What's your source for this information? Last night on the game show $1,000,000 Money Drop they claimed the top name for boys was Jacob.

The Regina Leader Post says top name is Ethan followed by Jacob

Popularity of names changes.  You never hear of John now but one time it was the top name.  And Joseph was right up there, especially among RC.   And forty years ago almost every family had a Mark.  

Mary had a long run as the top name for girls.   Mary, Marie, Marian, Miriam.    And what happened to Elizabeth?  It had a brief resurgence a few years ago.  But at one time you could find Liz, Lizzy, Beth, Betty, Eliza, Lise, and even Isabel and Bell - all short for or derived from Elizabeth. 

Margaret was another favourite in its many forms:   Marg, Maggie, Margie, Madge, Peg and Peggy.

I see Rachel has recently dropped from the list for girls names.  As has Miriam - both popular ten or fifteen years ago.  

It is interesting that over half of the top names today are found in the Bible. 

O... well... if the Regina Leader Post says it's so, it must be. Do they cite a source for their story?

MorningCalm, I just did a quick search on the Regina Leader-Post website and found this story which clearly sources their information: www.leaderpost.com/life/Individualism+inspires+unusual+baby+names/4113504/story.html

I sometimes go here to play around.  You can track names through the years to see what was popular when, or ask it to choose a  name for you!  Maybe you want a name for a boy starting with a particular letter or something - just enter the info.

http://www.babynamewizard.com/namevoyager.html/

Thank you, somegal. I was having a hard time loading it.

 At our age, Namana and I are unlikely to have to worry about finding a name for a baby. At least not unless we start thinking about our cat as our baby. Actually we have just been through that  and come up with the name Brochan-Noah.

I see that Noah is in the top 10. But very few are coming up with the good old Gaelic name Brochan. The cat showed up his own, looking for a place to survive the winter. So we are giving Brochan-Noah shelter in our barn, food on our doorstep and a name which I found by Googling Gaelic names.

Thank you for the link somegal. It turns out the source is a for-profit magazine, Today's Parent. Without any official statistical source being given, for all we know TP simply made a list of their favorite kids names off the top of their collective head. It would explain such a name as Ethan being given the number one spot.

And jae what is the source the game show used?

I just went on www.todaysparent.com looked up the statistics for my province and the names I see listed sound pretty true to me. I work with kids - usually school aged, but occasionally younger. Between work and church I would guess that I probably know over 200 kids including at least one of all but three of the names on our provincial list - and multiple of many of them.

In Alberta, Ethan has been the top name from 2001-2009 (I didn't see info for 2010):

www.servicealberta.ca/1163.cfm

It's a very different list than when I was a kid. My real-life first name is David and I was doomed to have at least 3 Davids (self included) in every class throughout grades K-8. My son rarely has classmates named David, but has known at least 3 Joshuas. He also has plenty of non-English names in his classes since the school is in a part of London with a fair number of immigrants (vs. my elementary school in Kitchener in the 1970s which was pretty much all Anglo-Canadians of European descent).

Mendalla

 When I was in school, there were many Mikes, Daves and Robs.   For girls it was Karen, Kathy, and Lisa.(grad '86)

I have no idea.

WHAT?!?!?! Where the duce is Tyson.  Best.....Name.....EVAR!!!

Do children no longer carry the family name?   I was given the same name as my grandmother and greatgrandmother - although my grandmother used a shortened form.   My sister was named after Mom's sister - and she named one of her children after Mom. 

My grandson carries the name of his father's brother (who died a few years before grandson's birth) and his mother's brother (who lives on the other side of the world. 

Although both our children were named our favourite names, both carry a family name as their second name.  If the baby I miscarried had been born a boy, he would have been named after his great grandfather - a name that has been in almost every generation in the family for centuries, and a name that I happen to like very much. 

I think this is much more common, seeler.  My first name is a favourite of my Dad's.  My middle name is shared with people on both sides of my family - my Dad's mum, my Mom's sister, my Mom's favourite aunt, my Mom's grandma, and more!

My older sister's name is a version of my Mom's name (Meaghan from Margaret) and her middle name is a version of my Dad's middle name (Christine from Christopher).  My younger siblings have meaningful family middle names as well.  I think this  is a tradition that is likely to carry on into the next generation of our family.

I agree Hilary. My first name was a favourite of my Dad's, but my middle name came from my Mom's favourite Aunt. I was lucky enough to get to meet her once and she seemed like a lovely woman. Coincidentally, after I was born, one of my Dad's brother's got married to a woman with the same name - so now it's on both sides of the family. As for me, if I ever have kids, I'd be more likely to name them after other people who have been significant in my life. This is because my extended family lives very far away from me and has, unfortunately, never played a huge role in my life. I would never name the child after myself or my partner because that would seem too egotistic to me (and would also be very confusing)!

for years Michael was a top name.  My son, Michael, always had others in his class and my daughter had three Mikes for years.

Names go in and out of fashion.  Currently I know alot of little girls with what i would consider pretty old fashioned names

Audrey, Helen, Meredith, Isabel

Isabel does seem to be making a come back.  When I was young I only knew one - I didn't even see the name in books or magazines.   Isabel was - well, she was Isabel - the woman who lived down the road from us (the one with the slightly bad reputation).  

Now, while not perhaps in the top ten, or maybe not in the top 100, its not unusual to run into either in life or in a story.

Unusual names?

I knew a 'Viola' when I was young.  I recently ran into that name in a biography I'm reading.

My Sunday School teacher was "Lola".  Her friend and co-worker was "Olla".  

My father's sister was "Iona".    And one of my mother's sisters was "Beulah".

My Dad's Mom had an unusual name - sort of. My grandmother was one of the oldest out of 11 kids. Her name was Gavina - Vina for short (to pronounce them, the i says it's name). I guess her parents started running out of ideas towards the end because one of her younger brothers was named Gavin!

 We named our baby girl, the one who was born sleeping, Isabelle. The name was picked out while I was still pregnant with her. After losing her, my friend's daughter used Isabelle as a middle name for her daughter (with my blessing.)  And my sister named her daughter Isobel.  (I told her I wouldn't be bothered by it.)

I think a lot of people are shying away from names being passed down likw Thomas, Edward etc., because it is so confusing while banking, mail etc.

Try these. These are some people I know... Eun Ja, Min Jae, Won Jae, Lucien, Bibi, Peel Oak, Byung Sup,  Nazmo, Benjie, Nermeen, Jennison, Chung Chung, Reindorf, Marley, Leeza, Yung Mi, Tae Yung, and Yan Oak.

In working with kids I have come across some really unusual and cool names. Some of my favourites have included Autumn Rain, Amber Sky and Ocean.

Hey MorningCalm - I noticed that a lot of the names you gave are Korean - would they be thought of as unusual if we were in that country?

Hi somegal, good question, and I don't really know the answer. I think they are fairly typical of names there.

My middle sister named her first child (a daughter) after the street they were living on at the time.

Naming your child after a street could definitely produce some interesting results - I'm very glad that my parents do that! My friend was named after the city she was conceived in - sort of (they took the name of the city and found a girls name that was close - I'm quite certain that nobody would want to be called Christchurch).

There is a town back east (Nova Scotia?)  called "Burnt Church."  

downer!!

LOL - nobody wants to be called Burnt Church Smith!

trish - Burnt Church is on the Miramichi in New Brunswick.  As people might have guessed it is located where the church burned at one time. 

 I knew it was somewhere back east.  

What was it called before - Church Where There's Never Been A Fire?

Ha ha!   Funny somegal.   It probably didn't have a name, but the local people probably referred to it as the crossroads, or by the name of the settler who had first cleared the land for the church, or down by the bridge, or just 'near the church on the road to Newcastle'.