Yesterday we came up with some girl names that were either particularly Canadian or particularly American. So today let’s do the same thing for boy names.
Again, here are the two different methods:
First, we’ll look at the most popular names that appeared in only one set of data (either Canada or the U.S.) in 2022.
Second, we’ll look at the names that appeared in both sets of data, focusing on how proportionally popular each name was in each place. For the boy names below, I calculated the proportions by dividing each name’s U.S. usage by the total number of boys born in the U.S. last year (1,863,582) and each name’s Canadian usage by the total number of boys born Canada last year (180,763).
Top Canada-only boy names
The 2022 Canadian data included 261 boy names that were not in the U.S. data. Below are the 10 most popular Canada-only boy names.
| Number of boys (Can.) | Rank (Can.) | |
| 1. Edouard | 492 | 49th |
| 2. Arnaud | 352 | 85th |
| 3. Florent | 73 | 394th |
| 4. Laurier | 60 | 460th |
| 5. Loik | 57 | 485th |
| 6. Ludovick | 45 | 588th |
| 7. Renaud | 42 | 627th |
| 8. Gregoire | 30 | 831st |
| 9. Charles-Edouard | 27 (tie) | 902nd (tie) |
| 10. Gurniwaz | 27 (tie) | 902nd (tie) |
Nine out of ten are French names used primarily in Quebec:
- Edouard: 482 of 492 born in Quebec
- Arnaud: 349 of 352
- Florent: 71 of 73
- Laurier: 60 of 60 (all)
- Loik: 47 of 57
- Ludovick: 45 of 45 (all)
- Renaud: 40 of 42
- Gregoire: 30 of 30 (all)
- Charles-Edouard: 25 of 27
The Sikh name Gurniwaz, however, was not used in Quebec at all.
Boy names particularly popular in Canada
Now let’s look at the more than 2,950 boy names that appeared in both sets of data. Of the boy names used more frequently in Canada than in the U.S., the 10 below had the largest pro-Canada differentials. (I added the rankings for both countries as well.)
| Differential (Pro-Can.) | Rank (Can.) | Rank (U.S.) | |
| 1. Leo | 0.3578% | 4th | 22nd |
| 2. Adam | 0.3460% | 16th | 97th |
| 3. Felix | 0.3408% | 23rd | 192nd |
| 4. Theo | 0.3217% | 17th | 99th |
| 5. Thomas | 0.3197% | 8th | 45th |
| 6. Arthur | 0.3030% | 22nd | 140th |
| 7. Nathan | 0.2830% | 13th | 57th |
| 8. Muhammad | 0.2675% | 35th | 297th |
| 9. Louis | 0.2576% | 34th | 246th |
| 10. Emile | 0.2473% | 60th | 2,076th |
Top U.S.-only boy names
The 2022 U.S. data included 11,297 boy names that were not in the Canadian data. Below are the 10 most popular U.S.-only boy names.
| Number of boys (U.S.) | Rank (U.S.) | |
| 1. Jesus | 2,247 | 165th |
| 2. Iker | 830 | 385th |
| 3. Jaziel | 779 | 412th |
| 4. Baker | 709 | 433rd |
| 5. Major | 701 | 441st |
| 6. Marcos | 614 | 491st |
| 7. Roberto | 607 | 498th |
| 8. Jamari | 577 | 512th |
| 9. Tadeo | 567 | 519th |
| 10. Jamir | 555 | 534th |
Many of these are used primarily by Spanish speakers.
Boy names particularly popular in the U.S.
Now, back to the names that both countries had in common. Of the boy names used more frequently in the U.S. than in Canada, the 10 below had the largest pro-U.S. differentials.
| Differential (Pro-U.S.) | Rank (U.S.) | Rank (Can.) | |
| 1. Elijah | 0.3147% | 5th | 37th |
| 2. Mateo | 0.2833% | 11th | 50th |
| 3. Santiago | 0.2620% | 48th | 285th |
| 4. Sebastian | 0.2584% | 13th | 62nd |
| 5. Angel | 0.2474% | 62nd | 603rd |
| 6. Julian | 0.2467% | 35th | 125th |
| 7. John | 0.2219% | 26th | 80th |
| 8. Josiah | 0.2152% | 51st | 199th |
| 9. Michael | 0.2143% | 16th | 52nd |
| 10. Christopher | 0.1936% | 56th | 179th |
What are your thoughts on the names above?
Sources:
- Canada: First names at birth by sex at birth, selected indicators (Number) – StatCan, The Daily – Births, 2022 – StatCan, List of Baby Names – Retraite Québec
- USA: Beyond the Top 1000 Names – SSA, Social Security number holders – SSA
Image: Adapted from Sunrise at Maligne lake 2 by Sergey Pesterev under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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