Emma's on top

As promised, here are the most popular girls' names by state in 2005 (Boys' names are here.) Massachusetts isn't such an outlier in this category: We have the same favorite, Emma, as does the US as a whole. It is surprising, though, that we line up with Idaho and Utah rather than New Jersey and New York; there can't be too many instances of this happening. Olivia is big in Connecticut and Rhode Island, perhaps because of Italian-American influence. And Madison seems to be popular in the Appalachias, at least the southern half from West Virginia to Mississippi.