Canada is home to approximately 1.6 million families with young children. While every family is different and parents come from all walks of life, they have each shared the special experience of choosing a name for their child.
Among the 46,496 distinct baby names chosen in 2023, what do the numbers tell us?
Table 1 Top 10 baby names, boys and girls, Canada, 2023
Description - Top 10 baby names, boys and girls, Canada, 2023
The title of this table is “Top 10 baby names, boys and girls, Canada, 2023.”
This is a table that lists the top 10 baby names, for boys and girls, in Canada in 2023.
Noah ranked first for boys, and Olivia ranked first for girls.
Liam ranked second for boys, and Emma ranked second for girls.
Theodore ranked third for boys, and Charlotte ranked third for girls.
Leo ranked fourth for boys, and Amelia ranked fourth for girls.
William ranked fifth for boys, and Sophia ranked fifth for girls.
Oliver ranked sixth for boys, and Mia ranked sixth for girls.
Lucas ranked seventh for boys, and Chloe ranked seventh for girls.
Thomas ranked eight for boys, and Mila ranked eight for girls.
Benjamin ranked ninth for boys, and Sofia ranked ninth for girls.
Jack ranked tenth for boys, and Alice ranked tenth for girls.
Source(s): Table 17-10-0147-01.
These days, girl names ending in “a” are all the rage: Olivia, Emma, Amelia, Sophia, Mia, Mila and Sofia were among the top 10 girl names for babies born in 2023. Some of these names are veterans of the popularity ranks: Olivia has been the number one girl name for eight years in a row and has ranked among the top 10 girl names since 2001. The second-most popular girl name, Emma, has placed among the top 10 girl names for even longer, since 1998, or the last 26 years.
In addition to sharing the “a” ending, several of the top-ranked girl names are very similar to one another. In total, 1,938 baby girls were named either Sophia or Sofia in 2023, together outnumbering the current champion, Olivia (1,650). Similarly, the names Mia (924) and Mila (915) differ by only a single letter and were nearly equal in terms of popularity.
Compared with the girl names, the most fashionable boy names have less of a common thread. That said, most of the top boy names last year were shared with our neighbour to the south: Noah, Liam, Theodore, William, Oliver and Lucas ranked among the top 10 names in both Canada and the United States in 2023. Like Emma, William appears to have become a modern-day classic, having placed in the top 10 boy names for the last 27 years.
Table 2 Biggest jumps in popularity of baby names from 2022 to 2023, boys and girls, Canada
Description - Biggest jumps in popularity of baby names from 2022 to 2023, boys and girls, Canada
The title of this table is “Biggest jumps in popularity from 2022 to 2023, baby boy names and baby girl names, Canada.”
This is a table that lists the five-greatest jumps in popularity for baby boy names and baby girl names from 2022 to 2023.
Baby boy names:
Noah was ranked 120th in 2022 and 87th in 2023.
Ibrahim was ranked 130th in 2022 and 100th in 2023.
Miles was ranked 66th in 2022 and 44th in 2023.
Matteo was ranked 70th in 2022 and 48th in 2023.
Myles was ranked 83rd in 2022 and 62nd in 2023.
Baby girl names:
Rehmat was ranked 179th in 2022 and 97th in 2023.
Kiara was ranked 158th in 2022 and 99th in 2023.
Amira was ranked 144th in 2022 and 94th in 2023.
Margot was ranked 105th in 2022 and 73rd in 2023.
Maeve was ranked 64th in 2022 and 40th in 2023.
Source(s): Table 17-10-0147-01.
Note(s): The biggest jumps are restricted to names which ranked the 100 most frequent for boys or girls in 2023.
While some names have enjoyed sustained popularity, others saw their popularity soar last year. Among the top 100 boy names in 2023, the biggest jumps in popularity from 2022 were recorded for Zayn, Ibrahim, Miles, Matteo and Myles. For girls, Rehmat, Kiara, Amira, Margot and Maeve made the largest moves up the rankings.
We invite you to see how your own name measures up in the Baby Names Observatory, an interactive data visualization tool that is updated each year along with the release of new births data.
With this tool, you can search for a particular first name of interest and see how its popularity has changed over time, as well as view the top 20 names for boys and girls in each year from 1991 to 2023.
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