2016 GoobNet Name Championship: Seedings

We are pleased to announce the seeds for the first GoobNet Name Championship, determining the best female name.

The top 64 female names in the US state of California in 2014, according to the United States Social Security Administration, were eligible. The number of girls with each name born in California, and in the United States overall, in 2014 are shown below. We have also attempted to help you out by providing the origin of each name and some prominent examples of each.

As you can see, the regional semifinals and finals are to be hosted by four major literary settings: St Mary Mead, Tara, River Heights, and Wuthering Heights. We will begin the tournament next week right here on GoobNet, so be sure to join us then.

And be sure to start looking at how you’ll fill in your bracket. Are you going to look for famous names in real life [go wild for Olivia], are you going to pick out your favourite fictional characters [team Bella], are you going to select etymologies that speak to you [favour Hannah], or are you going to go all in with your own name [sorry, Wen]?

ST MARY MEAD REGIONAL

Seed	Name	2014 [CA]	2014 [USA]	Origin	Notes
1	Sophia	3,162	18,490	‘Wisdom’ in Greek	Asteroid 251, Brahe, Myles
2	Victoria	1,697	7,955	‘Victory’ in Latin	Asteroid 12, Queen, Spelling; Martian crater
3	Abigail	1,518	11,985	‘My father’s joy’ in Hebrew	Adams, Breslin
4	Natalie	1,066	7,061	‘Christmas’ in Latin	Cole, Merchant, Portman
5	Chloe	1,046	8,469	Epithet of Demeter	Moretz, Sevigny
6	Allison	904	5,440	Variant of ‘Alice’	Jones, Williams
7	Audrey	897	5,531	‘Noble’ in Old English	Hepburn, Richards, Tautou
8	Ella	822	8,489	‘Greece’ in Greek	Asteroid 435, Fitzgerald, Grasso
9	Aubrey	792	7,589	‘Elf ruler’ in Norman French	O’Day, Plaza
10	Maya	698	3,904	‘Generous’ in Old Persian	Angelou, Moore, Rudolph
11	Aaliyah	695	4,850	‘Ascent’ in Hebrew	Haughton
12	Brooklyn	660	6,767	New York City borough	Decker
13	Valentina	642	2,769	Variant of ‘Valeria’	Cortese, Tereshkova
14	Jasmine	591	2,988	Flower	Harman, Thompson; Only qualifying J name
15	Sarah	576	4,647	‘Princess’ in Hebrew	Bernhardt, Michelle Gellar, Jessica Parker; Doctor Who companion Jane Smith
16	Valeria	543	1,882	‘Healthy’ in Latin	Bruni Tedeschi, Kozlova; Most proportionately popular in California amongst top 64: 28.85% of all Valerias born in the US in 2014 came from California

TARA REGIONAL

Seed	Name	2014 [CA]	2014 [USA]	Origin	Notes
1	Mia	2,627	13,442	Variant of ‘Miriam’	Farrow, Hamm; Pulp Fiction character Wallace
2	Olivia	2,407	19,674	‘Olive’ in Latin	Asteroid 835, Newton-John, Wilde; Only qualifying O name
3	Samantha	1,192	5,680	Variant of ‘Samuel’	Bee, Kerr, Power
4	Charlotte	1,118	10,048	‘Petite’ in French	Brontë, Church, Laws; Largest city in North Carolina
5	Scarlett	960	5,965	‘Scarlet cloth seller’	Johansson, Pomers; Gone with the Wind protagonist O’Hara
6	Grace	949	7,554	‘Gracious’ in Latin	Kelly, Metalious, Park; Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment spacecraft
7	Penelope	856	5,062	Odysseus’s wife in The Odyssey	Cruz, Ann Miller, Wilton; Only qualifying P name
8	Alexa	849	4,227	Variant of ‘Alexandra’	Davalos, Havins, Junge
9	Lily	723	6,727	Flower	Aldridge, Tomlin
10	Kimberly	721	2,883	‘Kimber’s meadow’ in Old English	Elise, Kardashian
11	Layla	683	6,428	‘Night’ in Arabic and Hebrew	al-Akhyaliyya, Hanbury
12	Delilah	679	2,496	‘She who weakened’ in Hebrew	Beasley, Luke; Only qualifying D name
13	Savannah	634	5,433	Grassy plain	Guthrie; Oldest city in Georgia
14	Ashley	625	3,539	‘Ash meadow’ in Old English	Madekwe, Olsen, Tisdale; The Young and the Restless character Abbott
15	Nicole	559	2,511	‘Victorious people’ in Greek	Kidman, Lepaute, Parker
16	Luna	556	2,314	‘Moon’ in Latin	More common as surname: Antonio, Braulio, Gabriel

RIVER HEIGHTS REGIONAL

Seed	Name	2014 [CA]	2014 [USA]	Origin	Notes
1	Isabella	2,705	16,950	‘Elizabeth’ in Latin	Asteroid 210, Boylston, Rossellini; Full name of Twilight protagonist Bella Swan; Only qualifying I name
2	Sofia	2,094	9,542	Variant of ‘Sophia’	Coppola, Vergara; Bulgarian capital
3	Camila	1,481	5,194	‘Acolyte’ in Latin	Alves, Giorgi
4	Elizabeth	1,080	9,492	‘My god is abundance’ in Hebrew	Barrett Browning, Queen, Taylor
5	Madison	985	10,247	‘Son of Matthew’	Davenport, Keys; Wisconsin capital
6	Melanie	917	3,681	‘Blackness’ in Greek	Griffith, Mayron, Safka
7	Ariana	893	5,461	‘Land of Aryans’ in Persian	Grande, Reines, Richards
8	Aria	825	5,893	‘Lioness’ in Hebrew	Crescendo, Curzon
9	Amelia	791	8,727	‘Work’ in Germanic	Bloomer, Earhart; Doctor Who companion Pond
10	Bella	702	4,050	‘Beauty’ in Latin	Igla, Thorne; Twilight protagonist Swan
11	Mila	694	4,033	‘Gracious’ in Slavic languages	Gojsalić, Kunis, Mason
12	Hailey	665	4,595	Variant of ‘Hayley’	Duke
13	Ximena	639	2,323	Variant of ‘Simona’	Navarette, Sariñana; Only qualifying X name
14	Andrea	596	2,543	Variant of ‘Andrew’	Ghez, Levy, McArdle
15	Kayla	575	2,982	‘Pure’ in Greek	Ewell, Harrison
16	Eva	544	3,651	Variant of ‘Eve’	Ahnert-Rohlfs, Longoria, Perón

WUTHERING HEIGHTS REGIONAL

Seed	Name	2014 [CA]	2014 [USA]	Origin	Notes
1	Emma	2,662	20,799	‘Whole’ in Germanic	Asteroid 283, Bull, Watson; Jane Austen novel; Most popular female name overall in US in 2014
2	Emily	2,258	12,562	Variant of Roman ‘Æmilia’	Brontë, Deschanel, Dickinson
3	Ava	1,431	15,586	Derived from several Germanic names	Gardner, Leigh
4	Evelyn	1,104	8,692	Variant of ‘Ava’	Asteroid 503, Gandy, Hooker
5	Genesis	974	4,144	‘Origin’ in Greek	Rock returned by Apollo 15 crew; Solar wind sample return spacecraft; Most popular in California amongst names not in nationwide top 64
6	Zoe	922	5,828	‘Life’ in Greek	Empress, Pollock, Saldana
7	Avery	890	9,517	‘Elf ruler’ in Old English	Asteroid 3580; Lunar crater
8	Zoey	827	7,358	Variant of ‘Zoe’	Zoey 101; The West Wing presidential daughter
9	Leah	742	5,563	‘Weary’ in Hebrew	Goldberg, Remini, Song
10	Arianna	708	5,240	Variant of ‘Ariana’	Huffington, Savall
11	Alyssa	690	3,798	‘Not insane’ in Greek	Milano, Reid, Sutherland
12	Hannah	673	6,512	‘He favours me’ in Hebrew	Arendt, Dakota Fanning, Friedman; Girls protagonist Horvath
13	Natalia	638	2,778	Variant of ‘Natalie’	Kills, Lafourcade, Sokol
14	Harper	609	9,564	‘Harp player’ in German	Lee; Least proportionately popular in California amongst top 64: only 6.37% of all Harpers born in the US in 2014 came from California
15	Violet	574	4,156	Flower	Markham, Oakley
16	Brianna	554	3,582	Variant of ‘Brian’	Brown, Keilar

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