Naming a child is arguably one of the more difficult decisions a new parent will have to make and it was faced more than 50,000 times throughout the province last year.
While some parents chose to stick with the tried and tested names of Olivia and Liam – both names reached No. 1 this year and have ranked in the top 10 for a handful of years – some decided to take a bit more of a risk.
“There’s plenty of examples of unique names Albertans come up with,” said Mike Berezowsky, communications official with Service Alberta. “Every year, we see quite the range. In past years, we’ve seen things like Optimus.”
The “one-of-a-kind” names this year include things like Jäger, Solo and Tuff for boys and Meta, Siri and Tuba for girls.
Prince William and Kate Middleton’s royal visit in July last year left an impression on some expectant parents, with many monarchy-inspired names making the list.
Service Alberta does not ask parents for an explanation of why they chose a particular name, but Berezowsky said the connection is sometimes obvious.
“When we see a boy named Princewill, that does tend to be a pretty strong indicator that the parents were thinking of the Prince,” he said.
While William and Kate were both popular names, some parents chose a somewhat more unique approach with names like Prince, Princess and even Princewill and Pippa. Among the list of monarchy-inspired names were Kaiser, Duke, Malik, Sultan, Mirza and Sovereign.
“It was an honour for Alberta to host the royal newlyweds last July on their first official tour as a married couple,” Manmeet Bhullar, Service Alberta minister, said in a news release. “The duke and duchess were warmly received by our province and it’s no surprise that parents would want to name their children after a couple who showed such care for Albertans, particularly in Slave Lake.”
Berezowsky said pop culture tends to have an impact on baby names, adding this year it was the royal visit, while in past years it’s been things like box office releases, television sitcoms, sports and even politics.
“There does seem to be a correlation with things. Jennifer Aniston’s character on Friends, Rachel, she had a daughter (named) Emma and that name seemed to become a lot more popular at that time,” he said.
One Alberta family chose the name Optimus for their son, which came at the time of the Transformers movie release in 2007. National Hockey League star Eric Lindros seemed to have inspired a name in 2009, with one family naming their son Ericlindros. Barack Obama’s election to president of the United States of America even spurred one family to name their son Obama.
“It’s just one, so it’s not making a huge impact, but there are names that come up,” Berezowsky said. “Pop culture does have an impact, I’m not sure just how much.”
A total of 50,592 babies were born in Alberta last year — a number that is slightly less than 2010. The 2009 record of 51,498 went unmatched for the second year.
Service Alberta recorded 6,994 different girls’ names and 5,695 different names for boys.
