Although the number of babies born in Alberta hit an all-time high in 2012, with 52,398 births, St. Paul saw a slight decrease in babies born at the local hospital, with 220 births in 2012, compared to 239 in 2011.
Last week, the Government of Alberta released its annual baby names statistics, which also includes statistics such as the number of boys and girls born in Alberta. According to the press release, there were 27,030 boys born and 25,368 girls born in 2012.
As for names, Liam was again the number one boy’s name chosen by parents, with 281 choosing it for their children. On the girl’s side, Emma took the lead as the most popular name, with 299 families choosing it in 2012.
Other popular boy’s names include Ethan, Jacob, Logan, Mason, Benjamin, Lucas, Alexander, Carter, and Noah. The other top girl’s names were Olivia, Emily, Sophia, Ava, Lily, Ella, Isabella, Abigail, and Chloe.
For local couple Melissa and Alain Mahe, inspiration for choosing a name for their daughter Emily Marie didn’t come from a list. Although the name Emily does appear as one of the most popular names in 2012, “popularity didn’t really matter to me,” says Melissa.
She adds that she and her husband chose Emily’s grandmothers’ middle names, to make up their daughter’s name.
“We thought it was nice that we could use family names,” said Melissa.
Jodie Garner says she also looked to her family for inspiration in naming her son, Nolan, who was born in May of 2012. Although choosing a girl’s name came rather easy for her and her husband, choosing a boy’s name was a little trickier.
In the end, they chose Nolan, after Jodie’s little brother Dwight Nolan Garner.
She says her younger brother “has always been a big part of my life and he will always have a extra special place in our hearts. So, naming our son after him gave them (Dwight and Nolan) a jump-start at having their own special connection and bond as well,” says Jodie.
And it seems as if everyone has a slightly different story for choosing a name for their child.
Natalie and Marc Béland welcomed their son in November of 2012 and chose the name Éliott after finding it on a baby names website from France.
“We were looking for a name that sounded good in English and in French,” says Natalie. The spelling of the name is based on its Hebrew origin, Eli, which means “Lord is my God.”
Marc and Natalie have four children and for each child they wanted to have names that were easy to pronounce, not too common, but also not too rare.
Carmen Penner says that her daughter’s name, Ellawyn Gail, came from a creative combination by her husband. Although Carmen really liked the name Ella, she didn’t want her daughter to be nicknamed “Ella P” if there happened to be another Ella in her class while growing up.
“So, my husband made up a name with two names, Ella and Wynn,” says Carmen. The middle name Gail is the same as Carmen’s middle name.
After scouring baby name lists while pregnant, and being adamant that her child not be referred to by his or her last name in school, Leah Breckenridge says it didn’t matter what names she suggested for their future girl.
Once her husband settled on the name Kendra, there was no convincing him otherwise.
Lenore Cardinal’s son Tavares was also born in 2012 and received his unique name because Tavares’ father is a fan of NHL player John Tavares, who plays for the New York Islanders.
“I let his father choose his name,” says Lenore, adding, she chose her son’s middle name, Paul, because that is Tavares’ father’s middle name.
In its press release the province says it appears that Alberta is in a “sustained baby boom.”
Like every year, the release also includes a number of unique names parents are choosing for the newest Albertans. “Place names” such as Cairo, Boston, Rio, and Israel were chosen for boys, while Montana, Alabama, Jersey, Germany and even Alberta, were chosen for girls.
“One-of-a-kind” names such as Dancing-Sunflower, Rhaney-Day, Shy-Angel, Beautiful and Skeeter was recorded for girls, and Thunderbolt, Little, Icarus, and Brave were chosen as boy names.
The name Brooklyn also appeared, but had a variety of spelling combinations, with at least five different versions appearing last year.
Another trend that appeared was parents taking inspiration from musicians, and names like Lennon, Hendrix and even Minaj appeared on the 2012 baby names list.
The double hyphenation of names also made an appearance in names such as Margret-Joan-Jean.
