The first baby born in Lions Gate Hospital this year didn’t waste any time making his entrance. The baby boy, weighing 8 pounds, 13 ounces, was born less than an hour into the new year, making his appearance at 12:52 a.m.
Mom Tyra Frank of Mount Currie said her son was born right on schedule, on his due date of Jan. 1, but she wasn’t aware that the clock had already struck midnight on New Year’s Eve until her baby was already safely delivered.
By virtue of his early morning arrival, the baby was also the first child born in the Vancouver Coast Health region in 2016.
The baby boy had started making his imminent arrival clear when Frank went into labour around 2 a.m. on Dec. 31st. Later that morning, she went to the medical clinic in Pemberton, where staff told her it was time to head to the hospital in North Vancouver, where Frank planned to deliver.
They arrived by ambulance about 10 a.m. “They made it down in pretty good time,” said Frank.
Now back home in Mount Currie, both mom and baby are doing well. “He’s sleeping and eating well,” said Frank.
The baby son, whose name is being kept private by his parents, is a first child for Frank and Robbie Schneider.
This week, the B.C. government released some statistics on the most popular baby names in the province.
Preliminary figures show Olivia is still the most popular name for girls in 2015 and Oliver is edging out Liam and Ethan for most popular name for boys.
Final statistics won’t be available until later in the year.
In 2014, the most popular names for girls were Olivia, Emma, Sophia, Emily, Chloe, Ava, Charlotte, Lily, Amelia, Abigail, Ella, Hannah, Aria, Avery, Isabella, Isla, Evelyn, Mia, Audrey and Maya.
The most popular names for boys in 2014 were Ethan, Liam, Lucas, Oliver, Mason, Benjamin, William, Jacob, Noah, Logan, Alexander, James, Nathan, Owen, Ryan, Hunter, Jaden, Jack, Daniel and Jackson.
There were 44,500 babies born in B.C. in 2014. To see the popularity of different names over time or a full list of names given to babies born in 2014 visit: vs.gov.bc.ca/babynames/.
