Twenty Babies Can Win a State

Nov 6, 2026 Abigail Adams, Editorial writer

Wyoming's most popular girls' name in 2025 was decided by twenty families.

Aurora — 20 babies — is Wyoming's #1. Not 20,000. Twenty. A single preschool classroom of Auroras is the entire championship class of a state. (Nationally, Aurora is a giant: 7,065 babies. Wyoming's slice of her is a rounding error that happens to top a chart.)

She is not an oddity. America's state charts are two different competitions wearing the same label — and in the small-state half, the titles are astonishingly cheap. Of the 102 state championships awarded in 2025 (50 states plus DC, boys and girls), sixteen were won with 60 babies or fewer:

State title	Babies needed
Wyoming girls — Aurora	20
Wyoming boys — Theodore	27
Alaska girls — Charlotte	32
Vermont girls — Charlotte	35
Vermont boys — Oliver	35
DC girls — Emma	36
Hawaii girls — Isla	40
North Dakota girls — Charlotte	42
Delaware girls — Mia	43
Alaska boys — Noah	46
Montana girls — Charlotte	46
Hawaii boys — Elijah	49
Rhode Island girls — Charlotte	49
South Dakota girls — Lainey	50
North Dakota boys — Liam	56
DC boys — Noah	58

Read the Charlotte line again: the national #2 girls' name personally collected five of the sixteen cheapest titles in America (Alaska, Vermont, North Dakota, Montana, Rhode Island). In big states she's a contender. In small ones she's a landslide waiting for a venue.

The other competition

Now the other half of the sport. To win Texas in 2025, Liam needed 2,688 babies. To win California, Olivia needed 1,796 — and Liam needed 2,624 there just to finish first among boys. The median state title — the middle of all 102 — cost 232 babies.

Same trophy, wildly different prices: the most expensive state title cost 134 times what the cheapest one did.

Why cheap titles are a feature, not a bug

It's tempting to treat the 20-baby championship as a statistical joke. It's the opposite. State charts exist to answer a local question — what will my child actually hear on the playground here? — and in Wyoming the honest answer really is "about twenty Auroras a year, spread across the whole state." A Wyoming parent who avoids Aurora because she's "#1" is avoiding a name their daughter will likely never share with a classmate. A California parent who picks the #30 name in their state may be picking something far more common in practice.

Our advice: read the count, never just the crown. A state #1 with 20 babies is a rare name wearing a champion's ribbon. A state #40 with 800 babies is a common name wearing camouflage. The number next to the name is the popularity; the rank is just the local seating chart.

Start with the cheapest real estate in American naming: Aurora, and the full map on the girl baby names by state pages.