Muhammad in Peel, Maverick in the Soo.

Across Ontario, the most popular baby names are Noah, Ethan and Liam for boys, and Olivia, Charlotte and Ava or Emma for girls — but from region to region, choices vary.

In Barrie, it’s Lincoln for boys; in Waterloo, Grace for girls. Amelia hits the top five in a couple of communities.

In Peel Region, where there is a booming Muslim population, Muhammad is number one.

“The meaning of the name is ‘worthy of praise’ and that is also a strong characteristic we hope Muhammad will carry,” said Memona Hossain of Brampton, who gave her son that moniker when he was born in January.

Hossain, who travelled to Mecca and completed the hajj during her pregnancy, said she and husband Pooyan Najafi narrowed their choices to a couple of prophetic names, and then figured once the baby was born, they’d see which one fit best.

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While some Muslim parents choose more secular names — or deliberately pick ones that are easy to pronounce — she said for them, Muhammad “was more of a statement for us to know that you can still grow up here and live a very Canadian life, and have strong Canadian values, and there’s no opposition to having strong Islamic values” as well.

She said her generation of Muslim parents will also go with options like Adam and Noah — based on the prophets — that are popular with non-Muslims. (In Peel, Adam and Noah are the second and third boy name choices.)

But for Hossain and Najafi, “the name Muhammad really rang true,” and the new parents hope their first-born develops characteristics of compassion, “humility, and of course adherence to Islamic values and principles — and being of service to humanity,” like the founder of Islam.

Keiko Kataoka gave birth to daughter Aya Marie Thede in November 2017. Initially, she was “leaning toward names that sounded more like the popular Olivia, Emma, Charlotte” but after realizing how common they’d become, she “decided to go back to the drawing board.”

Kataoka and her husband wanted something that had a personal connection — though “he’s a big hockey fan and started to venture down the road of European hockey players” — but in the end, the name Aya gave a nod to her Japanese heritage; Marie is in honour of two grandmothers.

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“We settled on it around six months into my pregnancy, which gave us a good few months to let it sit with us,” she said.

“We started using Aya instead of ‘the baby’ when referring to her, which felt natural, so we knew we’d picked a good one.”

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As for Maverick — the number one boy name in Sault Ste. Marie — Government and Consumer Services Minister Bill Walker said it’s an interesting choice, quipping: “It’s better than Goose” — referring to the main characters from the movie Top Gun.

He called the regional differences “a reflection of our cultural mosaic.”

“It’s quite a mixture — sometimes it’s your heritage, sometimes history ... (or) religious connections” and also the influence of social media, he added.

This is the 100th year Ontario has tracked baby names. During that time, Marie, Mary and Jennifer are the most common for girls, and Joseph, John and Robert for boys.

Rabia Khedr, executive director of the Muslim Council of Peel, said Muhammad, as well as Adam and variations on Noah (Nuh) are based on Judeo-Christian-Muslim traditions.

“There is a budding Muslim population out here,” Khedr said, adding with a laugh: “I contributed four children to that population.”

Peel’s popular names have “very strong identities” associated with them, she said.

“We get more funky with girls’ names,” Khedr added. “With boys, the traditional names keep coming forward.”

In St. Catharines, Henry takes the number one spot for boys. Across Ontario, other girls’ names in the top five include Nora in Kitchener, Isla in Ottawa, Aria in Guelph, Avery in London. In Windsor, Fatima sits at number four.