Massachusetts Is Trading Its Irish Baby Names for Brazilian Ones
Brendan was given to 272 Massachusetts boys in 1998. In 2025 it was given to eight. Over the same period, Ravi has climbed from almost nothing to 40 births a year, and Davi now appears in Massachusetts more than 17 times as often as the national rate. The state’s most distinctive names are changing language, and the two curves cross around 2021.
| Name | Sex | Massachusetts lift | MA births | US births | Expected at national rate | MA's share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Davi | M | 17.3x | 150 | 468 | 9 | 32.1% |
| Ravi | M | 15.6x | 130 | 452 | 8 | 28.8% |
| Liz | F | 13.5x | 165 | 660 | 12 | 25.0% |
| Bernardo | M | 9.6x | 88 | 495 | 9 | 17.8% |
| Seamus | M | 8.7x | 76 | 473 | 9 | 16.1% |
| Shea | F | 6.4x | 109 | 922 | 17 | 11.8% |
| Maite | F | 5.2x | 67 | 704 | 13 | 9.5% |
| Conor | M | 4.4x | 167 | 2,058 | 38 | 8.1% |
| Kiera | F | 4.2x | 71 | 922 | 17 | 7.7% |
| Benicio | M | 3.9x | 104 | 1,433 | 27 | 7.3% |
| Helena | F | 3.9x | 241 | 3,352 | 62 | 7.2% |
| Colin | M | 3.6x | 359 | 5,328 | 98 | 6.7% |
Which baby names are most distinctive to Massachusetts?
Davi leads at 17.3 times the national rate, with 150 Massachusetts boys against an expected nine. Ravi follows at 15.6×, then Liz at 13.5× and Bernardo at 9.6×. Massachusetts claims roughly a third of every American baby named Davi and nearly 30% of every Ravi, from a state producing 1.85% of US births.
The top of the list is Portuguese. Davi is the Portuguese form of David and has been among the most popular boys’ names in Brazil for years. Bernardo, Helena, and Benicio belong to the same pool. Massachusetts has the second-largest Brazilian population of any state after Florida, accounting for roughly 18% of Brazilians in the US, concentrated in Framingham, Everett, Marlborough, and Somerville. It also holds the largest Portuguese-speaking population in the country.
The rest of the list is Irish: Seamus, Shea, Conor, Kiera, Colin, and Brendan just below the cutoff.
What is happening to Massachusetts’ Irish names?
They are collapsing. Brendan has fallen from a peak of 272 Massachusetts boys in 1998 to eight in 2025 — a drop of 97%. Colin peaked at 231 in 2003 and is now 74. Conor reached 110 in 1993 and is down to 26.
| Name | Peak era | 2012 | 2016 | 2021 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brendan (M) | 272 (1998) | 72 | 30 | 22 | 8 |
| Colin (M) | 231 (2003) | 145 | 113 | 84 | 74 |
| Conor (M) | 110 (1993) | 36 | 56 | 40 | 26 |
| Seamus (M) | 40 (2006) | 22 | 17 | 19 | 20 |
Seamus is the exception, holding steady around 20 for more than a decade. Everything else in the Irish cluster is in freefall. These names still rank as distinctively Massachusetts because the rest of the country abandoned them even faster — a name can hold a high lift while disappearing, and several here are doing exactly that.
Which Massachusetts names are rising?
The Portuguese-language names, and one oddity. Ravi has gone from five Massachusetts boys in 2012 to 40 in 2025, its highest figure on record. Bernardo has risen from none to 16. Liz appeared essentially from nowhere, reaching 33 girls in 2025 after registering nothing in 2012 or 2016.
| Name | 2012 | 2016 | 2021 | 2025 | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ravi (M) | 5 | — | 11 | 40 | Rising sharply |
| Liz (F) | — | — | 19 | 33 | New and rising |
| Bernardo (M) | — | 10 | 14 | 16 | Rising |
| Davi (M) | 32 | 15 | 20 | 31 | Recovered |
Liz is genuinely puzzling. It appears as a standalone given name rather than a nickname for Elizabeth, it barely existed in Massachusetts before 2020, and a quarter of all American Lizzes are now born there. We have no explanation for it.
Are Massachusetts’ most popular names also its most unusual?
No. From 2021 to 2025, the state’s most common names were Noah, Liam, Charlotte, Henry, Olivia, and Theodore — the national list, reordered slightly. Massachusetts’ character lives below that tier, among names given to a hundred or two hundred children over five years.
How does Massachusetts compare to other states?
Massachusetts is the clearest example in this series of a naming tradition handing off to another in real time. Minnesota has two traditions too, and they’re also moving in opposite directions, but Minnesota’s Scandinavian decline is gentle — down about a third since 2018. The Massachusetts Irish collapse is far steeper, with Brendan down 97% from its peak.
On raw distinctiveness, Davi at 17.3× beats anything in Utah or Louisiana but falls short of Minnesota’s Mahir at 34.9×. What Massachusetts offers instead is the clarity of the transition.
Where does this data come from?
The figures come from the Social Security Administration’s state-level baby name files, which record every name given to at least five babies of one sex in a state in a given year, drawn from Social Security card applications. The records run from 1910 through 2025. We analyzed 2021 through 2025 and required at least 60 state births and 300 national births for a name to qualify for the main ranking.
Population figures come from Census Bureau estimates. Two caveats on the name data: names given to fewer than five babies in a state-year are suppressed, which is why several entries show blanks in early years. And the files record where a baby was born, not where the family lives now.
Sources: Social Security Administration — Baby Names by State · US Census Bureau — American Community Survey
Analysis covers births 2021–2025. Published September 2026.
Disclaimer
This article is for general informational purposes only. Information and conditions are subject to change. Verify current details directly with the relevant source before making any decisions.
