Most popular baby names in Canada

Early in the new year, agencies tabulate the names of newborns in each province, and the country.

This year, as an example in the western prairie province of Saskatchewan,  the provincial government website says the most popular name for baby boys in 2013 was Liam. The site notes this is the fourth consecutive year that Liam topped the boys list. For the fifth consecutive year Emma was the most popular name for girls. Following Liam as top boys name was Carter, then Noah, Lucas, and Ethan.  For girls, the second most popular was Sophia, then Emily, Olivia, and Lily.

Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, also released its list this week. For the sixth year, Olivia was the most popular girl’s name, followed by Emma, Sophia, Ava, and Emily. For boys Liam was the top pick for the second year, followed by Ethan, Jacob, Lucas, and Benjamin.

Across the north, in the Yukon, Liam and Ava were the top names, the Northwest territories bucked the trend slightly with Matthew as top boy’s name, but Emma was the top girl’s name, while for Nunavut no data was available

In west coast British Columbia, Ethan was tops followed by Liam for boys,  with Olivia followed by Emma for girls

However next door in Alberta, it was reversed with Liam then Ethan, and Emma then Olivia

Manitoba had Liam first then Ethan, and Emily followed by Emma

Quebec releases its statistics only in April, but for the mostly French-speaking province in 2012 the top names were surprisingly English, with top boys name as William, and Emma coming in first for girls names.

The maritime province of New Brunswick had Liam and Emma topping the list. Nova Scotia followed the trend with Liam and Olivia, while the Atlantic province of Newfoundland and Labrador bucked the trend slightly with Jaxon as top name for boys. Ava was the tops for girls with Emma second.

No data was available for Prince Edward Island