Popular Names in California

In 2023, Olivia and Noah topped the list as the most popular baby names in California. While Olivia is also Number 1 nationally, Noah ranks at Number 2 on the popular baby names in the US for 2023.

The California Top 10 includes several unique additions that didn't make it to the top nationally. Sebastian, Julian, Benjamin and Elijah are Top 10 names for boys in California, while Camila, Sofia and Gianna rank more highly than average for girls. This does mean two spelling variants of the same name - Sophia and Sofia - are among the Top names for girls in California.

California has the highest Hispanic population in the US and the name data reflects that too. Hispanic favorites such as Emilio, Adriel, Jesus, and Diego are popular for Californian boys, while Camila, Eliana, Ximena, Valeria, and Valentina rank more highly for girls.

Other names that are unique to the California Top 100 include international choices like Eva, Valeria, Alina, and Amira for girls and Ivan, Nicholas, Leon, and Dominic for boys. Longer, poetic names are uniquely favored for Californian boys, such as Emiliano, Alejandro, Giovanni, and Damian, while short, sweet names like Kaia, Leia, Bella and Ayla are in for girls.

This list actually goes beyond the Top 1000 baby names in California to include all names used for five or more California babies. If you'd like to take a deeper dive into distinctly California baby names, check out our pages on Los Angeles Baby Names and San Francisco Baby Names.

To browse popular names lists from the US and around the world, visit our main Popular Names page. You might also want to browse Nameberry's real-time lists of Popular Girl Names 2024 and Popular Boy Names 2024.

For more local data, search the full lists of Popular Names by State.