What the top girl names tell us about race in New York City

Note: This post does not set out to prove anything – it is just food for thought.

Here are the top ten girl names of those born in New York City in 2007:

1. Isabella
2. Sophia
3. Emily
4. Ashley
5. Sarah
6. Kayla
7. Mia
8. Olivia
9. Samantha
10. Rachel

Sophia and Isabella are tied for first.

Now break that down by race, where Hispanics count as a separate race:

Top white names:

1. Sarah
2. Rachel
3. Sophia
4. Olivia
5. Ava
6. Isabella
7. Esther
8. Julia
9. Chaya
10. Emma

The top Asian names:

1. Sophia
2. Emily
3. Chloe
4. Tiffany
5. Angela
6. Ashley
7. Rachel
8. Isabella
9. Fiona, Jessica, Sarah (tied)

Top Hispanic names:

1. Ashley
2. Isabella
3. Emily
4. Mia
5. Brianna
6. Samantha
7. Angela
8. Melanie
9. Sophia
10. Jennifer, Kayla (tied)

The top black names:

1. Madison
2. Kayla
3. Jada
4. Brianna
5. Nevaeh
6. Alyssa
7. Makayla
8. Gabrielle
9. Taylor
10. Imani

Please note: There are white girls named Kayla, etc. These are merely the most common names for each race.

No name made all four lists.

Only two names made three lists: Sophia and Isabella. They were on all but the black list.

What I find interesting are the names that made only two lists. Why? Because I see it as a measure of how much races deal with each other as equals. That might be wrong, but for this post I will assume it is true.

Here are which names appear on only two lists:

• white/Asian: Rachel, Sarah
• white/Hispanic:
• white/black:
• Asian/Hispanic: Angela, Ashley, Emily
• Asian/black:
• Hispanic/black: Kayla, Brianna

I listed all six possible pairings, but only half of them have anything. These are just the pairings you would expect if you assume race in New York is a four-layer cake that looks like this:

1. white
2. Asian
3. Hispanic
4. black

With whites at the top as the richest and most privileged.

Whites and Hispanics do use some of the same names (Isabella and Sophia), but only if Asians use them too – just as if Asians are the go-between.

This seems to rule out two possible models of race in New York:

1. Whites at the centre: If that were true, then the white pairings would have the most names. Instead two of them have no names at all: white/Hispanic and white/black. And even the remaining one, white/Asian, is outdone by Asian/Hispanic. This also shows, by the way, that names are not coming directly from a white mainstream but spread some other way.
2. A white/Asian overclass and a black/Hispanic underclass: If this were true then the Asian/Hispanic pairing would have few to no names. Instead it is the strongest pairing of all.

You can also get a measure of ghettoization, of how separated each race is from the others, by how many names are found only on its list:

• white (6): Olivia, Ava, Esther, Julia, Chaya, Emma
• Asian (4): Chloe, Tiffany, Fiona, Jessica
• Hispanic (4): Mia, Samantha, Melanie, Jennifer
• black (8): Madison, Jada, Nevaeh, Alyssa, Makayla, Gabrielle, Taylor, Imani

To prove anything you would at least have to look at more years and go deeper in the lists to see if these patterns hold up. You would also have to study just how girl names start and spread.

See also:

• Top American baby names by race
• New York
  • Race in New York
  • Race map of New York