Old-fashioned baby names continue to top charts in Canada year-after-year as parents seek inspiration from days gone by in naming their children.
Noah and Olivia continue to reign in the top spot on Statistics Canada’s annual top 20 list of baby names. Released last week, the top 20 names have a decidedly vintage theme—a trend that has been in place for several years.
Noah has dominated the No. 1 spot for boys names since 2021 while Olivia has been the top girl name since 2016.
Liam was ranked second for boys in 2023, mirroring its 2022 ranking, while Emma remained the second most popular name for baby girls.
Theodore took over the third position for boys, while Charlotte retained a third place ranking for the fourth year in a row.
Leo and Amelia maintained their positions in fourth place, while William fell from third to fifth and Sophia held steady at No. 5.
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Rounding out the top 10 for the boys were Oliver, Lucas, Thomas, Benjamin, and Jack. For the girls it was Mia, Chloe, Mila, Sofia, and Alice.
James took 11th for the boys followed by Jacob, Ethan, Nathan, Adam, Henry, Theo, Logan, Owen, and Arthur.
For the girls, Ava was in 11th place followed by Lily, Isla, Ellie, Evelyn, Zoe, Nora, Sophie, Maya, and Charlie.
StatCan’s annual list is compiled with data from the government’s Canadian Vital Statistics - Birth database and the List of Baby Names by Retraite Québec.
Names receive their ranking based on the number of times a first name was recorded for a baby during the year. With the name Noah, for instance, the name was recorded 2,162 times last year.
Baby Centre Canada says it is no surprise that old-fashioned names have been so popular over the past decade.
“The comeback is partly due to people’s associations with the names. Names that were popular in our parents’ generation are still associated heavily with them,” the centre said in a recent post. “This means that we find it hard to imagine a child with those names. But older names are freed from this link and therefore feel more suitable.”
The popularity of historical TV shows—Downton Abbey, for example—have also lent glamour to names once considered too old-fashioned, the article says.
Given the cyclical nature of name popularity, names from the 1950s like Barbara, Linda, and Robert may top the charts in the next few decades.
