Evelyn, Oliver most popular Minnesota baby names in 2017

The Minnesota Department of Health has released the most popular baby names of 2017, with Evelyn and Oliver topping the list for girls and boys respectively. 

This year, the Minnesota Department of Health’s Office of Vital Records also released a breakdown of the top baby names by mother’s race and ethnicity, noting that the top names differ across major race/ethnic groups. 

For babies born to white mothers, the top names matched those of most popular overall list, likely because 70 percent of the 70,192 births in Minnesota last year were to white women. 

Mateo was the top baby name for Hispanic boys, followed by Oliver. For Hispanic girls, Camila was the most popular name overall, although Sofia topped the list when excluding births to Mexican women, which account for nearly 75 percent of Hispanic births. 

Aisha and Mohamed were the top girl and boy names for all Black/African births, including Somali women, which make up 30 percent of that group’s births. The top names for babies born to non-Somali Black/African women were Ava and Elijah. 

For Asian boys and girls, Olivia and Aiden were the most popular names in 2017.