Not long after midnight struck on New Year’s Eve, Navy Shae Anderson gained the distinction of being the Southern Interior’s first baby of 2024, Interior Health announced.
She was the first baby born throughout the B.C. Interior Health region in 2024, delivered at Kelowna General Hospital to her parents Jessica and Scott at 40 minutes past midnight on Dec. 31. She weighed seven pounds and seven ounces.
Jessica said both she and Navy are doing well and the newborn is just about ready to meet her older sister Reese who, at two years old, was hoping a baby sister was on her way.
Both Jessica and Scott are teachers and Jessica said that they get to learn a lot of lovely names while working. That’s how they landed on Navy, they’d yet to encounter it.
Within hours, more Okanagan cities had their own New Year’s babies to report.
In Vernon, Megan Goodban gave birth at 5:11 p.m. to a six-pound, 11-ounce baby boy, whose name is not yet known.
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Penticton New Year’s Baby was a five-pound, two-ounce boy born at 5:53 p.m. Little other information has been released.
Just as Navy’s name is the only one of the three that was disclosed, she will likely continue to be a standout as time marches on. The rarely-used moniker was chosen by Scott and Jessica for its uniqueness, which they had special insight into as school teachers.
Plus, Jessica said it matched nicely with Reese.
Vital Statistics Agency released its preliminary list of top baby names for 2023 last month, featuring 205 infants bearing the name Noah.
Oliver, Olivia, Theodore and Liam rounded out the 2023 top five.
The top baby names last year were Noah, Olivia, Oliver, Liam, Theodore, Jack, Emma, Lucas, Leo and Sophia.
The province said there were 37,650 babies born in British Columbia between Jan. 1 and Dec. 18, 2023.
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