Top Baby Names of 2022 Revealed by Statistics Canada

The most popular baby names chosen by new parents in 2022 was Noah for boys and Olivia for girls, Statistics Canada says. Prostock-studio/Shutterstock

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.

The “Baby Names Observatory“ report shows the name Olivia has taken the top spot for most of the last decade, except in 2015 when Emma took first place, moving up from second position. Olivia and Emma have been competing for the top spot in girl’s names since 2003.

For boys, Noah has taken top spot for the last two years and has been in the top 10 list for the last 18 years, Statistics Canada said in a social media infographic released on Sept. 27.

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.

The girl’s name Wren went from 114th spot in 2021 to rank at 83 in 2022, while Blake went from 96 to 117 and Eloise from 69 to 79. Freya took 87th place from its previous 100th spot, while Athena rose from 79 to 91 and Gabriella from 93 to 105.

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.

In British Columbia, children must have a given name (first name) and a last name, and while the child can have one or more middle names, the child’s last name (surname) cannot be more than two names combined together. Saskatchewan has the same rule and also specifies that baby names must be written in the Roman Alphabet.

Manitoba has few restrictions on allowing parents to name their child, allowing accents from English or French, hyphens, apostrophes.

In November 2022, after a First Nations mother raised concerns about how her daughter’s traditional name was changed on the birth certificate, Manitoba introduced an amendment to the Vital Statistics Act which would expand the rules of name registration to include a wider range of characters and names to reflect traditional indigenous and other cultures and languages.

Quebec’s civil code mandates that parents can only give their child one last name, composed of less than two parts. If the parents have a compound surname name, they must agree on which parts to use for their child’s surname.