The HealthPartners hospital group has pulled back the blankie and revealed the most popular names for boys and girls chosen in 2019 by parents who welcomed thousands of newborns at their eight hospitals in and near the Twin Cities area.
"According to nurses in our birth centers, parents are continuing to select older, more traditional names," read a statement issued by the health care provider.
Now, about those names that rank at the top among the 10,000 or so births occurring annually at HealthPartners' hospitals in western Wisconsin, the Twin Cities area and nearby in Minnesota.
For girls: Amelia, Isabella/Isabelle, Luna, Sophia, Evelyn. Boys: Oliver, Theodore, Jackson, Aiden, Graysen.
This is the first year that Amelia and Oliver have led the way for HealthPartners.
Evelyn and Sophia have been among the top names for girls the past five years, HealthPartners said.
As for boys, names have varied more in recent years, the hospital group said, with Oliver replacing Lincoln as the most popular.
HealthPartners' Minnesota birth centers are at Regions Hospital, St. Paul; Methodist Hospital, St. Louis Park; Lakeview Hospital, Stillwater; St. Francis Regional Medical Center, Shakopee, and Hutchinson Health Hospital.
It has three more in western Wisconsin.
Regions has accounted for nearly 2,200 births so far this year, and "the most common names were only chosen approximately 20 times," said HealthPartners spokeswoman Sarah Wolf. She attributed that phenomenon to the many diverse cultures that Regions serves.
Hennepin Healthcare also released its top baby names for Jan. 1 to Dec. 19.
For boys, they were Dylan, Liam, Isaac, David, Mateo, Mohamed, Ibrahim, Elijah and Carlos. For girls: Sofia, Isabella, Abigail, Sophia, Serenity, Emily, Camila, Amira, Salma and Safa.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
