MARSHALL — Liam and Emma were many people’s top picks for baby names over the past year, according to area hospitals. Other popular names for babies born in 2025 included Lainey and Noah.

This week, both the Avera Health and Sanford Health systems each released the top five most popular names for boys and girls born at their hospitals over the past year. While there was some overlap in popular names across the two hospital systems, at the local level Avera Marshall’s top baby names showed some different trends.

At Avera Marshall, the top five names for baby boys were Bennett, Dylan, Henry, Jack and Mack. The names Aurora, Ellie, Josie, Alice and Amelia were the most popular picks for baby girls.

Across the whole Avera Health system, the most popular name for boys was Liam, and the most popular name for girls was Lainey. Avera said a grand total of 6,227 babies were born at Avera birthing centers in 2025. Out of that total, 342 babies were delivered at Avera Marshall.

Sanford Health said the name Liam was also the top name for baby boys born at its facilities this year, jumping up two spots from 2024. For girls, Emma topped the list of most popular names.

Nearly 9,000 babies have been delivered so far this year in the Sanford Health system.

There were a lot of summer babies born this past year, Sanford and Avera spokespeople said. Both Avera Health and Sanford Health reported that July was the month with the most births in 2025.

Some of this year’s most popular baby names fit in with ongoing trends. The Social Security Administration’s website keeps data on the popularity of names in the U.S. going back to 1880. Data isn’t available yet for 2025, but last year’s list of the top 10 baby names included several that were on this year’s list at Avera Health and Sanford Health. For boys, names like Liam, Noah, Oliver, Theodore, Henry and William ranked highly in both 2024 and 2025. There was a little more variety in popular girls’ names, however. Only a few top names from 2024 – Emma, Amelia, Charlotte and Evelyn – were still on the Sanford and Avera lists in 2025.