EDMONTON — The results are in from the cradle: Olivia and Noah are the repeat champions for baby names in Alberta.
Olivia was the most popular for 236 newborn girls in 2020 — the top pick eight years in a row.
“This is longer than any other girl's name being in the No. 1 spot since at least 1980,” Service Alberta Minister Nate Glubish said Tuesday when he released the names.
Noah, chosen 239 times, was tops on the boys list for the second straight year.
Emma, Charlotte, Ava and Sophia rounded out the five favourite names for girls, while Oliver, Liam, Benjamin and William did the same on the boys side.
Glubish said Alberta families registered 13,390 different names for the 49,000 children born last year.
In a year made unlike any other by COVID-19, positivity seemed to be a popular theme: Hope, Peace, Faith, Charity, Joy, Happy and Brave all appeared on the list of registered names.
Some names reflected Alberta’s cultural and ethnic diversity: Amara, Amaya, Zahra, Zoya, Baani, Bodhi, Yusuf, Zorawar, Arjun, Gurbaaz, Miguel, Abdul and Idris.
Girl names also included Yoyo, Rocket and Rainbow.
And on the boys side, there were Skydancer and StormRyder, Karma and Knowledge.
For Hollywood fans, there were 56 Rhetts to 101 Scarletts, 14 Brads to seven Angelinas, 92 Lukes to eight Leias (no Darths), six Emmys, 36 Oscars and one gal named Friday.
And in the province where hockey superstar Connor McDavid plays for the Edmonton Oilers, 54 boys born last year share his first name.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2021.
The Canadian Press
