Baby names often fall in and out of popularity in cycles. While there will always be , some of the names that used to be popular have – this year, instead! And, when we look at the most popular baby names of 1980 and compare them to the biggest names today, it becomes apparent just how different things are. Last month, after the Alberta government in Canada released a list of the baby names given last year, compared them to the most popular 1980s monikers – and there aren’t a whole lot of similarities.
Olivia was the most common name for newborn girls in the province last year, with 210 girls being given the name. In comparison, just 11 girls had the name Olivia in 1980. It’s a similar story with second-placed Amelia, too, with 2023 having 145 Amelias compared to 1980’s six.
And, no babies in 1980 were named Isla or Violet, while 120 and 101 babies born in 2023 were given these respective names. On the other side of the coin, however, a whopping 705 babies were called Jennifer in 1980, compared to just nine last year. There were 551 Amandas in 1980, but just 14 in 2023.
As author Jonah Berger told the , a name that becomes too popular can lose its appeal: “Parents don’t want something that sounds exactly like every other name. If they have 10 friends who have named their kids Jennifer, they’re not going to pick the name Jennifer.” Perhaps, if Olivia and Amelia fall out of fashion in a few years, names like Jennifer and Amanda could gradually begin to become .