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This tweet from GBH co-founder Jimmy came across our timeline this morning.
Can one of my Texan followers explain why Texans name their sons after Texas cities? Austin. Huston. Dallas. #Texas
— Jimmy Gards (@jimmygards) February 27, 2014
As a childless, non-native Texan I can't really answer Jimmy's question. But I did want to crunch the numbers to see which towns we're naming our kids after. Texas has approximately 11 billion cities and towns, so many of these are coincidental. I limited the list to cities with over 1,000 people. I've bolded the Texas cities I've heard of for science.
I downloaded 2012 Social Security data to obtain the frequency of names chosen more than 5 times and used advanced VLOOKUP technology to match them to Texas city names.
If you want to sort by Name instead of Baby Name Frequency, click on "Name" in the table header.
| Name | Baby Name Frequency | City Population |
|---|---|---|
| Mason | 1414 | 2,104 |
| Anthony | 1390 | 5,090 |
| Joshua | 1349 | 5,982 |
| Victoria | 944 | 63,131 |
| Aubrey | 761 | 2,691 |
| Addison | 724 | 13,323 |
| Austin | 663 | 820,611 |
| Lucas | 607 | 5,364 |
| Cameron | 549 | 5,538 |
| Justin | 534 | 3,360 |
| Tyler | 497 | 98,564 |
| Bryan | 490 | 77,321 |
| Parker | 482 | 3,958 |
| Hudson | 458 | 4,777 |
| Cooper | 449 | 1,961 |
| Taylor | 432 | 16,000 |
| Charlotte | 427 | 1,741 |
| Anna | 377 | 8,595 |
| Natalia | 359 | 1,435 |
| Trinity | 310 | 2,712 |
| Melissa | 214 | 4,863 |
| Alice | 213 | 19,337 |
| Kyle | 205 | 29,293 |
| Eden | 205 | 2,759 |
| Brady | 192 | 5,533 |
| Crystal | 158 | 7,246 |
| Tatum | 156 | 1,399 |
| Aurora | 139 | 1,236 |
| Dallas | 135 | 1,223,229 |
| Paris | 132 | 25,314 |
| Graham | 128 | 8,872 |
| Lorenzo | 114 | 1,154 |
| Knox | 108 | 1,142 |
| Troy | 99 | 1,671 |
| Allen | 91 | 87,473 |
| Emory | 86 | 1,248 |
| Gregory | 85 | 1,905 |
| Marshall | 84 | 23,753 |
| Chandler | 80 | 2,744 |
| Jasper | 79 | 7,714 |
| Mercedes | 61 | 16,175 |
| Archer | 55 | 1,792 |
| Liberty | 48 | 8,455 |
| Lindsay | 48 | 1,016 |
| Whitney | 41 | 2,105 |
| Jefferson | 39 | 2,101 |
| Nash | 36 | 2,968 |
| Memphis | 35 | 2,306 |
| Franklin | 35 | 1,574 |
| Houston | 34 | 2,145,146 |
| Alvin | 34 | 24,774 |
| Princeton | 33 | 7,069 |
| Lorena | 33 | 1,717 |
| Katy | 32 | 14,426 |
| Dayton | 29 | 7,307 |
| Van | 26 | 2,643 |
| Shepherd | 26 | 2,354 |
| Magnolia | 24 | 1,442 |
| Heath | 23 | 7,265 |
| Coleman | 23 | 4,640 |
| Bishop | 22 | 3,164 |
| Nixon | 22 | 2,397 |
| Keller | 21 | 40,530 |
| Holland | 21 | 1,139 |
| Irving | 20 | 220,702 |
| Leonard | 20 | 1,986 |
| Celina | 18 | 6,256 |
| Sullivan | 18 | 4,122 |
| Italy | 17 | 1,902 |
| Donna | 16 | 16,274 |
| Clyde | 16 | 3,704 |
| Palmer | 16 | 2,043 |
| Anton | 16 | 1,124 |
| Marion | 16 | 1,100 |
| Terrell | 15 | 16,112 |
| Elsa | 15 | 5,831 |
| Tye | 14 | 1,253 |
| Alton | 13 | 13,969 |
| Denver | 13 | 4,549 |
| Wilmer | 13 | 3,749 |
| Anson | 13 | 2,422 |
| Wylie | 12 | 43,001 |
| Canyon | 12 | 13,570 |
| Venus | 12 | 2,982 |
| West | 12 | 2,849 |
| Jacinto | 11 | 10,780 |
| Abilene | 10 | 118,117 |
| Johnson | 10 | 1,673 |
| Florence | 10 | 1,191 |
| Denton | 9 | 117,187 |
| Texas | 9 | 45,763 |
| Clifton | 9 | 3,457 |
| Ranger | 9 | 2,473 |
| Robinson | 8 | 10,680 |
| Kirby | 8 | 8,199 |
| Edna | 8 | 5,479 |
| Blossom | 8 | 1,502 |
| Vernon | 7 | 10,897 |
| Hamilton | 7 | 3,078 |
| Willis | 6 | 5,989 |
| Granger | 6 | 1,479 |
| Queen | 6 | 1,472 |
| Ames | 6 | 1,011 |
| Roma | 5 | 9,886 |
| Pecos | 5 | 8,760 |
| Marlin | 5 | 5,992 |
| Selma | 5 | 5,689 |
| Mathis | 5 | 4,936 |
| Linden | 5 | 1,974 |
| Hawkins | 5 | 1,284 |
| Lexington | 5 | 1,182 |