Virginia vital records office releases state’s most popular baby names for 2022

This article was written by WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.

Whether inspired by scripture, royalty, a favorite singer, Disney character, or family heritage, parents are choosing diverse names for their newborns.

The Office of Vital Records in the Virginia Department of Health has unveiled its list of the Top 15 baby names for children born in the commonwealth in 2022.

Topping the list of the most popular names for boys in 2022 was Noah while Charlotte was the most popular for girls. In 2021, there were 95,618 babies born; while the numbers for 2022 are still being counted, the Office of Vital Records estimates there were a similar number of births last year, VDH said in a news release.

“It’s always fascinating to see the top names for babies in any given year,” said Seth Austin, director of VDH’s Office of Vital Records. “We see names from a number of sources: a movie, religious texts, a family’s personal history. They all represent the commonwealth’s wonderfully diverse cultures.”

Rounding out the Top 15 for boys in 2022 are James, Liam, William, Henry, Theodore, Oliver, Elijah, Levi, Benjamin, Owen, John, Jack, Asher, and Lucas.

For girls, after Charlotte, 2022’s top popular names are Olivia, Ava, Amelia, Emma, Harper, Evelyn, Eleanor, Sophia, Elizabeth, Lilly, Abigail, Riley, Nora, and Chloe.

Office of Vital Records data also indicate the most popular 2022 baby names for the largest ethnic groups in the state: Asian, Black, Hispanic, and white.

Among Asian babies born in 2022, Noah and Sophia were the most popular names. Muhammad, Liam, Kai, and Henry fill out the Top Five list for boys; Chloe, Olivia, Mia, and Charlotte complete the Top Five list for girls.

For Black babies born in Virginia in 2022, Noah and Ava were the most popular names. Elijah, Josiah, Amir, and Micah round out the Top Five for boys, while Naomi, Nova, Zuri, and Leilani fill out the Top Five for girls.

Liam and Mia were the top names for Hispanic boys and girls born in Virginia in 2022. Mateo, Dylan, Noah, and Lucas fill out the Top Five list for Hispanic boys’ names, while Camila, Isabella, Emma, and Genesis complete the Top Five list for girls’ names.

William and Charlotte were the top names for white babies born in 2022, followed by Henry, James, Theodore, and Oliver for boys and Olivia, Amelia, Harper, and Emma for girls.

Half a century ago in 1972, VDH data shows that Michael and Jennifer were the most popular names for baby boys and girls born that year. James, Christopher, David, Robert, John, William, Brian, Jason, Kevin, Jeffrey, Charles, Richard, Matthew, and Thomas fill out the rest of the Top 15 for boys’ names in 1972. Among girls in 1972, the rest of the Top 15 include Kimberly, Amy, Angela, Melissa, Lisa, Michelle, Tammy, Mary, Stephanie, Elizabeth, Rebecca, Heather, Susan, and Karen.

Office of Vital Records data also reveals other interesting information about 2022 births.

The most births occurred in August with 8,917 babies delivered, with Aug. 17 seeing the most number of babies born – 359.

Fridays are the busiest day of the week in Virginia delivery rooms: 14,429 babies were born on a Friday in 2022; Sundays, on the other hand, are the slowest days of the week, with only 8,746 born on a Sunday in 2022.

There were 1,344 sets of twins born in Virginia in 2022, while there were 19 sets of triplets born in the state.

And on New Year’s Day 2022, 178 new Virginians came into the world.

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