Teachers at area elementary schools are going to have plenty of “Jacks” in their deck of student names for years to come.

For the fourth time in five years, Jack and all spelling variations including Jackson, Jaxsen, Jaxson, Jaxton and Jaxxon lead the list of most popular baby names of those babies born at Spectrum Health Big Rapids Hospital Family Birthing Center.

Oliver temporarily stopped the Jack top name streak last year, but alas, Jack is back. Ella, Peyton and Madalyn were the most popular girls name in 2021, replacing Adalynn and Everleigh that tied for top honors last year. Those winning girls’ names included alternative spellings Madeline, Madilyn, Madison, Maddie, Payton and Peighton.

As of this writing, 457 babies were born at the Big Rapids Hospital in 2021, up slightly from the 2020 total.

Tied for second place for girl names was:

• ? Isabella, Izzabell, Isabel
• ? Olivia
• ? Rosalee, Roselia, Rosalie, Rose
• ? Sophia, Sophie

Tied for third place was:

• ? Adeline, Adelyn
• ? Amelia
• ? Eliana, Ellaina, Elliana
• ? Everlee, Everleigh, Everly
• ? Hazel
• ? Reagan
• ? Riley

For boys’ names, there was a two-way tie for second most popular:

• ? Colt, Kolt, Colten, Colton
• ? Henry

Third most popular boys name was Clay, Clayton.

 

A group tying for fourth most popular was:

• ? Asher
• ? Brantley
• ? Easton
• ? Elijah, Elyjah, Eli
• ? Graysen, Grayson
• ? Kingston
• ? Miles, Myles
• ? Samuel