Most Popular Baby Names in Canada (StatCan and Provinces)

Canada's national list, 2024

Unlike Australia, Canada has an official national ranking: Statistics Canada table 17-10-0147-01, First names at birth by sex at birth, covering 1991 onwards. Its most recent year is 2024. StatCan builds it by aggregating the provincial and territorial vital statistics registries, so names are collected provincially but the roll-up is official.

Quebec is effectively a separate naming country

This is the most important thing to understand about Canadian baby names, and most English-language lists ignore it. Quebec is around 21 per cent of Canadian births, but its names differ so much that several national top-20 entries are there almost entirely because of Quebec. Of all Canadian babies named Alice in 2024, 54 per cent were born there; for Clara 52 per cent, Arthur 49, Théo 44, Thomas 43 and Jacob 41. The reverse holds too: Isla, Violet, Oliver, Evelyn and Ava each draw under six per cent of their national total from Quebec. Retraite Québec publishes the province's own list, and its most recent covers 2025.

Léonie also ties with Mia at 217, and Margot and Ophélie tie at 194. These are the names that appear in no anglophone province's top 20 — and what they mean:

The provinces with 2025 data

Alberta's published list carries several ties inside the top 10 — Emma with Sophia, Ellie with Nora, Jack with Lucas — so its ordering is not a strict sequence. Saskatchewan's counts are small (its number one girls' name had 43 registrations), and Nova Scotia's are smaller still, which is why Olivia sits only 12th there. Treat small-province rankings as indicative.

Ontario, the largest province at roughly 39 per cent of Canadian births, has published only to 2024. Its 2024 leaders were Olivia (611) and Noah (868), with Muhammad ninth for boys on 463. Manitoba publishes no public list; New Brunswick's most recent is 2018 and Newfoundland and Labrador's is 2020, so neither should be quoted as current.

What the data actually shows

Noah's lead is the widest in the anglophone world

Noah led Canada nationally in 2024 with 2,115, and also led British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec in 2025. Very few countries show one boys' name winning that consistently across regions with such different naming cultures.

Charlotte overtook Emma; Ava and Lily returned

Statistics Canada's own commentary on the 2024 release notes Charlotte rising to second and displacing Emma, and Ava and Lily re-entering the top 10. The table bears this out: Charlotte moved from third to second, Emma from second to third, Ava from 11th to 10th and Lily from 12th to ninth.

Methodology quirks you should know about

Three things affect how the national table reads. Names with a frequency below five are excluded. Accented letters are stripped, so Chloé is counted as CHLOE and Théo as THEO — which means the national figures for those names silently merge Quebec's accented spellings with anglophone unaccented ones. And Quebec's contribution comes from Retraite Québec's family benefit records rather than birth registrations, so it includes children who immigrated to Quebec rather than being born there.

Muhammad is a top-10 name in three provinces

Muhammad ranked ninth in Ontario in 2024, ninth in Alberta in 2025 and third in Saskatchewan in 2025, yet does not reach the national top 20.

How to use this list

Decide which list is actually relevant to you. If you are in Quebec, the national table will mislead you badly — Édouard, Juliette and Romy are mainstream there and near-invisible elsewhere in Canada. If you are in Ontario or the West, the Quebec list will do the same in reverse.

Mind the year mismatch. The national table runs to 2024; Quebec, BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia have published 2025. Comparing a 2024 national rank against a 2025 provincial one will produce differences that are calendar artefacts rather than real.

And combine spellings before judging: Sophia at sixth and Sofia at seventh are one name aloud, as are Theodore at third and Theo at 17th.