The Angel Oak tree on Johns Island near Charleston, S.C., pictured in September 2013.
Bruce Smith/AP
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Bruce Smith/AP
Although Olivia and Liam are the two most popular names for newborns right now, according to data from the Social Security Administration released Friday, another name is rising in popularity, especially in red states. That name is Oaklee, or Oakley, or Oakleigh or a similar variant. The name is usually, but not always, given to girls.
“Clearly, there’s a pattern,” says Dallin D. Oaks, an English linguistics professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, who has written about names, especially among Latter-day Saints. He has reviewed data from red and blue states, as ranked politically by the International Business Times.
“Every one of the top ten red states had either an Oaklynne or an Oakley or both, or something in the top 100 names,” he said. “On the other hand, and in comparison, they were only represented in two of the bluest states I sampled.”
None of this is surprising to Cleveland Evans, a professor and former president of the American Name Society. He clocked the Oaklee trend a few years ago.
“That one is one of those things that is coming out of Utah,” he said. “Utah is sort of an early warning system for things that are going to become popular. This has to do with Latter-day Saint culture, or Mormon culture. They are people who use unusual names.”
Examples include Jaden and Kaden as well as Oaklynne and Oakleigh, he says. And as to why so many popular ones have emerged from LDS culture?
“I could speculate,” says Oaks. “We have more kids than some other states.”
Also, he joked, possibly more online influencers. Oaks points out that oak-based names are rising in popularity not just in red states, but across the country, and the most popular names tend to be similar, state-to-state. But an affinity for oak-based names in more conservative parts of the country is clear.
“I’m staring at a huge live oak tree out my window right now,” says Tyson Oak Carver, who lives in Canyon Lake, Texas. He was born in 1982, which makes him something of an elder Oak. “We’ve got them all over the place. So that is something that people see around here, is these large oak trees.”
Carver says his parents liked nature-based names. And there’s something stately and established about oaks. Their roots run deep. When Oaklee Grant was growing up in Hardtner, Kan., in the 1990s, her main associations with her name were the sunglasses brand and gunslinger Annie Oakley. But she says she was named after her grandfather and an uncle.
“We love to keep these names in the family,” she said, adding that she also loves that oak trees stand for sturdy, steadfast faith. “Oak can be used as a metaphor for God’s people planted by Him to display His glory. I like that. I like that a lot.”
Oaklee Grant says she has always been proud of her name, even when hers was the only oak-based name she knew. Now, she sees lots of other people naming their children Oaklee, Oakley and Oakleigh. But when it came time to name her own child, Grant picked something a little bit more uncommon. Her daughter’s name is Nova.
