Noah Owns New Mexico (and the State Gap Is Closing)

Nov 6, 2026 Abigail Adams, Editorial writer

More than a decade ago, this site used Noah to make a point: state baby name charts are not miniature copies of the national chart. Back then Noah was the #1 name in New Mexico while sitting far down Utah's chart — same name, same year, two completely different stories.

Thirteen years on, Noah is a much bigger name — #2 in America in 2025, with 20,358 boys. So we went back to the two states to ask whether the lesson still holds. It does. But the map has moved, and the movement is the story.

New Mexico: a kingdom, contested

Noah is #1 in New Mexico in 2025, with 115 babies, and New Mexico is his longest-held territory. He has won the state nine times since 2012 — 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2024 and 2025.

But it is a kingdom with a rival. Elijah took 2016 by two babies (115 to Noah's 113). And Liam — the national #1 — took 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2023, pushing Noah to #2, #2, #3 and #3. Noah's hold on New Mexico is real, but it is the record of a decade-long duel with the biggest name in the country, in one of the smallest states. He currently holds the crown. He has had to win it back twice.

New Mexico is not an isolated loyalty, either. Noah is the #1 boys' name in 14 state charts in 2025 — New Mexico plus 13 others, including New York, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The national #2 is, state by state, very nearly the national #1.

Utah: from the teens to #5

Utah is where the gap has closed. In the current state table, Noah ranked #10 in Utah in 2013, then slipped to #17 in 2014 and #22 in 2015 — a solid name there, nothing more. Then came the climb: #8 by 2020, #6 by 2024, and in 2025 he stands at #5 in Utah with 206 boys, behind only Oliver (274), Liam (227), Theodore (221) and Jack (209).

So the two-state contrast that made Noah famous in our archive has narrowed from "king in one state, invisible in the next" to "king in one state, top five in the other." Utah didn't adopt a different name's fashion — it adopted Noah, a decade late.

What stayed true

The original lesson survives the update, in a subtler form. Noah in 2025 is simultaneously:

the #2 name in America,
the #1 name in 14 state charts,
the #5 name in Utah,
and a name who lost New Mexico to Liam four times in the last seven years.

All four of those are the same name in the same year. A national rank compresses them into one number — "#2" — and the compression is the lie. Every state keeps its own chart, its own rivalries and its own timetable, and names arrive on those timetables, not the national one.

Our advice: Before you decide a name is "everywhere" or "underused," look at your own state's number for it. Noah's parents in Santa Fe chose the state's #1 name. Noah's parents in Salt Lake City chose a top-5 name that still feels like a discovery next to Oliver and Liam. Same name, same year — different decision, because the chart that matters is the local one.

Noah's full map is on his page: Noah — and every state's boys' chart is in our boy baby names by state index.