Emma and Oliver top Wyoming baby names

The Wyoming Department of Health and Welfare’s Vital Statistics Services has sorted through 2018 birth certificates to discover the most popular names of the state’s newest citizens.

It turns out, Emma was the most frequently used female name for the third year in a row, followed by Amelia, Elizabeth, Evelyn and Harper.

For boys, Oliver was the top selection. Jackson and Logan were tied for second with Wyatt and Theodore rounding out the top five.

Deputy State Registrar Guy Beaudoin was not too surprised. He said each of the names were in Wyoming’s top five for the last five years. “Names do go in and out of fashion,” he said, “but it seems to take some time for major changes in popularity to occur.”

While the trend in names hasn’t changed much, the number of babies needing them has. “Our state’s number of births last year was the lowest number of births we’ve seen in more than 15 years,” Beaudoin said.

There was also a moderate increase in Wyoming’s resident deaths from 2017 to 2018. Reflecting the state’s aging population, there were 4,767 deaths in 2017 and 5,069 in 2018.