Some baby names are from another country. These baby names are another country. And now we’ve put them on the map.
29 different country names were represented in last year’s U.S. baby name stats. A few are classic, familiar baby names that we may not even think of as geographic names. But most are place-first, and take a lot of their style impact from the country they represent. Together, they make up a name’s- eye view of the globe.
Can you identify the 29 names from this map, which has been shaded to reflect the popularity of the baby names? (You can click on the map to view it larger; hit your browser’s back button to return here.) If some countries elude you, don’t despair. The full list follows, including a breakdown of male vs. female names.
| COUNTRY | TOTAL BABIES | MALE/FEMALE |
| Sweden | 5 | F |
| Peru | 5 | F |
| Syria | 6 | F |
| Nigeria | 7 | F |
| Iceland | 7 | F |
| Thailand | 8 | M |
| Jamaica | 8 | F |
| Haiti | 8 | F |
| Iran | 9 | M |
| Belize | 9 | F |
| Morocco | 10 | M |
| Cyprus | 16 | 11 M, 5 F |
| Dominica | 18 | F |
| China | 18 | F |
| Brazil | 30 | F |
| Germany | 37 | 31 F, 6 M |
| Trinidad | 49 | 23 M, 13 F |
| Mali | 69 | 64 F, 5 M |
| Italy | 129 | F |
| America | 156 | F |
| Chad | 173 | M |
| Ireland | 206 | 201 F, 5 M |
| Kenya | 233 | 226 F, 7 M |
| India | 282 | F |
| Egypt | 358 | 287 F, 71 M |
| Malaysia | 543 | F |
| Georgia | 1467 | F |
| Israel | 1673 | 1604 M, 69 F |
| Jordan | 5069 | 4306 M, 763 F |
4 Comments
Malaysia??? There were 500 babies named MALAYSIA last year!?!? I’d figure India, Kenya, and Trinidad would all be more popular names. But Malaysia! What’s that doing in the top 500?
Jordan seems like it’s shattering the trend of unisex names “going girl” which is nice to see. Just because there are plenty of female Jordans doesn’t mean parents have stopped using it for male babies.
Yep, Jordan never reached the tipping point–it was always at least 2:1 Male:Female. I suspect sheer numbers play a role. Jordan has been a top-100 boy’s name for almost 40 years straight, and all of those thousands of male Jordans provide a certain amount of ballast.
I wonder if that’s because of “feminine” spellings of the name like Jordin and Jordyn…?