The most popular baby names chosen by new parents in 2022 has been released by Statistics Canada, with the name Noah for boys and Olivia for girls each taking the respective top spot.
There is some growing diversity in baby names being chosen, the agency said, noting that unique or rare names accounted for 86 percent of all baby names in 2022. Rare is defined as fewer than five children with the same name.
StatCan found there has been a 31 percent increase in the diversity of names, with the number of baby names chosen by parents in the last 30 years increasing from 33,940 in 1992 to 44,545 in 2022.
A number of names have enjoyed a jump in popularity. For example, the boy’s name Oliver and girl’s name Lily both jumped four spots in just one year, while a few new names joined the top 100 for the first time in 2022, including Wren for girls and Luka, Leon, Jules, Milo, and Weston for boys.
In terms of popularity, the boy’s name Leon went from 118th place in 2021 to 86th in 2022, while Ali climbed from 97 to 125 and Cooper from 90 to 116. Other boy’s names, including Rowan, Charlie, Luke, and Sebastian, also made notable jumps in popularity year over year.
Various Provincial Rules
Some provinces have restrictions on what parents can name their children. In Alberta, a baby name “may be denied if it is confusing, embarrassing to any other person, misleading or defrauding the public or, in general is determined to be: offensive on any other grounds,” according to the government.All given and last names must begin with a letter and may contain non-consecutive hyphens, apostrophes, and periods. The name must use the standard English alphabet of 26 letters. Greek letters, Inuit letters, Arabic script, or Kanji are not acceptable, and neither are pictograms, codes, hieroglyphics, or actual numbers.
Alberta will also register a new baby’s last name as the last name of each parent hyphenated in alphabetical order if for any reason parents cannot agree on a last name for their baby.
