Baby Name: Agaaz

Which names were the trendiest among baby boys born in Canada last year?

Below you’ll find Canada’s fastest-rising and highest-debuting boy names of 2023.

Rises (absolute)

Here are the boy names that saw the biggest increases in usage in terms of absolute change (number of babies) from 2022 to 2023:

1. Zorawar, rose from 152 to 246 baby boys (+94)
2. Myles, 356 to 430 (+74)
3. Henry, 870 to 943 (+73)
4. Maverick, 581 to 649 (+68)
5. Matteo, 410 to 474 (+64)

Maverick may have been influenced by the Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick, which was released in mid-2022. (In the U.S., Maverick was among the fastest-rising boy names of 2022, but not of 2023.)

Rises (relative)

Here are the boy names that saw the biggest increases in usage in terms of relative change (percentage of babies) from 2022 to 2023:

1. Tage, rose from 5 to 41 baby boys (720% increase)
2. Nawab, 10 to 44 (340%)
3. Shubhdeep, 9 to 33 (267%)
4. Dilawar, 5 to 18 (260%)
5. Meir, 6 to 21 (250%)

My best guess regarding Tage — which now ranks 655th in Canada — is hockey player Tage Thompson. He’s an American who’s only ever played on American NHL teams, but his last few seasons (all with the Buffalo Sabres) have been his best yet. (The U.S. usage of Tage more than doubled last year, but the name is still nowhere near the U.S. top 1,000.)

Debuts

Finally, here are the boy names that debuted most impressively in Canada’s baby name data in 2023:

1. Gurnawab, 24 baby boys
2. Agaaz, 18
3. Virasat, 15
4. Iraj, 13 [3-way tie]
5. Manvik, 13 [3-way tie]
6. Vaayu, 13 [3-way tie]

Other boy-name debuts in the Canadian data included Light (8), Acre (7), Pierrot (7), and Jrue (5).

Do you have thoughts/theories about any of the names above?

Sources: First names at birth by sex at birth, selected indicators (Number) – Statistics Canada, Baby Names Observatory – Statistics Canada, Tage Thompson – Wikipedia

Image: Adapted from Turkey-2036 by Dennis Jarvis under CC BY-SA 2.0.