Travel destinations inspire U.S. baby names

Hudson and Sydney are the two most popular travel-inspired names for American baby boys and baby girls, respectively, according to new research from Bounce.

The travel and luggage experts analyzed baby name data from the past two decades to uncover the travel destinations inspiring baby name choices across the U.S.

Hudson, derived from the famous Hudson River in New York, has been a popular choice for parents since the turn of the century, with more than 77,000 boys born since 2000 in the U.S. given this name. Meanwhile, Sydney, inspired by Australia’s famous harbor city, has been given to 107,000 baby girls since 2000 — the same year Sydney hosted the Summer Olympics.

For boys, Preston — an English name with roots in the town of Preston in Lancashire, England as well as cities in Connecticut and Idaho — and Camden, a London borough and city in New Jersey, have als proven popular, popping up 58,384 times and 48,257 times since 2000, respectively.

Dakota, Kingston, Israel, Devon, Dallas, Phoenix and Orlando round out the 10 most popular travel-inspired names for baby boys.

For girls, Brooklyn (104,566) and Alexandria (42,010) are the most popular following Sydney, proving that the famous New York City borough and ancient Egyptian city are still inspiring U.S. parents. Trailing Sydney, Brooklyn and Alexandria are London, Dakota, Paris, Carolina, Guadalupe, Journey and Adelaide.

Bounce’s research required experts to source the total number of babies born with each travel-inspired name in the U.S. between 2000 and 2021 with data from the U.S. Census Bureau. From there, it created a list of potential travel-related baby names using inspirations including country names, capitals, rivers, mountains, travel-related terms, and major cities and travel destinations.