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Baby names more unique than ever
Victoria Handysides
News Staff
Friday February 01, 2008 Babies are booming in the province and the list of names was longer and more unique than ever in 2007– literally. Among the list is one of the province’s newest little residents, a baby girl named Unique.
The province welcomed 48,589 new babies in 2007; 24,748 boys and 23,841 girls. There haven’t been this many new faces in one year since 1983, when 45,465 little bundles of joy were born. The number is also 20 per cent higher than four years ago, and eight per cent higher than last year.
If you think that Unique is a strange moniker for a little girl, the rest of the list might surprise you.
Among the most interesting names for girls in 2007 were Princess, Psalms, Rhapsody, Oakley, Kalifornia, God’s, Morning Star, Evening, Elektra, Creedance, Cassiopeia, Breaze, Blessing, Brazil, Cerenity, Chaos and Raenbow-Roze. There were also three Harley’s, seven Lexus’ and 22 Mercedes’.
There was no shortage of uncommon names for little boys in 2007 either. Topping the list is an Adonis, Blue-Quill, Corny, Felony, Furious, Geronimo, Gretzky, Hinton, Jackpine, Jesus, Kajun, Ivy, Little, Maxxamillion, Milwaukee, Obsidian-Angel, Rainbow, Salmon, Slim, Stylez, Tao and Zero. There were also three Blazes, two Husseins and a whopping 174 babies named, well, Baby.
Ethan took top spot for boy’s names for the seventh year in a row, chosen for 373 bouncing babies.
For the second year in a row, Ava took top spot for little girls, with 246 new little Albertans.
Nathan, Carter and William were dropped from the boys top 10 list this year, replaced by Alexander, Owen and Samuel.
Grace and Ella were booted from the top 10 girls list, replaced by Hailey and Sophia.
Service Alberta recorded 5,134 distinctly unique names for boys in 2007, and 6,440 distinct names for girls.
Unique spellings created some of the unique names, with a variation of similar-sounding titles spelled completely different. Keatan, Keaten, Keatyn, Keetan, Kaeton, Keiton and Kieton were some of the homonym-friendly of the boys names, and Maddesyn, Maddison, Maddyson, Madisen, Madison, Madisyn, Madisynne, Madysen, Madysn, Madyson and Madysun were some variations of the popular girls name.
The rise in the number of new babies in the province can be attributed to the rise in the general population of Alberta. The numbers are predicted to rise continually as the population welcomes a higher number of immigrants.
For more information on naming your new baby, or on the statistics of babies in the province, check out www.servicealberta.gov.ab.ca and look at Vital Statistics.
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