Maverick is on the list of top baby names in 2020, but Goose doesn’t make it
By Brian Zinchuk, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
REGINA – It appears there are a lot of Top Gun fans who might have been really, really, disappointed when the sequel to the 1986 movie, which was supposed to come out last summer, was delayed due to COVID-19. That’s because a total of 37 families chose to name their son Maverick in 2020, coming in number 8 in the Saskatchewan top 20 baby names of 2020.
On Jan.29 eHealth Saskatchewan announced the top 20 baby names for 2020 for both boys and girls. These are preliminary lists created with live birth data up to Dec. 9, 2020. eHealth is still completing the birth registrations from the remainder of December 2020. The final lists will be completed in March and released online.
There’s going to be a lot of Liams and Olivias running around. Indeed, schools will soon be full of them, in many grades.
Indeed, Liam appears to be unstoppable, as Liam was once again the most popular name for baby boys for the 11th year in a row. Olivia was the most popular name for baby girls for the sixth year in a row. The eHealthSask.ca website shows that Olivia bumped Emma off the top spot in 2014, after it had been in the top spot since at least 2010. But it didn’t go far. The second most popular girl name in 2020 was Emma.
The second most popular boy name was Jack.
There were 63 baby boys named Liam in 2020, followed by Jack, Hudson, Noah and Oliver.
There were 69 baby girls named Olivia. There was a trend in the top four girls names – all ended in “a,” as Olivia was followed by Emma, Amelia, Sophia. Emily, in number five, broke the trend. But the “a” ending comes in several more times with Ava, Isla, Aurora and Nora all making the list.
Some new names debuted on the top 20 lists. Bennett tied at number 17 on the list of boy names and Aurora debuted at number 12 on the list of girl names.
The popularity of names comes and goes, as anyone born in the mid-1970s probably knows a lot of Jasons and Jennifers, neither of which made the list for 2020. Several of the most popular baby boy names from 2019 did not reappear on the 2020 top 20 list, including Emmett, Logan, Ethan, Asher, Thomas and Jackson. This was also the first time in more than 10 years that the name Alexander did not make the list of top boy names.
The baby girl names that did not carry over from 2019 were Chloe, Ella, Everly, Hannah, Brielle, Violet and Aria.
As of Dec. 9, 2020, 12,044 live births were registered in Saskatchewan. The final count will be completed in March. The number of live births registered in 2019 was 14,668. This does not include Saskatchewan mothers who gave birth outside of the province. If there is a COVID-19 baby boom, or bust, that will likely be reflected in the 2021 numbers, as COVID lockdowns took hold in mid-March. Forty weeks after the lockdowns were enacted falls about mid-December.
As for Maverick, that name tied at number 19 on the boy’s list when it debuted in 2019 (the year the movie Top Gun: Maverickwas supposed to originally be released). It and saw a significant rise in popularity in 2020; it now sits in the eighth spot. Goose, however, appears to have not made it on the list. But there’s always 2021.
