Name
|
Most Popular Census Year for State Name
|
Number with State Name That Year
|
Alabama
|
1880
|
1,682
|
Alaska
|
1930
|
177
|
Arizona
|
1930
|
2,158
|
Arkansas
|
1880
|
363
|
California
|
1880
|
518
|
Carolina (North and South)
|
1910
|
26,030
|
Colorado
|
1900
|
61
|
Connecticut
|
1930
|
8
|
Dakota (North and South)
|
1930
|
205
|
Delaware
|
1900
|
324
|
Florida
|
1930
|
5,576
|
Georgia
|
1930
|
108,629
|
Hawaii
|
1900
|
10
|
Idaho
|
1920
|
87
|
Illinois
|
1920
|
334
|
Indiana
|
1870
|
2,772
|
Iowa
|
1920
|
1,541
|
Kansas
|
1920
|
873
|
Kentucky
|
1900
|
69
|
Louisiana
|
1900
|
1,833
|
Maine
|
1920
|
3,152
|
Maryland
|
1940
|
3,314
|
Massachusetts
|
1900
|
2
|
Michigan
|
1910
|
33
|
Minnesota
|
1880
|
138
|
Mississippi
|
1870
|
105
|
Missouri
|
1900
|
9,035
|
Montana
|
1930
|
615
|
Nebraska
|
1930
|
358
|
Nevada
|
1930
|
2938
|
Hampshire (New)
|
1880
|
18
|
Jersey (New)
|
1900
|
343
|
Mexico (New)
|
1910
|
89
|
York (New)
|
1880
|
1,415
|
Ohio
|
1940
|
286
|
Oklahoma
|
1910
|
145
|
Oregon
|
1900
|
282
|
Pennsylvania
|
1900
|
53
|
Rhode Island
|
1920
|
4
|
Tennessee
|
1880
|
4,476
|
Texas
|
1900
|
1,445
|
Utah
|
1940
|
419
|
Vermont
|
1920
|
609
|
Virginia (Virginia and West)
|
1940
|
473,973
|
Washington
|
1870
|
21,977
|
Wisconsin
|
1920
|
14
|
Wyoming
|
1930
|
70
|
Have you ever met anyone actually named, for instance, Pennsylvanian Bullard? Real lady--she appears in the 1920 US Federal Census with her husband Jeff. Here are a few other real people we've come up with who are named after US States:
- Dakota Fanning is a child acting star from Georgia.
- William Faulkner named his first daughter Alabama after his aunt Alabama (Minter 127).
- Nevada Barr is an author whose father named her after a character in a book he liked (MWP).
- Montana McGlynn was a member of the reality TV show The Real World season six.
- Alaska Young in John Green's Looking for Alaska
- Nevada Smith in Harold Robbins' The Carpetbaggers
- Montana Wildhack in Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five
- Wyoming Knott in Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
- Arizona Ames in Zane Grey's Arizona Ames.
- The daughter named KIM in Edna Ferber's Showboat:
And as Kim Ravenal you doubtless are familiar with her. It is no secret that the absurd monosyllable which comprises her given name is made up of the first letters of three states - Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri - in all of which she was, incredibly enough, born - if she can be said to have been born in any state at all (Ferber 1).
Were they just patriotic? Or were the parents so pleased to find a like-named soul that they chose to continue the tradition? I suppose we'll never know.
Ferber, Edna. Showboat. G. K. Hall & Co., 1981.
Minter, David. William Faulkner: His Life and Work. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 1980.
http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/barr_nevada/index.html
this is a great post. I love it. It deserves more attention. I had no idea naming kids after states was such a thing.
ReplyDelete