama but 14th nationally) and Ella (ninth in Alabama but 16th nationally).
The Social Security Administration listed the top 100 names for boys and girls in Alabama. Evan, the choice of 58 Alabama parents last year, came in 100th. Alice, the name given to 40 girls, was 100th for females. Alice fared better nationally, coming in 70th. Evan was 84th.
The agency lists 1,000 names for both boys and girls nationally. At the bottom for boys last year were Jaxx and Howard; those names each were given to 201 babies. For girls? It was Alora, the name conferred on 257 babies.
Even as the number of births has declined over the decades, popular names have been less concentrate at the top. Last year, for instance, not a single boy name made up even 1 percent of newborns in the United States. Emma — at 1.0528 percent — was the only girl name to do so.
Forty years ago, though, eight girl names and 23 boy names crossed that threshold. The most popular name, Michael, was the choice of 4.267 percent of parents.
Scanning the most popular names, it becomes clear that sometimes, what’s old becomes new again. Emma, the most popular girl name nationally last year, has been in the top five since 2002, ranking first in five of those years — including the last four consecutive years.
For much of the latter half of the 20th century, though, it was relatively rare to find an Emma in a maternity ward. From 1961 through 1984, Emma did make even the top 300. From 1900 through 1941, however, Emma cracked the top 100 every year and was in the top five for the first five years of the century.
@BrendanKKirby is a senior political reporter at LifeZette and author of “Wicked Mobile.”
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