Area use of popular baby names follows U.S. trends

Hannah and Jacob were the most popular names for babies born at Southeast Missouri Hospital in 2002. Emily and Caleb or Kaleb were the most popular names at St. Francis Medical Center.

Rounding out the top five most popular girl names at Southeast were: Emily, Ann, Abigail and Madison. Other top boy names included Hunter, Tyler, Ethan and Zachary.

Rounding out the top five girl names at St. Francis were: Megan, Bailee, Hailey, Kaylynn/Katelynn and Kristen. Other top boy names were Zachary, Kyle, Timothy, Tyler and Jacob.

These local favorites follow national name trends, said Joni Adams of Southeast Missouri Hospital. Jacob was the most popular boy name in 2001, followed by Michael, according to the Social Security Administration, the agency that processes birth certificates.

And Hannah topped the list two years ago, but came in second in 2001 to Emily. The Social Security Administration won't release the most popular baby names for 2002 until May.

A trend established by hundreds of families in 2002 was the practice of two middle names for babies, Adams said. A number of unisex names remained popular as well, with Taylor and Logan topping the list.

Place names such as Phoenix, Kansas, Brooklyn, Dallas and Montana were also favored.

And many parents opted for unusual spellings. For example, parents spelled Hailey as Haley, Haylee or Hayley. Nicholas was often spelled Nicolas or Nickolas.

For the second year in a row, Marie was the top middle name at Southeast Missouri Hospital, followed by Elizabeth and Nicole. Marie was selected by 55 parents. For boys, Michael was picked 41 times for a middle name, followed by James and Joseph. Top middle names were not available from St. Francis Medical Center.

Other trends include Thursday being the busiest birthing day at Southeast, while July was the busiest month, followed by September and August.

The greatest number of babies arrived at Southeast between noon and 6 p.m., followed by 6 p.m. to midnight.

Boys edged out the girls at Southeast Missouri Hospital in 2002 at 50.6 percent. Girls edged out the boys in 2001.

Comparable figures were not available from St. Francis Medical Center.