Here are the most popular Tri-Cities baby names. Move over Olivia and Ezra

Annette Cary
Updated ·2 min read

New Tri-Cities parents are liking the names Camila for a girl and Mateo for a boy.

Those were the two most popular names for new babies born last year at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland, the largest hospital in the Tri-Cities.

A year earlier Camila ranked fifth and Mateo came in fourth.

But back in 2019 Mateo, the Spanish version of Matthew, was the most popular name for boys. Matthew didn’t break into the top 10 then or this year.

In 2021 Olivia was the most popular name for girls and Ezra was most popular for boys.

New to the top 10 list for girls for 2022 compared to the year before are Harper, Violet, Charlotte, Abigail and Mila.

Here is the full top 10 list for girls, followed by the number of Kadlec babies given that name in 2022:

  • Camila, 14 babies

  • Olivia, 12

  • Amelia, 10

  • Harper, 10

  • Violet, 10

  • Charlotte, 9

  • Sophia, 9

  • Abigail, 9

  • Emilia, 8

  • Mila, 8

There were 2,658 babies born at Kadlec last year.

Camilia does not seem to be as popular in Washington state as it is in the Tri-Cities.

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The Social Security Administration keeps track of baby names by state, with its most recent data for 2021.

It placed Camilia 26th among baby girl names in the state that year.

Four other girls’ names popular in the Tri-Cities were not in the top 10 on the Washington state list: Abigail was 20th, Violet was 43th, Mila was 36th, and Emilia was 43th.

The top name for girls in the state in 2021 was Olivia.

Popular boys’ names

Baby boy names that cracked the top 10 this year at Kadlec, but not a year ago, included Sebastian, Damian, Samuel and David.

Here’s the 2022 boys’ list for Kadlec:

  • Mateo, 22 babies

  • Oliver, 20

  • Sebastian, 19

  • Liam, 13

  • Santiago, 12

  • Damian, 11

  • Ezra, 10

  • Samuel, 9

  • Elijah, 9

  • David, 9

Just three of those names — Oliver, Liam and Elijah — were among the 10 most popular in Washington state in 2021.

But Mateo, Ezra and Samuel made the top 20 statewide. David ranked 23rd, Sebastian ranked 33rd, Santiago ranked 63rd and Damian ranked 94th.

In the state Liam was the most popular boys’ name in 2021, which didn’t make the Tri-Cities list for 2022.