The official ‘Top 10’ in England and Wales in 2011 and 2017 were:
Girls baby names:
- Girls Names 2011
- 1. Amelia
- 2. Olivia
- 3. Lily
- 4. Jessica
- 5. Emily
- 6. Sophie
- 7. Ruby
- 8. Grace
- 9. Ava
- 10. Isabella
- Girls Names 2017
- 1. Olivia
- 2. Amelia
- 3. Isla
- 4. Ava
- 5. Emily
- 6. Isabella
- 7. Mia
- 8. Poppy
- 9. Ella
- 10. Lily
- Chart Position
- Up One Place
- Down One Place
- New Entry
- Up Five Places
- Non Mover
- Up Four Places
- New Entry
- New Entry
- New Entry
- Down 7 Places
Girls Baby names – What’s hot and what’s not!
Dropping from the top spot to second place is Amelia but pipping her to the post, rising one place is Olivia.
Most surprisingly we see that poor old Ruby, Jessica and Grace have fallen out of the running for a top 10 spot all together.
Short Baby Names
Another trend we can see is the popularity of shorter baby names, with Isla, Ella and Lily all with just 4 letters and Mia and Ava with just 3.
This might just be forward thinking, over a lifetime you could probably save countless days in form filling time. As I write this I realise my kids are Kate and Rose…hhmmm.
“James has now fallen from the chart, but not to fear, James Bond is back in 2020 so there’s bound to be a daring bounce back.”
And for the boys baby names:
- Boys Names 2011
- 1. Harry
- 2. Oliver
- 3. Jack
- 4. Alfie
- 5. Charlie
- 6. Thomas
- 7. Jacob
- 8. James
- 9. Joshua
- 10. William
- Boys Names 2017
- 1. Oliver
- 2. Harry
- 3. George
- 4. Noah
- 5. Jack
- 6. Jacob
- 7. Leo
- 8. Oscar
- 9. Charlie
- 10. Muhammad
- Chart Position
- Up One Place
- Down One Place
- New Entry
- New Entry
- Down 2 PLaces
- Up One Place
- New Entry
- New Entry
- Down Four Places
- New Entry
Boys Baby names – What’s hot and what’s not!
So we have Harry and Oliver swapping places with Oliver taking the top spot, closely followed by George jumping into third from nowhere.
And the 4 new entries; Leo, Oscar, Mohammad and Noah adding some variety to the chart.
No More James?
The biggest shock is that James has now fallen from the top 10 chart, but not to fear, James Bond is back in 2020 so there’s bound to be a daring bounce back.
New Entries in Top 100;
Boys: 2011 New entires (5) Tommy, Blake, Frankie, Elijah, Jackson
Boys 2017 New entries (2) Hunter and Ralph
Girls: 2011 New entries (6) Bella, Willow, Elsie, Kayla, Francesca, Lydia
Girls 2017 New entries (6) Aurora, Hallie Orla, Edith, Bonnie and Lyla
In 2017 there were 63,000 unique baby names registered (names which only occurred once or twice) so there’s plenty of food for thought if you’re looking for a unique name.
So long Sarah!
According to the ONS for 2017, Sarah – the most popular baby girls name throughout much of the 1970’s and 1980’s dropped out of the top 100 names for the first time since their records began (I’m now showing my age!)
For further info on official statistics see the Office of National Statistics website on Baby Names.