Tri-Citians came up with a few surprising names for their babies in 2019
There’s a new baby name in town — Mateo.
Kadlec Regional Medical Center on Monday released the most popular names for the 2,800 babies born at the Richland hospital last year.
The most common name chosen for boys was Mateo, which didn’t even make the Top 10 list of baby names at the hospital for 2018. Sixteen babies were named Mateo — the Spanish name for Matthew — in 2019.
The top name for girls was Sofia or Sophia, which was the second-most popular girls name at the hospital in 2018.
The Social Security Administration has not released its top names for 2019 yet, but listed Mateo as the 33rd most popular boy’s name in Washington state in 2018.
Liam, which was the most popular boys name at Kadlec in 2018, remained second most popular this year in the Tri-Cities.
The third most popular boy’s name for 2019, Jayden, was not among the 20 most popular boys name in 2018, according to hospital records. It tied for third place in 2019 with Sebastian.
They were followed by Ezra and then a three-way tie among the newly popular traditional names of David, Henry and Lucas. None of the names made the Kadlec list a year ago.
Ending the top 10 list for 2019 were Benjamin and Elijah. The next most popular boy’s names were Aaron, Adriel, Angel and Anthony.
Neither Adriel nor Angel were on the top 100 for the state in 2018.
The 2019 list was a major change from 2000, when only a spelling variation of Jayden made the list then. The most popular names at Kadlec in 2000 were Jacob, Matthew, Jaden, Zachary and Taylor.
Top baby girl names
For baby girls the popularity of Sofia/Sophia was strong. The hospital records showed 33 of the babies born in 2019 were given that name.
Isabella, which also made the top 10 list in 2018 came in at No. 2 for 2019.
It was followed by a name new to the Kadlec list, Mia.
It appears the Tri-Cities was just catching up to a state trend from 2018, when Mia made the Social Security list of top 10 baby girl names in the state.
Kadlec’s Top 10 list also included Abigail, Camila, Madison, Harper, Amelia, Ava and Emma.
Madison made a bit of a comeback. It was also one of the most popular names for girls in 2000 at the hospital, along with Emily, Sidney, Alexis and Taylor.
Other popular names for 2019 at Kadlec included Ellie, Olivia, Charlotte and Genesis.
Genesis was a surprise, not even showing up on the top 100 names in the state of Washington in 2018.
Trios Health in Kennewick also has a birthing center but typically does not track baby names.
This story was originally published January 6, 2020 at 12:42 PM.