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CANADIAN BABY NAMES? YES!

canada2

Today being Canada Day–which is roughly equivalent to the US Independence Day–it seems like a good opportunity to browse through the bilingual Canadian name bank and see what we can find–actually, more unusual–even exotic– names than you might expect. For instance, in the French colonies known as Acadia, there are such boys’ names as:

ALPHE

CALIXTE

ELZEAR

EMELIEN

LEONIDE

PACIFIQUE (unisex)

THEDDY

and girls:

EMERISE

LITIAN

MELANEA

THADEE

VIVINE

ZELINA

POPULARITY

Canada as a whole shares many of the names popular in the US. Across the country the top names are Ava and Ethan, and in some of the individual provinces other #1 names are Emily, Emma, Jacob, Logan, Ryan and William. More disparate choices in the national girls’ Top 20: Maya, Danica and Claire.

The more unique names appear, not surprisingly, in the French-speaking province of Quebec, where the Most Popular list includes:

GIRLS

ARINE

FLORENCE (#4)

LEA (#1)

ROSALIE (#3)

BOYS

CELEBRITIES

Some of the more interesting names of Canadian-born celebs:

ALANIS Morissette

AVRIL Lavigne

COCO Rocha

HAYDEN Christensen

MAVIS Gallant

MIA Kirshner

MORDECAI Richler

NATALIE Appleton

NATASHA Henstridge

NELLY Fertado

NEVE Campbell

OSCAR Peterson

RYAN Gosling, Reynolds

SAUL Bellow

SHANIA Twain

PLACE NAMES

And, finally, some Canadian place names that could conceivably morph into people names:

AIRDRIE

ALBERNI

AVOLA

CALGARY

CANSO

CASSAIR

CELISTA

KILLAM

LEDUC

LENNOX

LIARD

LIVELY

MAHONE

MANITOBA

SALLIQ

SAVONA

TRURO

YUKON

Tags: Alanis Morissette, Avril Lavigne, Canada place names, Canadian baby names, Canadian celebrities, Canadian celebrity names, Canadian names, Celine Dion, Elisha Cuthbert, Estella WArren, Evangeline Lilly, Leonard Cohen, Mia Kirshner, Natasha Henstridge, Nelly Fertado, place names, Popular Canadian names, Shania Twain

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 12:22 am and is filed under Uncategorized, baby name popularity, boys' names, celebrity names, ethnic baby names, exotic baby names, famous names, girl names, girls' names, international baby names, name ideas, namesakes, place names . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “CANADIAN BABY NAMES? YES!”

Sebastiane Says:

July 1st, 2009 at 10:50 am

I love some of those Acadian names! Emerise really intrigues me.

Nicola Says:

July 1st, 2009 at 11:20 am

I named my younger sister Savona. I thought I had invented it. A combination of our parents names. But then I found out it was a placename in Italy and now I find out it’s a placename in Canada. Very cool.

Abby Says:

July 1st, 2009 at 12:00 pm

I adore Avalon – almost enough to have another child, just to tuck it in the middle!

Interesting that’s there’s Oceane and Pacifique … no Atlantique?

belatrix Says:

July 1st, 2009 at 2:00 pm

My father was of Quebecois descent and I used a name from his ancestors, Rejeanne (Rejean for boys), for one of my daughters. We also have an Archange (female) in the family and I’d love to use it but I don’t think the American tongue can do it justice!

Navi Says:

July 2nd, 2009 at 1:37 am

Thanks for the shout-out to us Canucks!

Lauren Says:

July 6th, 2009 at 10:33 pm

I absolutely love the name Avril… but my husband won’t go for it because of the Avril Lavigne association. Also love Raphael, Evangeline, Neve.

Sophie Says:

August 15th, 2009 at 7:54 pm

I love love love the name Olivier! Even though it’s less masculine than say, Alex or Jack, I think it sounds so lovely and soft. I also think it’s a great alternative to the ever-popular Oliver. Maybe I’m just biased because I once knew a gorgeous Canadian guy named Olivier…