Top Names of 2008: Early Results
Posted January 2nd, 2009
One of the downsides–admittedly a fairly minor one–to living in such a heavily populated country as the U.S. is that it takes the Social Security Administration five months to tally up the year’s baby name stats, while some states and other countries put out their results even before the New Year’s Eve ball drops on Times Square.
The full UK report will be arriving any day now, but in the interim, there’s a survey of 380,000 babies born in Britain in 2008 that can give us some strong clues. For girls, the Top 5 names are Olivia, Ruby, Grace, Emily, and Jessica, with a noteworthy number of nickname names further down–Evie, Katie, Ellie, Millie, Gracie, Rosie, Abbie and Tilly. Names hot over there that haven’t taken off to the same degree here: Freya, Poppy, Imogen, Niamh and Maisie. And those rising fastest? Isla, Summer and Ava.
For British boys, Jack is #1, as it has been for 14 years, followed by Oliver, Harry, Alfie and Charlie. Royal names–such as George, William and James–continue to rule, and nickname names, in addition to Alfie and Charlie, are popular with this gender too, as in Archie, Jamie, Freddie, Joe and Billy. The boys’ names heard more there than here: Lewis, Harvey and Kian. Theo was the fastest climber of the boys.
Scotland has released its official list, with Sophie, Emily, Olivia, Chloe and Emma, and Jack, Lewis, Daniel, Liam and James in the lead. Some traditional Scottish favorites continued to hold their own, including Isla, Logan, Cameron, Gregor, Kyle, Finlay , Ewan and Angus. To go somewhat farther afield, in New South Wales, the most populous part of Australia, the Top 5 for girls were Mia, Chloe, Isabella, Emily and Olivia; for boys it was Jack (fifth year in a row), William, Lachlan, Joshua and Cooper, while the starbaby influence was felt in the presence of names like Shiloh, Suri, Sunday, Honour (as it’s spelled there), and even Bronx. In Japan, the top girls’ names were Aoi, Yui and Rin; for boys Hiroto, Ren and Yuto.
One US state that has weighed in early is Arizona, where the top names were Anthony and Isabella. Several Hispanic names appeared on the boys’ list: Angel at #2, and Jose, Jesus and Luis in the Top 20. The registrar of Oakland County, Michigan, which includes several Detroit suburbs, is obviously a name buff. Among the groupings she noted in her area: Harmony and Melody; Hope, Faith, Charity and Unity; London, Paris, Phoenix, Aspen, Georgia, Austin, Savannah and Brooklyn; Zinnia, Rose, Lily, Ivy and Violet, and a contingent of ancients: Julius, Marcus, Cassius, Leonidas, Athena and Adonis.
We’ll keep you posted as more results come in.
You might also like:
Tags:
Arizona names, baby name popularity, baby names of 2008, British names, Isabella, Jack, Mia, most popular names, most popular names of 2008, name trends, Oliver, Olivia, popular boys' names 2008, popular British names, popular girls' names 2008, popular names in Australia, popular names in Japan, popular Scottish names, Scottish baby names, sophie, top names, Top names of 2008, Uncategorizedcomments
5 Responses to “Top Names of 2008: Early Results”
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Rosemay Says:
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:19 pm
First of all, love the site. Especially the lists. I do like my lists…
one wee thing about this post. I live in Scotland, and I wouldn’t say Logan was traditional. I believe its widespread use is pretty recent – it’s been considered noteworthy to see a few of them popping up in our area and friends and family have commented on this particular name as it’s becoming quite popular here.
iris1973 Says:
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:29 pm
My husband’s name is Jack, and he is Jack III. We’ve already decided there won’t be a IV; therefore, we know we won’t be seduced by the number one name in practically every English speaking country!
linda Says:
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:27 pm
It’s surprising that hasn’t even hit the Top 30 here. Maybe it’ll be higher on this year’s list.
Christina Fonseca Says:
January 3rd, 2009 at 2:30 am
Thank you for including the Arizona and Detroit area info. And to think that all along I thought the reason we had to wait till May to see the SSA info was that it was their Mother’s Day present to us!
leave a reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I’m amazed Jack is on so many lists! Lots of these names I love, although I’m gratefull none of my personale favorites showed up because I’d like them to stay unique!