Brandon and Emily Tops Again

He's the winner and, for four straight years, he's still champion.

According to the vital statistics section of the Department of Business and Consumer Services, more boys born in Nova Scotia in 1997, were named Brandon than any other name, 134 to be exact.

For girls, Emily, at 90, is the most-chosen name for the second consecutive year.

The top four boys names from 1997 are unchanged from the previous year, with Matthew (112), Nicholas (104) and Ryan (103) retaining their positions. The remaining top ten names are: Jacob and Dylan (90 each), Kyle (85), Logan and Tyler (82) and Joshua (81).

It was a similar story for girls, with Jessica (87) and Sarah (76) holding the same positions they held in 1996. Rounding out the top 10 girls names are: Hannah (76), Emma (69), Megan (65), Samantha (54), Rebecca (51), Mackenzie and Kelsey (47 each).

Interestingly, Taylor, which was the fourth most popular girl's name in 1996 did not place on the top 20 in 1997. It does appear at 11th on the boys list, however.

Just to show that Canadians aren't that different no matter where they live, Albertan baby boys share the top four names with Nova Scotians, but in a different order. In Alberta, Matthew, Ryan, Brandon and Nicholas were the top four names for boys in 1997.

For girls, Alberta shares three names in common with Nova Scotia's top four: Sarah is first, Jessica is third and Emily is fourth. Taylor, which is not among the Nova Scotia top 10, is second in Alberta.

There were 9,930 babies born in Nova Scotia in 1997, down from 10,475 in 1996.

NOTE TO EDITORS: For a complete list of the top 20 boys and girls
names, please e-mail: <rossng@gov.ns.ca.>