Name Legacy

Names unique to North Carolina

The most distinctive North Carolina baby names, 1910–2025

These are the names given far more often in North Carolina than anywhere else in the country, across the whole record from 1910 to 2025. Raeford leads: it is given about 26× more often here than across the United States as a whole.

The multiplier compares each name's share of North Carolina births with its share nationally, and reports the conservative low end of that comparison — so a name carried by a handful of births cannot outrank one carried by hundreds.

Across the whole record, 1910–2025

Right now, in 2025

A different list from the one above, and not a contradiction: these are the names distinctive to North Carolina in a single recent year rather than across the whole record.

Decade by decade

The single most distinctive name of each decade.

Explore further

See North Carolina on the interactive map

Most popular names in North Carolina

Names unique to other states

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Illinois
• Indiana
• Iowa
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Montana
• Nebraska
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Dakota
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Washington
• West Virginia
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming

Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. State records begin in 1910. Names given to fewer than five babies in a state in a year are withheld at source. namelegacy.org