Hey Laura, if you ever wanted to I think you could do an interesting article on baby name trends. In the list published above I see that Lucy is one of the top five baby names in my home state. This is not surprising since Mormonism’s founder Joseph Smith’s venerated mother was Lucy Mack Smith. Also Mormons revere the writings of C.S. Lewis and many are Chronicles of Narnia fans. The name Emma is, of course, popular all over the U.S. for its feminine raindrop style but I wonder if it has retained its number one spot in Utah for so long because of religious significance (Emma Hale Smith was Joseph Smith’s longsuffering wife). IIn another post of yours sometime within the last few years I remember reading that the name Porter was an outlier in terms of popularity in Utah; again not surprising because Porter Rockwell looms large in Mormon history. In another recent-ish post you said that Benson is one of the fastest rising names in the U.S. and some commenters postulated that it could be influenced by the fame of Benson Boone. But that’s only part of the story, because Benson Boone was raised Mormon and was in all likelihood named for Mormon church president Ezra Taft Benson (as many Mormon boys are). You could unpack similar trends surrounding names like Spencer, Dantzel, Hyrum, and Eliza that are all more common in the intermountain west where Mormonism is a strong cultural force (and that’s without even looking at names taken directly from the Book of Mormon like Nephi, Mosiah, Sariah, and Ammon). Anyway, just a suggestion for what I think could be an interesting post and thanks for the fascinating data and commentary as always. I check this site daily along with my favorite blogs and news outlets and in always thrilled when there’s a new post to read.

John is not “back” in Alabama… I live here and can assure you we don’t have a sudden influx of babies called John. Southerners like to give their boys a traditional family name (John, William, James) and then call him by a nickname or a middle name. Most of the Johns are going by Jack or a middle name. Maybe a few double names thrown into the mix with John as the first part of the name (John Luke, John Waylon, etc). Mary is definitely in our top names because of how popular it is in double names.