Two contestants appear to be winning the arms race for this year’s most popular baby names.
The province says for baby girls, Team Olivia is leading the way, beating out the Emmas, who are in second place.
Should the Olivias keep up the pace, they will be maintaining their first-place spot on the podium, as they were the most popular name in 2016.
Trailing behind are the Sophias, Charlottes and Avas.
The statistics were drawn from the Vital Statistics Agency between Jan. 1 and Dec. 15. The final results for the year-end won’t be available until later in 2018.
For the boys, the Benjamins appear to be outnumbering the rest of the competition.
Behind them are the Liams, Logans and Lucases, who are all equally popular.
If the Benjamins maintain their lead, they’ll be able to exact revenge on the Lucases, who were previously the frontrunners last year.
There were 45,399 babies born in B.C. in 2016 – 22,188 girls and 23,210 boys.
In 2016, Lucas was the Number 1 boys' name in B.C., followed by Benjamin, Ethan, Oliver and Liam.
Olivia was the Number 1 girls' name in 2016, followed by Emma, Charlotte, Ava and Sophia.
