NYC’s first baby of 2021 belongs to Brooklyn

Meanwhile, list of most popular baby names has some surprises

From Brooklyneagle.com

Every year, people await news of the first baby born in New York City.

This year, the first New York City baby is also the borough of Brooklyn’s first baby. 

The infant, a boy, was born exactly at the stroke of midnight at New York City Health and Hospitals’  Coney Island Hospital on Ocean Parkway.

Weighing 6 pounds and 11 ounces and measuring 19 inches, Jaxel Rodriguez came into the world at 12 a.m. Friday at Coney Island Hospital, according to New York City Health and Hospitals. 

The punctual bundle of joy is the third child of Ivett Rodriguez and Antonio Guilbert.

The Brooklyn parents called Jaxel “the best gift of the new year.”

According to the hospital system, the parents are of Latino descent, live in Brooklyn and are Spanish-speaking. 

Last year, the first Brooklyn baby of the year was also born at Coney Island Hospital. That baby, Aidan Zobnin, was also born at midnight, weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces and measured 20 inches, according to the Brooklyn Reporter.–>

Aidan was the second child and first boy born to Jennet and Artyom Zobnin, who live in Brighton Beach. The Zobnins are a Russian-speaking family. 

However, it’s unclear whether Aidan was the first New York City baby of 2020, since another newborn was born in Staten Island that year also at the stroke of midnight.

Within the next few days, reports of first 2021 Brooklyn babies are sure to come in from other hospitals in the borough, such as The Brooklyn Hospital Center, Woodhull Hospital, Maimonides Medical Center, New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, NYU Langone-Brooklyn, Mount Sinai Brooklyn (the former Kings Highway Hospital) and others.

With all these babies being born, what are they all being named? The city Department of Health and Hospitals has some answers. Last month, it came out with a list of the most popular baby names in New York City in 2019. (The list of most popular names of 2020 is not yet available.)

In 2019, the most popular boys’ name was Liam, and the most popular girls’ name was Emma.

The second most popular boys’ name was Noah, and the second-most-popular name was Olivia.

In third place were Ethan, for boys, and Sophia, for girls. In fourth place were Jacob and Mia. And in fifth place were Lucas and Isabella.

Some of these names indicate a trend, according to the Health Department. For example, Liam has led the list for boys since 2017. And Emma has been the number one name for girls since 2017. 

The Health Department’s birth certificate records show 497 Emmas and 764 Liams were born in New York City in 2019.

Nine of the boys’ names from 2018 stayed on the list for 2019.  Alexander was dropped from the list and Michael was added in 2019. The top four names remained the same from 2018.  Aiden dropped one spot to the sixth most popular while Lucas moved up to the fifth most popular name.  Daniel moved up the popularity rankings from 2018 whereas Matthew fell to the tenth most popular name, according to the Department of Health.  

Nine of the boys’ names from 2018 stayed on the list for 2019.  Alexander was dropped from the list and Michael was added in 2019. The top four names remained the same from 2018.  Aiden dropped one spot to the sixth most popular while Lucas moved up to the fifth most popular name.  Daniel moved up the popularity rankings from 2018, whereas Matthew fell to the tenth most popular name.  

Hopefully, the most popular baby names of 2020 will continue to be inspiring, uplifting ones, and will have no relationship to the coronavirus pandemic.

As far as birth numbers were concerned, from 2018 to 2019, the number of babies born in New York City decreased 3.4 percent. Brooklyn came in third in the number of births, with 27,067, while Manhattan came in first with 42,482.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.