Hawaii Does Its Own Thing

Nov 6, 2026 Abigail Adams, Editorial writer

Every state chart has its quirks, but Hawaii's is a genuine outlier — and in 2025 it produced a result no other state can match.

Hawaii's champions are Isla for girls and Elijah for boys. Neither is an obscure local name: Isla is #28 nationally, Elijah is #7. But here is the distinction no other state holds: Hawaii is the only state in America where both winning names win in no other state. Everywhere else, at least one champion is shared with somewhere else — Charlotte's 28 states, Liam's 15, Noah's 14. Isla wins Hawaii and only Hawaii. Elijah wins Hawaii and only Hawaii. The islands picked two champions entirely their own.

The girls: Isla by three babies

Hawaii registered 2,145 girls in 2025 — the whole state's girl births would be a rounding error in California. In a chart that small, taste beats trend, and the top of it is a photo-finish:

Isla — 40 babies
Emma — 37
Luna — 36
Sophia — 36
Olivia — 34
Amelia — 31

Isla's win is a local phenomenon in the truest sense. Nationally she holds 0.46% of girls; in Hawaii she holds 1.9% — four times her national rate. The mainland likes Isla. Hawaii chose her.

And she is not a one-year fluke: Isla also won Hawaii in 2023, either side of Olivia wins in 2024 and every year from 2019 to 2022. The crown passes back and forth between the national champion and the local favorite, and in 2025 the local favorite took it by three babies.

The boys: Elijah, and a top six with a local accent

For boys (2,918 registered), the chart reads:

Elijah — 49 babies
Noah — 46
Liam — 42
Luca — 42
Luke — 41
Ezekiel — 40

Elijah is a heavyweight nationally — #7, with 11,111 boys — yet Hawaii is the only state where that was enough to finish first. And look at the shape of the rest: the national co-champions Noah and Liam are right there, but so are Luca, Luke and Ezekiel, a top six with a distinctly local flavor that no mainland state reproduces. Elijah also won Hawaii in 2023; in between, Noah took 2024. Again: a real contest, decided by single digits.

Why Hawaii is different

Partly it's scale. With 2,145 girls, a name needs 40 babies — one extended family's worth of agreement, spread across the islands — to top the chart. Mainland trends arrive in Hawaii diluted; local preference doesn't need many converts to win.

Partly it's that Hawaii simply has its own naming culture, and the data keeps proving it. It is the state where the national girls' #1 has repeatedly lost to a name at #28, and where the boys' chart keeps elevating names the mainland ranks as supporting players.

Our advice: Hawaii is the standing reminder that "popular in America" is an average, not a fact about any real place. If you live in Hawaii, Isla is not a #28 name — she is the name, and Elijah is not a top-10 also-ran but the champion. Wherever you live, your state's chart is the one your child will actually grow up in. Check it before the national one.

The island champions: Isla and Elijah — and every state's chart in our girls' names by state index.