Baby File by Open File
If you haven't yet had a chance to check out this amazing map of baby names, don't miss it.
The folks at Open File, a Toronto-based news site that lets the community contribute story ideas, launched Baby File today.
The work of map guru Patrick Cain, the site lets users search most popular baby names based on postal code. It's cool to enter your digits and see the top 5 baby names for both boys and girls in your hood. You'll probably recognize names you hear fairly often on the playground, or even the name of your own child. (Don't despair: We all try to be original but we're fully up against the zeitgeist. We like what our peers like. It can't be helped.)
Or, you can just choose your city (if your city is Toronto, Hamilton or Ottawa) and click your way around looking at how people on one end of town name their babies compared to those on the other.
In my neighbourhood the most popular girls' names are:
Emma
Isabella
Grace
Sophia
Ella
And the most common boys' names are:
William
Noah
Liam
Oliver
Nicholas
I'm pretty sure I've had kids with almost all of these names over to my house for a playdate or birthday party at some point.
Read about how Patrick made the map here.
Find more on baby names:
Ethan, Olivia top list of most popular baby names in Ontario for 2010
That could possibly be the cutest baby I have ever seen!
Posted by: Renee Collens | January 22, 2011 at 01:09 PM
I'm on tenterhooks about the meaning of Tenzin -- more info, please?
Posted by: cate | January 25, 2011 at 12:17 PM
OpenFile did an article about why Tenzin is so popular:
http://toronto.openfile.ca/toronto/file/2011/01/why-tenzin-reigns-parkdale
Posted by: Cindy | January 26, 2011 at 12:22 PM