Last week, as you recall (I hope), I issued my annual deep dive into baby boy names of 2022 in Alberta. This week, let’s check out the ‘babies born as female’ names.
For the record, the top names this year were Olivia, Sophia, Emma, Amelia, Harper, Charlotte, Ava, Isla, Lily and Chloe. Eight of the top 10 were the same as last year; in fact, with the exception of two spots, the names have remained the same for the last decade. Soooo many Olivias.
There was plenty of, shall we say, imagination elsewhere on the list; there were more than 6,800 different names last year.
Names starting with A were hugely popular, with more than 1,000, the runaway alphabet leader. (To my surprise, there was an Alphonsine this year, which was my grandmother’s name and it seems nobody else since.) The names of my youth have almost vanished. Every boomer knew at least one Debbie; last year, just two were given that quintessentially 1960s name. My sisters’ names, all very much of the Baby Boom era, are on life support: Renee (4), Diane (4), Teresa (4) and Suzanne (1). Other classic baby boom names (Sharon, Debbie, Barbara) made token appearances. And thanks to its association with being labeled the name of entitled white women, Karen has disappeared.
Just like boys, there were plenty of girls named after mostly American places. I’ll bet there were more girls named Brooklyn (49) in Alberta last year than there were in, well, Brooklyn. We also have Memphis, Oakland, Montana, Cheyenne, Alaska, Daytona, Indiana, Arizona and Kansas. For those who wanted a more classy European feel, there’s Oslo, Paris, Ireland, and lots of Londons.
But no Alberta.
As you might expect, ethnic names abound. There were 25 girls named Ajooni, which is of Indian origin. There were 27 different names that start with the unusual letter combo of ‘Olu’, which, Google tells me, is associated with the Yoruba ethnic group of Africa. The names are all tongue-twisters to my old white man’s tongue, with Oluwafioyinsaiyemi the champion (although Ifeoluwasimikitasn is a close second).
The fun of the names list comes from the dozens of ‘what were they thinking’ names, a few of which I present for your edification now.
I feel for the baby named Baby; one doubts there will be a prime minister named Baby. Birdie seems doomed to be called flighty for the rest of her life, and when Briar is in a bad mood, she’ll be called prickly.
Calliope (and/or Kalliope) is historically a Greek muse, but also a machine that makes music using gas. I hope Chardonnay develops a thick skin; the jokes that will follow ‘I’ll have a Chardonnay’ will get old pretty quick. Same goes for Pandora. And let’s hope Touba stays slim.
Looking up to the stars, we have Cassiopeia and Midnightsky and Morningstar. There’s a Hawwii and an Hawwinaau, a Beige and a Lavender, a Divinewonder and a Divinity-Bless. There’s a Rhythm, and a Rhyxhyly. One little girl has two last names (Rodriguez-Hernandez) as her first name, while another is just H.
There’s Passion and Patience. Rhythm and Rhyxhyly. Roosevelt and Pearson. Woojoo and Whispr. Xya and Yzzabella.
But as always, there are standouts, two names where you wonder why somebody didn’t take the parents aside and say ‘Are you sure?’, or ‘Let me explain some things to you ..’
One is Female. That’s it, just Female.
The other is truly unfortunate, a name I assume is perfectly fine in its native tongue, but open to mispronunciation in English.
Poor little Aasdeep.
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