According to data released on December 30th by British Columbia’s Vital Statistics Agency, the most popular baby names in the province in 2015 were Emma and Oliver.
Here are British Columbia’s top 10 girl names and top 10 boy names of 2015:
Girl Names
1. Emma, 258 baby girls
2. Olivia, 256
3. Emily, 183
4. Sophia, 173
5. Ava, 163
6. Chloe, 159
7. Charlotte, 155
8. Abigail, 150
9. Amelia, 140
10. Ella, 133
Boy Names
1. Oliver, 217 baby boys
2. Ethan, 206
3. Liam, 203
4. Benjamin, 201
5. Lucas, 193
6. Alexander, 183 (tie)
7. Jacob, 183 (tie)
8. Mason, 177
9. William, 173
10. Hunter, 169
On the girls’ list, Emma replaced Olivia as the #1 name and Ella replaced Lily in the top 10.
On the boys’ list, Oliver replaced Ethan as the #1 name; Alexander and Hunter replaced Noah and Logan in the top 10.
BC Vital Statistics also attempted to come up with rankings that combined variant spellings:
Girl Names (spellings combined)
1. Emma
2. Olivia
3. Sophia/Sofia
4. Emily/Emilee/Emilie
5. Amelia/Emelia/Emilia
Boy Names (spellings combined)
1. Jackson/Jaxon/Jaxson
2. Lucas/Lukas
3. Oliver
4. Ethan
5. Liam
But combining spellings isn’t as straightforward as it might seem. For instance, if “Amelia” is combined with “Emilia” (which is actually in the Emily family) then why wasn’t “Alivia” combined with “Olivia”? That would boost Olivia/Alivia into the #1 spot. And should “Eva” go with “Ava,” since they’re occasionally pronounced the same way…?
Here are some names from the other end of the rankings, each used just five times in 2015:
- Girl Names: Anahat, Avreet, Bronwyn, Calla, Clementine, Deanna, Gaia, Harseerat, Jayla, Karis, Lynn, Mae, Mehar, Mirabelle, Ocean, Sailor, Senna, Sahej
- Boy Names: Andrei, Apollo, Boaz, Brighton, Cory, Dorian, Elio, Fergus, Haroon, Indy, Jimmy, Jodh, Luciano, Nigel, Pasha, Stellan, Trent, Viraj
The news release also mentioned that the top names of 2016 would likely be Olivia and Lucas (according to data covering the year up to December 12). Here are the 2014 rankings.
Sources: British Columbia’s top baby names for 2015, Baby’s Most Chosen Names in British Columbia, 2015
