By Jay Socol, Public Communications Director
Oh, do I look forward to writing this one each January: Baby names and numbers that represent how creative – and procreative – our residents were during the previous year.
Before you notice the drop in the number of births from 2017 to 2018, let me explain the main reason for it: College Station Medical Center closed its labor and delivery services in mid-July, which meant almost every baby born here after that was at Baylor Scott & White Hospital. The official breakdown was 1,402 births at Scott & White, 609 at The Med, and 5 home births.
So, here's the complete data from Yvette Dela Torre, our perennial rock-star local registrar who's in charge of our vital statistics reporting:
| Births | Girls | Boys | Twins | Triplets | |
| 2013 | 2,159 | 1,066 | 1,093 | 36 sets | |
| 2014 | 2,460 | 1,264 | 1,196 | 30 sets | 1 set |
| 2015 | 2,494 | 1,245 | 1,249 | 50 sets | |
| 2016 | 2,307 | 1,206 | 1,164 | 44 sets | |
| 2017 | 2,398 | 1,168 | 1,230 | 48 sets | 1 set |
| 2018 | 2,016 | 970 | 1,046 | 27 sets |
Most popular boys' first names
- James (14)
- Jackson (13)
- Aaron (12)
Jackson tends to stay in the top three, but James displaced Jayden, Elijah, and Noah from last year.
Most popular boys' middle names
- James (34)
- Lee (25)
- Alexander (22)
James repeats as the top middle name, and Alexander loses a spot. Lee jumped into the top three to replace Wayne from 2017.
Most popular girls' first names
- Emma (20)
- Ava (11)
- Harper (10)
Emma and Ava swapped places from 2017, but Harper jumps up to replace last year's third-place tie between Camila and Charlotte. This makes 34 Emmas in two years — a brisk pace!
Most popular girls' middle names
- Rose (53)
- Grace (44)
- Marie (40)
These are the same three from 2017, but Rose and Grace have swapped places.
Honorable mentions
Last year, I took a deep dive into the entire list of names and, holy moly, was it worth it. Of the more than 2,000 wonderful names from 2018, here are some of my favorites.
“Alexa, what should I name my baby?”
- Alexa Naelid
- Alexa Viridiana
Cowboys
- Duke
- Maverick Wayne
- Maverick Layne
- Ripp Wilder
- Ryder
- Trigger
- Wyatt
Presidents
- Cleveland
- Jefferson
- Kennedy
- Lincoln
- Madison
- McKinley
- Reagan
There’s even a cowboy-president
- Abraham Rowdy
Born to be wild
- Boone Ranger
- Canyon Marie
Born to be a leader
- Kaiser
- Major Sebastian Hayes
- Militia-Saint
- Moses
Royalty
- King
- Pharaoh
- Pippa
- Prince-Alan
- Royal
- Sir
NBA all-stars
- James
- Joel
- Kevin
- Kyrie
- Lebron
- Russell
- Stephen
Namaste
- Blessing
- Blyss
- Cedar
- Essence
- Harmoniee
- Journei
- Joy
- Juniper
- Luna
- Paisley
- Serenity
Retro
- Birdie
- Evelyn
- Hazel
- Lucy
- Winnie
Fire & water
- Amina Fire
- Blaze
- Brazos Beaux
- River Wylder
- Wylder Blaze
Strong character
- Creed
- Exzavior
- Honorable
- Justyce
- Kourage Valor
- Maximus
- Noble
- Ryker
The Jackson 5
- Jackson Henry
- Jackson Lynn
- Jackson Howard
- Jackson Cole
- Jackson Elliott
They've got the moves like...
- Jagger Patrick
- Jagger Robert
Too great not to mention
- Abel Cain
- Athena Mayhem
- Jefferson Juan
- Sackett Fritz
More 2018 birth stats
- Months with the most births: April (202), May (201)
- Month with the fewest births: November (105)
- Day with the most births: April 26 (19)
College Station ended 2018 with an estimated population of 119,871. Will we have enough Emmas and Jameses to push us over the 120,000 mark in 2019?
I feel pretty confident we will.
Related Blog Posts
- 1,871 reasons College Station grew in 2012
- Did the Super Bowl XLVII blackout affect CS’s population?
- College Station saw record number of births in 2014
- Is College Station now THE twin city?
- Aiden, Riley CS’s most-popular baby names in 2016
- Jayden, Ava CS’s most popular baby names in 2017
Jay Socol (@jaysocol) is in his 10th year as College Station’s public communications director. A 1991 graduate of Texas A&M. Jay has also been communications director for the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service, public information officer for the City of Bryan, and news director at several Bryan-College Station area radio stations. A native of Breckenridge, he also serves as past president of the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers.
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